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I left probably the most important things out in my ramble above. The older I get, the more off ice work I have to do whether it be stretching, cardio, or lifting. My diet has changed too....much less beef. I also use more over the counter anti-inflamatories and IcyHot type ointments. @Wonder35: Happy Birthday! You're a monster, brother.

@MTH: I have had Plante's book since I was a little boy. I think it is significant that the most standup guy ever wrote that Tony Esposito, who no one would ever accuse of being a standup goalie, was the best at the time of publication.

@Wonder35: you are simply bad ass! My "game" has changed immensely over the decades and now that I am 60 parked because of a stupid, stupid off ice injury, I guess I can reflect back on things. For openers, I've always been a so-called standup goalie partly because that's how I was taught and partly because I am only 5'6". I went down in the butterfly but I suppose if I had to give an example of my approach, I think I was more Grant Fuhr than Tony Esposito with a dash of Mike Palmateer thrown in. (Must be a lefty thing :)) The biggest change in my play happened when I was a sophomore in college. I destroyed my left shoulder in junior but because of my aspirations at the time, I didnt have the recommended surgery (I would have been out for a year at the time because of how they fixed recurrent dislocations back then). As a result, even though I made the team, my blocker side arm was useless for any shot 3' off the ice to the bar. So, I had to learn how to position myself better to eat shots to my upper left corner off the face of my bicep, left shoulder, or chest. I could poke check etc but I couldnt lift my left arm high enough to extend my blocker to that area of the net. Accordingly, I forced myself to stand up even more than I had before. This had the positive result that I got pretty good at my angles. After blowing out the shoulder for the last time in my 3rd year of college, I was out of hockey for 2 years. My aspirations died when the shoulder blew for the last time. So after getting back in shape, I got into beer leagues. In that period of time, the biggest change was the chest and arms protection. I bought a Heaton chest and arms combo and it was like discovering fire. Shots off the torso and arms didnt lead to monster bruises anymore. With my shoulder repaired, I was still a stand up goalie but now going down on screens was so much easier. I didnt have to worry about ribs etc and shots were just soaked up in the Heaton combo leaving minimal rebounds. I kept up beer league to age 34 when my right shoulder blew out. More surgery and by this time, I had a wife, daughter and work obligations. I was out of hockey again for 16 years. At about 48, my mom said I looked like a "fat contented middle aged man". So I trained and lost about 40 lbs. I get a call asking if I wanted to do a skate around with my best friend and his son who was in the ECHL and a few of his teammates. Of course, I said yes and worked my way back into playing at a pretty good drop in with high school, college/junior players when they are home, and pretty good beer league players for the past 10 years with a few games where I subbed in for the regular guy until I had my fall in September of 2023. There were tons of changes for this period. The first was that everyone now shoots hard and goes bar down. Used to be that 2 or 3 guys on a team had major shots; now just about all the skaters can blast. They are better trained and have better sticks. The catching glove is also a major change. These things are huge! A GM 12 or GM 21 looks like a child's glove compared to the Passau 60 degree I use. Also the old gloves were soooo heavy; the first time I used my Passau, I wasnt even sure I had a glove on. Another big change generally is that "crash the goalie" is not much of a play anymore. In youth and junior/college, blowing up the goalie was a play. The idea was to not only screen the goalie but also bang into him. I do not miss that part of it. Almost all my injuries were from getting crashed while in a vulnerable position focussed on the puck. The biggest change in the game, besides the shot issue and perhaps less physicality, is the skill of the players. These guys are amazing. Everyone can skate. Everyone can fire it. And they skate with their heads up. Used to be that a guy came down the wing or the slot, put his head down, and tried to blast it through the goalie. Not anymore. Now they look to pass or work the puck across the slot to the weak side. As a result, I still play a standup approach, but I dont come out nearly as far as I used to above the crease because of the weak side one timer. One glaring flaw in my "game" is my post work. I cannot effectively use the VH or reverse VH. My pads dont work for it and my knees/hips with all the mileage on them cannot contort that way regularly anymore. So I still "hug the post" but try to use my stick much more to prevent skaters from getting a good stuff angle. My outdated "hug the post" deal, though, does stop the lacrosse goal. It just hits me in the chest and I get a laugh when a hot shot calls me a "dinosaur MF-er". I think now more than ever goalies need to be able to skate. I think we were always in general the strongest skaters on the team but now a goalie needs to be able to get across faster than ever. I think the game is excellent these days. The players are stronger, faster, and better trained than they were in my time. It is joy to be able to hang with them on the ice and not get blown out. If I recover from this injury, I intend to get back at the same "level". I hope I can; I dont want to be done so if physically I can play with those guys, I will until my ability/skill is exhausted. @RichMan, this is a great topic. I hope more goalies chime in. I also wish we could all get together and have a beer/beverage and talk shop. There's some really good goalies and people here.

@ethanallen: what not to wear:

@WillyGrips13, here you go:

@WillyGrips13: will do. Been a little crazy at work lately.

@RichMan & @ethanallen, apologies gentlemen. My gloves are Passau (60 degree catch glove with floating double T - no palm padding (guess I like pain more than pop outs) and Passau blocker (cant recall the name of the pattern on the front). When I wrote D&R, I meant to say my pads (LG55#31). Sorry about that.

