After 13 years and over 52 rollerhockey seasons, I am 6 weeks away from finishing my last season at Rivertown Sports as a rollerhockey goalie.  With my team folding at the end of the season, I am not going to pursue running a new team.  With teaching, playing ice hockey, and reffing lacrosse and ice hockey, I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it anymore.  I highly doubt any team will come calling for a 40+ year old goalie, so its time.

So many great memories to talk about though.  From winning my first championship in August of 2002 all the way up to winning three championships in three different divisions.  There is so much I could talk about, but I want this to be less like a permanent retirement.  I suppose there is always a chance that I could be picked up by another team, but I am not holding out much hope.  I can no longer carry team like I used to.

Its sad actually.  I have set the bar so high that there is no way I can go over it anymore.  I knew when I reached my goal of 30 championships last year, I knew I was close to a permanent retirement from hockey.  With my recent success in ice hockey, I am going to try to get a couple more championships on ice before my permanent retirement from goaltending.

It really has been a great ride, and I am going to miss going to the rink and playing hockey with many great players.  Over the years, there have been so many people who I have had the privilege of playing with. 

John Granger, who got me the start in net that I was looking for. 

Dan Creveling, who added me to the Stickheads.  We won 5 championships, one of them my very first in net back in 2002.

Jeff Z., who added me to Malys with many great friends.  We achieved 3 championships.

Jeremy Crosby, Phil Stockman, and Andy Rosart, who helped me form Marketlab, a corporate sponsored team who won 4 championships.

The list goes on and on.

With over 6 weeks left in the season, I am really focused on making a positive impact in net.  Its been a great ride, and hopefully I will return someday.

If you are standing behind the owners or the players in these negotiations, its time to walk away.  There is no shame in admitting that you were backing a side that was not good for the game or the fans.  By standing behind on one side, you are in essence defending their actions.  However…..

There is no defense for greed.
There is no defense for refusing to negotiate in good faith.
There is no defense for stall tactics.
There is no defense for pontificating to the media after you don’t get your way.
There is no defense for leaving when your side doesn’t get what they want.
There is no defense for not taking calls from the other side, and there is no defense for leaving a voicemail message turning down a deal.

Its time for us fans to rise up and not support this league or the players.  Will we come back to the game we love?  Probably.  However, there are things we can do to not support the league or the players.  A vast majority of the money the NHL makes is from ticket sales and merchandise.  Don’t buy any NHL merchandise.  Don’t spend money on tickets to see the games.  Don’t support any companies that sponsor the NHL.  Just regulate yourself to watching what you can on cable TV.  The cable subsidy that the league and players get from a cable TV sub is very low.

Do not reward this greed.

The NHL and NHLPA are embroiled in a hard nosed battle to get their piece of the $3.3 billion dollar pie.  While they have been fighting, the fans have really ran to the side of either the owners or players.  The social media and blogging universe has been alive with these people, cheering their respective sides, and denouncing the other side at the same time.  While I am aware that the players took a rather large concession last time around (and they had to since they were earning over 70% of the total revenues), they were going to have to take another one with the NBA and the NFL both negotiated to a 50/50 agreement.  Still, I watch what has unfolded and the talk coming out of these meetings and it dawns upon me that both sides are being totally unreasonable.

Maybe both the NHL and NHLPA were taking in what Gordon Gekko was saying about greed.

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.

This CBA could have been ironed out in a week.  Instead we have two sides that are unwilling to bend or work together.  Meanwhile, all the fans are caught in the middle.

I have decided not to take a side since I think both sides are being unreasonable.  Instead, the side I am taking will be against the NHL.  For a period of 3-5 years after the new CBA is agreed upon, I will not spend a dime on NHL tickets or merchandise.  The only support the NHL will get out of me will be watching the Red Wings on my cable package and what I can watch on the NBC Sports Network.  I don’t know how much the NHL will get for my subscription, but I know it won’t be much.  Hell, at this stage they don’t deserve much.

If you are a loyal hockey fan, then now is your time to make your voice heard.  Being vocal is a good start, but speak with your wallets when the league returns.  It really is the only way to curtail this kind of greed in the long run.  The fans that return the moment the puck drops are not helping the league.  Both sides need to be taught that the fans are the ones that are the most important to the league.

When I turned 40, I thought my hockey skills were on the decline.  I thought that my time to win an ice hockey championship was gone.  I also thought that I would be playing less, not more.  All these things have not come true.  In fact, this has been my best year to date when it comes to hockey.  I have achieved two ice hockey championships this season.  After achieving my 30th roller championship back in July, I just achieved my 31st today.

