TYLNT: Ice Hockey 46

Alexis peeks out from her goalie mask

me crossing over

defending around the ref

Ellen stretching before the game

getting a pep talk between periods

Karen coming off

Karen and Lisa on the bench

Kristine and Leslie at the faceoff

I take the man while Ellen takes the puck (off camera)

manning the blueline at the faceoff

oops, goal

poke-checking along the boards

untangling after a sucessful check

everyone watches the play

we go on O

an abstract photo by Roger

9 July 2001
It's been a while since I wrote about hockey, so I'll have to do the last tournament game summary from my increasingly feeble memory. (I've actually not been writing mainly because I knew I'd have to finish the tournament diary before I could move on to present-day games, and I just didn't feel like it.)

Anyway, we got our butts kicked in the first game on Sunday, so there was no second game. :( Actually, while we were disappointed, I think most of us were also secretly relieved. We were all pretty exhausted.

Roger offered to take photos of the game with my camera, so all of the pictures you see here were shot by him (although I think I remember taking the one of Alexis with her helmet up).

The first couple of times the Hockey Bags scored on us, it seemed like a fluke. Even when we were down 3-0 I had absolute confidence that we could come back; it wasn't like they were as good as the Herricaines, and I couldn't see anything that we were doing particularly badly.

One memorable play for me was when I squeezed a forward into the boards and tried to poke check the puck away from her. She was bigger than I and kept coming, so I was working my stick along the boards with my right hand and blocking her way forward with my body. I'm not sure whether I tripped, she stepped on my stick, or what, but eventually she fell on me, ramming my stick into my ribs. The ref blew the whistle and came over to investigate. When he asked if I was ok, I said, "yeah, I just got a stick in the ribs." Him: "Yes, it's still there." He reached down and extracted the butt of it from under my shoulder pads, and then helped me to my feet. It was then that I realized that something was wrong with my leg—my left one felt weak, and nerve pain was intermittently shooting down it from my butt to the back of my knee.

I skated off as instructed and then came on again for my next shift, but the butt/leg pain bothered me for the rest of the game. It didn't occur to me until later that when the other player fell on me while my body was twisted, she'd unwittingly performed a chiropractic adjustment that had thrown my sacrum out. When I got up the next morning, I knew something was horribly: I wasn't able to walk. It took several bent-over, hopping/hobbling laps around the hotel bed to finally progress to a painful limp. I still can't believe that I played a game in Redwood City that night (after 8 Advil and several ice packs).

Basically my back stayed wonky for another three weeks or so, which affected my play on Mondays and Thursdays. The pain would move around such that some days it was easier to skate than walk, and other days it was easier to walk than skate, but it always hurt, and I often couldn't support my weight properly on the left side. I'm finally to the point where it only hurts intermittently, and I can walk and skate pretty much normally. Climbing lots of stairs can still bring a strained look to my face, but an ice pack stuffed in my waistband usually helps.

Anyway, we ended up losing to the Hockey Bags 7-0. I still don't have any explanation except exhaustion. Overall, though, I had an excellent time at the tournament, and I can't wait to go to another one. Hopefully I'll get my chance again soon, as Michele is putting together a regular Spitfire traveling team. Our first team meeting is on July 20. Woo hoo!