Used to be that if Coach thought you went down too much - like more than 5 times in a game - he'd bench you. I loved Billy Smith. Aside from all the "violence" he generated, he was a great goalie esp in the playoffs. @RichMan, thanks for posting this! Good old days.

@ethanallen, not at all. Even though I suck when I am not injured, I have used the same pads since 1982. There's film floating around here some where with my real mask when buildings let me use it. I've tried modern pads but they just killed my hips and going from 13 lbs dry down to 8 ounces for each leg made me feel top heavy and off balance. The biggest change I made was replacing my Brown blocker and Vaughn T1000 (Mr. Vaughn was shocked any one still used that model) with Passau gloves. Use what works for you!

Just caught a few clips of the Jets tonight (12/4/23). Broissoit (sorry if misspelled) with really cool pads with a retro look. @coopaloop1234, sorry brother I dont know how to pull a screen shot off the TV. Pretty cool colors on the uniforms of the Jets too.

If you keep getting matched up with the worst team in the league, it probably is because you're the best goalie in the league. So you can either live with the tacit recognition of your skill and enjoy the action or speak up and perhaps end up on a team where you dont have much to do. Willy's suggestion works too. That is a weird deal about this draft thing. I would not like being assigned to a team in a beer league. Almost seems as if the "commissioner" has a little too much authority. But beer leagues are generally weird any way. Hope it works out the way you want it.

@keeperton, be patient with yourself, bud. Here's hoping the outcome of the MRI is positive. At least you got your hiney ready for the summer.

Good attitude, Ethan. Keep 'er rolling.

Cloth jock to keep the boys in place. Warrior double cup over the undergarments. Works pretty well but if they are close enough and shoot hard enough, well...no such thing as a free lunch.

Mrazek's injury history is groins. He's looked really sharp this year so far. The Hawks arent going any where this year with 3 D each of which is less than 22 yrs. old. He's covered a lot of mistakes this year. If they trade him, it means Commesso must be close. I just dont know about Soderbloom; he's big and mobile but really hard to project which level he'll reach. Oh no! Dont trade Perry. Mystery why he has not practiced and dressed for 2 games. Bedard needs him. Saw clips of the Oiler the last few games....geez. Their problems are not only in net. Speaking of Bedard: any one using VH or reverse VH with him is going to get beat. He just waits for it and either wires it bar down or puts it in off the goalie's head. He's really something else.

@WillyGrips13, outstanding Willy! I was shi____g my pants as the image loaded.

@coopaloop1234 and those who 'liked": thank you fellas. Your encouragement means more than you'll ever know. I dont want to be done.

Saw my surgeon yesterday. As always, he's very pleased with himself. He's also pleased with my progress. I am out of the brace for the past 2 weeks and walking is getting better. His orders are to rebuild the musculature of my quads and calf. He trusts me to do the work so he gave me the exercises to get the muscles back and I dont have to go to formal physical therapy. I see him next in 90 days. My motion is very good and I have to ice at night because the knee swells from walking etc but not nearly that bad. He did give me hope: if I get my strength back, he'll clear me to play.

@RichMan: I forgot about Ranford. Tremendous goalie esp when the Oilers won the Cup with him. @35RoloSmith41: I forgot about Smith also....good numbers on a crap team & his puck playing skill covered a lot of flaws on his D.

@jerd31, sorry to hear about the groin. Be careful - real easy for groins to become chronic. @Wonder35, dude you are an inspiration. Absolute bad _ss. You give me hope. @BigPoppaPump, only suggestions I can offer is what I do/did before I got parked in 9/23. Make sure you work your legs in between games with stretching every day and or work outs to make your legs stronger such as lunges with and without dumb bells. The older we get, the more important the off ice work becomes. Pregame/practice/skate, I warmed up the muscles at home with calisthenics, a few Advil, and IcyHot Extra Strength pretty much all over. I havent had a real warmup at a practice or a game since junior/college about 40 yrs ago. You wont get one in beer league.

Sucks to see the Oilers spilling. I dont know whether the problem is cap space, bad management, or what. Regarding the situation in net, it just sucks to see it. I'm sitting here scratching my head about their last stud goalie (defined in my concussed brain as a goaler who can win by himself) and unless I am forgetting someone, Grant Fuhr is the only one who comes to mind who did it for more than a season or two.

I was tying on a bag of ice at work and figured I'd show what it looks like now. Not that anyone where I work knocks before entering even though a sign on my door says "knock before entering" Oh well, other than one puny thigh and one decent thigh, aint a whole lot to see anyway. Ice makes me shy.

I saw he caught one in the melon a week or two ago....now he has blood clots?

@MTH. @seagoal, & @Chenner29....100% agree. When I was fortunate to advance as a young goalie, hockey began to make more sense. The plays were cleaner, the shots were harder but cleaner, and the skill made the situations less random and chaotic. Even at this age before my injury, I would rather skate or play against college/junior/recently removed from those levels players than less trained/skilled players. Plus, it's really the only way to grow your game. You either adapt and get better or drive the Z.

@ethanallen, very normal to be nervous. You're just feeling the anticipation of the next game. Use the energy to help you be ready. The nerves will go away as soon as the game start. Just focus and concentrate no matter the circumstances. In other words, enjoy it and play your game.