I played solid today, going 2-1 with the only loss in the top division finals game.  A game that I played very well in on top of that.  The championship finals game that we won was a tight 4-3 victory.  It wasn’t due to bad goaltending, but we did get a lucky bounce at the start of the game that went off the skate of the opposing goalie and went in.  It really was an opportunistic bounce that wasn’t the difference at the time, but it was a key goal in the end.  I did my part to seal the deal in the last few minutes with a couple key stops.

Now, I am looking forward to the two week break from roller hockey and can concentrate on my two ice hockey leagues, reffing on the weekend, my day job, and the class I am teaching.

When I started this blog entry, I was thinking about so much that I haven’t accomplished and how bad it has been the last couple days in terms of my crappy play in net and losing one of my ice teams I played on last season.  Those things hurt, and then I started thinking about everything that I have accomplished in the last couple years.  Then I factored in everything I wanted to accomplish in the last 20 years.  Now, things don’t seem so negative.

When I set out to embark upon getting my MBA, I took a long good look at what I wanted to accomplish.  I wanted to teach.  I wanted to get into management and bring up people who have been in the technology trenches for so long and make them leaders.  Most importantly though, I didn’t want to sacrifice what I have loved to do, which is referee and play hockey (along with a Tough Mudder and some distance running).  Now that I have been playing pain free hockey for the last couple years, it really has been a lot of fun to strap on the pads and keep going.  When it comes to all these goals, I am right where I want to be.

• I have that leadership position I love.
• I will have my MBA in 3 weeks or so.
• I have a couple hockey teams I love playing on.
• I am refereeing adult and youth hockey on a regular basis entering my 4th year in the USA hockey program.
• I completed my first tough mudder in April and am going to do another one in June 2013.

Finally, everything is coming together and I am excited about what the future holds.  What are going to be my next goals though?  I would love to find another ice hockey team to play for, and get back into my distance running that has taken a hiatus due to my injury earlier this year.  The other ice team may or may not happen, but it would be nice.  Aside from that, after hitting 40, I am just going to bask and enjoy what I have done so far.  What a ride.

After the playoffs concluded last season and I achieved my 30th championship, I was close to walking away from hockey. I enjoyed playing, but I was slower than I used to be. I had achieved everything that I had wanted. Then, I pulled a groin muscle. It was a grade two strain, and I spent 6 weeks working my way back. With all the visits to the physical therapist, I focused on getting healthy so I could play again. I finally started playing again the middle of June, and I have a whole new appreciation for the sport.

Yes, I had my hunger back to compete again. It took me rising from that dark pit I call “injury”. When you can’t work out or be active though because of an injury, I worked harder to come back. Hockey was just a reason to return. I wanted to be able to do everything that I could do before, including running since I want to do another tough mudder next year.

After returning to both ice and roller hockey, I just completed a round of playoffs. The season was over fast because I spent half of it on the IR. The playoffs ended with me making the finals on one of my teams and losing 4-1. My other advanced league team lost in the semifinals. Whats worse is that I tweaked my back playing so now I sit here in pain. I am not pissed at the team we lost to, but mainly that we suffered from a championship hangover. After winning the way we did last season, we really struggled in the finals and that wasn’t the way I wanted to go out.

So now, I get a couple weeks off roller and I get to focus on ice hockey. I also get to work away on my final MBA class and ace that sucker. Finally, I hope this new season comes and goes with no injury issues. Seems that I have had a problem staying healthy, and that concerns me.

After accomplishing my 30th championship on April 21st, I really settled back and relaxed.  Accomplishing that was something I have strived a long time for.  I played a single hockey game in two weeks and then came back this week to start playing again.  The real bummer was that my goalie pads are still not fixed, which means I am playing hockey in these crappy pads that I used back when I first started playing goalie.  These pads are not butterfly pads, and I am trying to play as a butterfly goalie with these pads which makes matters worse.

Last night in my ice hockey game, I stretched out to make a save and I felt a pop in my right inner thigh region.  It was instant pain, and I was not able to make those kick saves on that side without pain.  I couldn’t even skate really well.  Luckily, there was two minutes left in the game so I gutted it out.  I really didn’t feel much discomfort after the game or getting dressed, but I knew there would be hell to pay later.  I took a Ibuprofen, rubbed down my thigh, and then crashed.

This morning, it was sore to stretch out.  Running is not really an option at this stage, so now I am really just trying to take it easy.  I am stretching out the muscle every couple hours, but its still painful.  I am going to have to give this a few days of rest before I play hockey again.  What is really concerning me is the 5/3 river bank run that I am scheduled to do tomorrow morning.  That looks more and more like I won’t be doing that now.  Reffing will also be out on Sunday.  Looks like I am going to get some self imposed rest from all my physical activities.

