15 January 2001
No goals tonight, but I got two great passes from Rob (who was skating out again tonight instead of playing goalie) in front of the net. One I hit totally square, and I think if the goalie had been shorter it would have gone in (he ended up blocking it with his skate blades). The second one I didn't hit full force, so the goalie didn't have any trouble stopping it. It would have been nice to score, but I found it rewarding just to know that I was at the right place at the right time—and doing the right thing.

I don't remember doing anything else spectacular; I just skated hard and enjoyed myself. Kyle would have been proud to know that I sweated through all my undergear (he's always saying that my not sweating very much is a sign that I'm not working hard enough).

The humor in the locker room was pretty good before the game, considering that none of us had heard anything from Lars. His car was still parked out front from last week. :( Daniel had used black hockey tape to mark an L (for Lars) on his jersey, which I thought was really sweet.

I had a missing equipment moment when I realized I'd washed my hockey jock and forgotten to put the pelvic protector back in. I figured I'd just skate without it and hope that I didn't take a stick to that region, but Dave, Dave, and Matt were pretty adamant that I needed one. Luckily Negin showed up then, and I called across the room to her, "hey, do you have an extra hard thing?", pointing to my crotch. She nodded and threw one to me. Matt: "It's a PELVIC PROTECTOR. PELVIC PROTECTOR. Pointing to your genitals and asking if anyone's got 'an extra hard thing' could cause confusion."

After the game, the mood was equally jovial, which was nice. Rob wanted to know if he'd make the journal, and I assured him he would on account of those sweet passes. I probably wouldn't be up at 1am writing this if he hadn't asked, though—I have to get up at 6am to catch a flight—but I'm glad he did. I'm not taking my laptop with me on the trip, which would have meant a week's delay. I really should take the time to write after each game before I forget what happened.

I'm already having trouble remembering everything that happened in our game, mostly because I ended up subbing for Excite1 in the 10:20 game. There were 9 of us—two forward lines and three D—so while it was tiring, it wasn't as bad as when there are only two or three subs. I played pretty well considering that I'd already worked hard in my own game. John Hryn, the Center on my line, scored at least 3 of the 5 goals our side got. He's the same guy who spun my neck around in front of the net a couple months ago; it was interesting to play on the same team with him and be rooting for him to put all that energy and scrappiness to good use. (Of course, being on the same team didn't make me entirely safe... we actually collided a couple of times while trying to cover the same man.) I played Right Wing, which felt pretty comfortable—I just had to incant "back to my goalie, right side of the ice" every time I went out to make sure I was in the right place. Ivan played Left Wing on my line, and I think we were a pretty good match. John was faster than both of us, but Ivan and I came up ice together, so we made for good passing targets.

Like most games that involve Excite1, this one was pretty physical. The refs let a lot go, though, so there weren't too many stoppages. I was in there playing my share of bodies, too, but I didn't take anyone down. I did get caught against the boards when one of the Inktomi guys and I were both racing for the puck; the contact jammed my left toe and my left wrist into the boards, which knocked my glove off. The other guy asked if I was ok, but I was already up and following the play as he asked. I just said "yeah" and got back into position. As the puck moved up ice, I started to think that it was a good thing it was my left toe that went into the boards and not my right. The broken toe on that foot is still pretty sore (in fact, snowboarding on Sunday seems to have made it worse). In the locker room after the game (I think the score was 5-3 us) my left wrist was a bit sore, but only in the way that wrists feel sore after you've fallen back on them a few times while snowboarding. It wasn't until I tried to steer my car that I realized I'd kinda tweaked it. Hopefully a little Vioxx will make it better, because I've got at least one round of golf scheduled in Hawaii this week!