Lucky Pucker

Hey @Znowleopard!

why, it’s a Bauer... (awkwardly runs down to basement to check) Concept 2. The paint job is the classic “albino polar bear in a snow storm” theme. 

Thanks for the reply; I am leaning towards cutting it. I mean, I’ve already had the goalie coach (who I don’t think is trying to hurt me) ding me on the noggin’, and survived that without the strap being in place. 

Hey,

I’m new to the site and new to goaltending so apologies if:

a) this has already been covered

b) this is too obvious and boring to even be covered 

... BUT, this chin strap that runs along side the chin cup... I find it effing annoying, so in my 3 on-ice appearances, I’ve pushed it out of the way. Because I’m so new, I’m hesitant to just cut it, so figured I’d ask about it here. What do you do? Does anyone actually strap into it, and if so, is there a good reason for doing so (safety related I imagine, cus it sure ain’t for comfort or convenience!)

Cheers,

Mark

New to the site (which is great! Hats off to the community for this!) new to goaltending, and new to organized hockey (not as new to life as I maybe would like - but then younger me didn’t have enough $$$ to be a goalie, so too bad for him!)

Grew up in MTL. By age 5, I was in love with hockey already. I liked Steve Penny, and especially liked that upstart kid with that thing dangling from his face... I begged my parents to play hockey (just as skater), but with one paycheck and 3 kids, I was put into soccer - which I ended up playing for the better part of ~30 years. I did get skates and sticks eventually, and would play shinny almost everyday there was ice, and street hockey when there wasn’t. I was also one of those kids with a Roy jersey (I had the white jersey, which was eventually destroyed by years of street hockey/road grime) All my childhood and into my teens, I would study the goalies, draw goalies, separate the goalies cards from my OPC, Upper Deck, and Pro Set collections. I’d even go into stores and try on blockers and trappers. I just always loved the gear!

Anyway, much later on I followed a girl to Ottawa, blinked, and now ~12 years later, there are kids, a mortgage, real jobs, and two people trying to fake this grown up thing as best we can. In so doing, we signed up my son and later my daughter for skating, and now my son is in hockey. Man, did that kid ever work hard; he is no natural, and there is still no quit in him - AND he loves it! Humbling and Inspiring! Between going to the sports stores and taking him to the arena, I started to get an itch... Then, a very vivid dream, where I was in a store trying on goalie pads. I told my wife about it, and said “I think I want to do this...” Foolishly supportive as always, she said “Yes! Do it!”

Borrowed gear from a similarly-statured buddy, practiced getting dressed in my basement several times to avoid embarrassment in the dressing room, and tried a one-off session with an adult skill academy. Wow. I completely effing sucked! One of the hardest things I’ve ever done - and all those years I spent playing street hockey goalie, and years spent skating...? They did not help one iota. It was bad - like, fall-down-for-no-reason-while-the-coach-talks bad. In my defence, my buddy’s skates were size 10 clunky old CCMs when I am now rocking a size 7, so it felt like I was wearing skis. But I did get a glove save, and skated off with a dumb grin on my face. I still loved it!

I am now signed up for 8 weeks of the academy, and have 2 sessions under my belt - in appropriately-sized skates, which made a huge difference! I’m still doing “shuffle there without falling” when I’m supposed to be doing T-pushes, and sorta-Hasek-style inverted side-stroke when I’m supposed to be doing butterfly slides, but it’s kinda nice to know I have so much room for improvement. 

So that’s me: a guy with an amazing wife, a son (and daughter) who inspires me, and a chance to live out my childhood dream - turned - midlife crisis. I really am a Lucky Pucker!

cheers