Wow, what an experience!

I completed the Tough Mudder in Amherst, OH on Saturday 4/14 at around 3:15pm.  Took me a little over 3 hours to complete the course.

I was so glad we got there early because it took an hour to park and another 15 minutes just to get on the shuttle and to the grounds.  After that, it was all smooth sailing.  I checked my bag and then climbed over the starter wall to hear the speech at the beginning.  We recited the Tough Mudder creed, honored our country, and then they set us off to the Rocky theme song.

1. High Steppin: A series of wooden hurdles which I climbed over pretty easily.
2. Artic Enema:  Here is where it started to go downhill.  We hit the arctic enema, which is a huge fat of ice cold water.  I hit that water and just felt my energy level sap.  It was freezing, and then I had to wait about 10 seconds to get out because there was someone slow in front of me.  Still, I made it through.
3. Berlin Walls:  A couple walls that you have to climb over.  They aren’t that tall when you have your teammates helping you up and over them..
4. Firewalker:  It wasn’t that hot.  It was mainly a series of fires that were set and it made more smoke than anything.  I ran through it easily, and was happy to get a little warmth.
5. Bale Bonds:  A series of large hay bails that you have to climb over.  Easy enough for the most part.
6. illa Gorilla:  A series of uphill and downhill climbs.  On the way down the first hill, we got to go through knee deep cold water.
7. Walk The Plank:  It was about as high as a high dive, and when you hit that water, it was cold enough to take your breath away.  Still I made it through.  After this, we hit a water station and I was glad we did.  At this point I was still feeling pretty good.
8. The Dirty Ballerina:  Got to jump over some pits of mud.  Not too difficult, but you couldn’t see where the pits were since you were running through mud.  I fell into a couple.  If you do fall in, you go up to your neck in mud, and you get to climb out and do it again a couple more times.  Not too hard except climbing out is tiring.
9. Swamp Stomp:  A short run through a thick swamp.  It was about a 1/4 mile I believe, but it was tough going through knee deep sludge.
10. Mud Mile:  A series of mud pits and dirt mounds.  Once again, not too bad being as that we were going through the swamp not long ago, so you knew what to expect.
11. Devils Beard:  Crawling underneath a stretched cargo net.  It wasn’t too hard when everyone is helping each other out.  I held the net at the end for a little bit to help people out.  You pretty much have to bend over and go under the net just using your back to keep the net up.  Its stretched pretty tight, but we made it.
12. Boa Constrictor:  Crawl through sections of 3′ pipe.  This was easy for me to do, but there are some people who had difficulty.  I just went through on my back  and crawled through.
13. Kiss of Mud:  Another easy obstacle unless you hate to get dirty.  You crawl under barb wire on your belly, but I pretty much just floated since the muddy water was deep enough.
14. Funky Monkey:  Ah, the inverted monkey bars.  I wish I could tell you that I made it the distance, but I didn’t.  I made it 3 rungs and then fell into the cold water below.  My brother did much better as he made it half way.
15. Trench Warfare:  Belly down crawl through earthen tunnels.  Wasn’t too bad, but by this time my knees were pretty badly scraped up and the tunnels were not really smooth.  A lot of rocks and debris made it uncomfortable to crawl through.
16. Cliffhanger:  We had to climb these huge 25′ hills of dirt.  Then, when we got to the top, we descended and climbed another one.
17. Electric Eel:  Crawling under electrified wire seemed pretty easy at the time, but thats not what was going on.  You are crawling under barbed wire, no water under you thankfully, and you have these electrified wires that are dangling down.  You have no choice but to touch some of the wires, and the shock is enough like you are being punched.  I got shocked 3 times going through that obstacle, and I hated it each time.
18. Twinkle Toes:  Balance beams were never my thing, but there was a series of balance beams over a pit of cold water.  Whats worse is that if someone fell in front of you, odds are you were falling too since the beams were not really steady.  I fell in half way across.
19. Hangin Tough:  You have a series of rings that are dangling.  You grab one ring, swing to another ring, grab that one and keep going.  I made it three rings in before I fell in.  At this point, my upper body was pretty much spent, so I am not surprised that I fell in.
20. Log Jammin:  I was very successful in climbing through sections of large logs.  Some you have to duck, and others you climb over.
21. Berlin Walls #2:  At this point, my upper body was gone, but the walls were over 9 feet tall.  Everyone was pushing people up so people could climb over and fall down each of the two walls.  This was a punishing obstacle.
22. Hold your Wood:  This was supposed to be a 1/4 mile log carry, but the path was very slippery.  They didn’t allow us to carry logs because of the terrain and I don’t blame them.  The muddy walk had turned into a swampy one.  I couldn’t imagine many people able to carry logs through this terrain.
23. Everest:  Ah, the greased up quarter pipe.  At this point in the run, I was exhausted.  Watching people try to jump up and make it up to the people at the top of the quarter pipe just deflated what confidence I had.  I had nothing left at this point, and they want me to run up to the quarter pipe, leap, and have people help me up at the top?  My first attempt I missed grabbing onto the top ledge and I fell back down.  The second time I made it.  It took 3 people to help me up and over the top.  Yes, I hugged all three guys and I am not ashamed to admit it!
24. Electroshock Therapy:  This was the run through the electrified wires.  I got shocked only once, and it was enough to put me on my ass, but I got up and ran the rest of the way through.  That shock was worse than the 3 I got in the electric eel, and it was too the side of my head as well.

