I know… cheesy thread title but I don’t care.
One of my best friends works at a rink here in Kelowna. This afternoon he called me up and asked if I had any plans for this evening. Thankfully I did not, so he asked if I’d like to play goal for a ‘shiny’ group. I asked him which group, to which he replied, “they’re the juniors/pros!”
Are you freakin’ kidding me?!?!?
I was curious as to which players would be there and was informed that there would be a bunch of kids from the bchl along with Luke and Brayden Schenn, Josh Gorges and Blake Comeau!!! HOLY CRAP!!!
Now I need to give a little back ground about myself…. I’m 40 years old and only started playing goal about 5 years ago. Last week I took my first ever ‘hockey camp’ – first time in my life I’ve ever had someone work with me on how to play. It was awesome – the goalie coach was Amanda Tapp from the University of Calgary Dinos – she was a fantastic instructor!! Anyways - the highest level of hockey I’ve ever played is in men’s beer league hockey (for the past 4 years).
So part of me was absolutely giddy with excitement and part of me was thinking… I hope I don’t get hurt ‘cuz I take FOREVER to heal!! Ha! ha!
The pros and goalies get a separate change room – so to my right was Gorges and the Schenn brothers. To my left was Comeau!
We chatted about a ton of stuff. One of the guys is looking to buy a place in town… asking price is “2 point 2” (I like how a property for $2.2 million is just sorta, yea… I’m thinking about it – ha!) . I asked how they feel about the Olympic break and they like it except that they have more games compressed into less days over the course of the season. Talked about kids and family – lots of everyday stuff.
Brayden was apparently going to have a little chat with the pool boy – he went to put his skates on and they were laced backwards… so the ends of the laces were at the toe instead of the ankle. It sounds like the pool boy likes playing pranks on him.
Onto the game…. holy crap can they shoot!!!! And I’m just talking snap/wrist shots! Gorges gave me a scouting report on Comeau… he goes glove high almost every time… he was pretty much bang on! Comeau’s first shot on me he was cutting across the net and put it in off the post, but after that it was glove high almost every shot! I missed his one wrist shot and it rattled off the post. When the play was at the other end I noticed the net had moved…. his wrist shot moved the post & peg back about 2”!!!! I’m sorta glad that one didn’t hit me!
I must confess that I felt like a Greek god when I stopped Brayden on a break away… I’m sure he totally let up – but it still felt good. I don’t think I should have chirped him becuz the next shot he wired right by me! Ha! ha!
At the half way point myself and the other goalie switched ends…. Now the pros were on my team. After one of my saves the rebound was bouncing around Gorges’ feet and it felt weird, but there I am on the ice yelling, ‘feet Josh!!! Feet!’ to let him know where the puck was. Oh… and on the topic of rebounds – holy crap do they bounce far when the guys let the shots go. I guess I’m used to men’s league where most of them hit you and bounce only a couple feet… not way past the faceoff dot!!
So yea – that was my evening! Totally awesome! Apparently they‘re short a goalie in a couple nights, so if Reimer and Price are both busy I might be getting the call again!!! Ha! They must REALLY be desperate!!
Onto some pics....
sticks in the room:
me getting ready to start getting bruised....
Gorges hanging out at the other net...
Gorges passing it out front trying to get me lit up!
right when this pic was taken i was sorta crapping my pants seeing the Schenn brothers ripping up the ice towards me
me stopping Comeau!! yea baby!!! The girl in the pic is home right now from the University of Ohio (i think)
and another one for Comeau
So there you go!!! Thanks for reading about my awesome evening! It's not every day that a 40 year old beer league goalie gets to slap on the pads and play hockey with a bunch of pros.
