WHAM

Hello! I hope everyone's feeling hot and flashy!

Welcome back, Joanna! We had a great full lineup and a good showing of Hot Flashiness! Last night was fun -- at least, the playing was fun. I had my trash talking down to a science after practicing on the Thunderbirds last weekend. I warned one of their wings that I wouldn't see her, I'd be bothering their D instead. Our first shift, we came out like gangbusters...if gangbusters played hockey. And were awesome and spent lots of time in the opponents' zone and maybe even got a shot. On goal! Whoa. This was going to be a different game, thought I. This was going to be the glorious game when WE would get the lucky bounces, when the puck would go into THEIR net, when all our latent stickhandling prowess would rear its glorious head (if prowess had a head), thought I. And then the rest of the game happened.

The Stars were good - they skated around us with the puck, passed to their teammates, and hustled to all the pucks. We can do that too! We also hustled and got in their way, challenged for the puck, took it away, and generated chances. However, when we tried to block shots, but they mostly went between our legs and still headed toward the net (or was that just me? I made progress: in the second period, I got better! I tipped a puck going toward the net and it went wide instead! Wide...straight to a Golden Star, who then scored. You're welcome, Annemiek!) I again used the line that we needed to go to the other end, leave Alexis alone, and get some shots on Cathy because she looked bored. And I had a glorious opportunity when a stray puck cleared by their D ended up on my stick. Hoorah! I will shoot! I will score! I will shoot! I will...bounce it off the D's leg and it will go out of the zone. Or straight to another of their players. Seriously, how many unlucky bounces could we have in a game!? Every time it went off their skate, it went to one of their players who'd catch it in stride and be off. Every time it went off our skates, it went to one of their players who'd catch it in stride and be off. Sad. Case in point: we had something going in their zone when I hit the puck off of Julie's skate and it got stuck there and went out of the zone and off they went again. Kim had a great backdoor goal, which was a good reminder to mark up opposing players in front of the net. We get tied up in front of opposing goalies...tied up so much that to get my stick free, I bopped Kirsten on the head with my stick. Whatever, she totally deserved it ;-)

But fear not, Hot Flash! We're awesome and most of their 6 goals were flukes, knocked in by crazy deflections off our own skates or players. Again, we skated just fine! If we keep our legs moving and challenge the pucks, we'll get them! We have a game on Saturday, and we KNOW we can win! We've done it before, we'll do it again, go, fight, WIN! (Hmm, maybe playing in my high school rink has brought back some school spirit)

Here's some more, inspired by the Positive Mental Attitudes we'll all bring to the rink Saturday:
PMA! (PMA!)
Ooh I feel so good today! (Ooh I feel so good today!)
Happy Happy Happy! (happy happy happy!)
Hey that's ok, that's ok, that's ok - yeah. (hey, that's ok, that's ok, that's ok yeah!)