When I crossed that finish line, I got my headband and my free beer.  That beer tasted so good going down.  I was totally spent.  It took me about 10 minutes to get my muddy and wet clothes off because I was so sore and tired.  Still, it was the toughest event that I have ever done.  The camaraderie of everyone helping each other was a big boost to your confidence.  I would do this again without question.

For now though, I am going to rest up.

The Tough Mudder was an insane event.  One of the most grueling events I have ever done, but also one of the most rewarding.  It was an event that punished me, even after working out and preparing for it.  Trust me, if you have a deficiency in your workout routine, this event will make you regret it.  My upper body still has not healed up fully since running the tough mudder and it has been almost 68 hours since I finished.  My advice to anyone who wants to do this is to start working out and just do it.  You will not regret it!

Here I am, less than 13 hours from running the Tough Mudder. I keep asking myself one important question.

Have I done enough?

All the working out. All the running. Losing the weight over the course of the last 6 months. I am mentally prepared, but physically I know I am going to be behind the eight ball from most of the Rambo clones that I have seen. I met a couple of them in the parking lot of the hotel that we are staying at. Really nice guys, but man they are built. I may be able to outdistance them in running, but I know they have the upper body strength to make it over the obstacles.

Still, I am excited about this event tomorrow. I know I will be tested mentally and physically. I know that I will come out of it with a little help from my friends around me. I am going to drink that beer at the end of the run with my brother and get some pictures to remember the moment.

Bring it on!

Ice hockey playoffs have always left a bittersweet taste in my mouth.  I love to compete.  I was never a competitive person up until I started to play hockey.  Now, even at almost 40, I look forward to competing in hockey.  Yet, ice hockey is something I have not had a lot of success with.  My teams have made it to the finals about five times, but could never seal the deal.  Tonight, I played probably one of my better games in the semifinals and lost 5-4.

Yes, I got elbowed in the face and plowed into by the other team.
Yes, my neck hurts pretty bad, but with a one goal lead, I was feeling great.
Yes, I played well enough to win, but I was more furious about my team trying to sit on a one goal lead with an entire 3rd period to play.

We almost pulled it off too if it wasn’t for a deflection with 30 seconds left that pinballed off of 2 players and over my shoulder.  The game winner was a really nice backhand shot that went far post with 5 seconds left.

After that debacle, I just couldn’t get that upset.  I have been in this situation before where I didn’t come up big and my team didn’t give me crap over it.  So I returned the favor.  We really didn’t need it, because while losing sucked, my team really wasn’t phased.  We drank beer in the locker room and just chatted about the game like it was just a regular season game.  It was then I realized that I had crossed over into 40 and over league hockey.  Playing the game is what matters.  The outcome, while a win would be great, isn’t what my teammates think about.  Yes, I was disappointed, but with the rest of my team relatively jovial, I tried to keep the mood light.

I was the last one out of our locker room, and the opposing team was all still in their locker room celebrating the come from behind win.  I drove home a little sour about it, and I am still sour now.  All I could think about was another opportunity had come and gone.  At almost 40, I don’t have many opportunities left.  It would be nice to win one championship in ice hockey someday, but this season, it wasn’t in the cards.  Everything happens for a reason though, and good things come to those who wait.  I will be patient.

The good news is that this just fuels me to be even more prepared for the Tough Mudder in April.  The miles I am running and all the skating I am doing is just preparing me physically and mentally for this event.  This is the best shape I have been in since 1997 when I was in college and exercising regularly.  It feels good to be back in shape.

Holding out hope now that not only will I have an ice hockey team to play for over the summer, but that I will be physically prepared for what lies ahead.