Lucky Pucker

Damn… there’s been some pretty sweet gear posted here lately! Congrats all around!

Throw a random one out here:

Anyone ever wear a team colours shell over their goalie pants…?

(yeah, that’s right ‘Merica: your honourable neighbours favour the “colour” spelling. Because it’s correct!)

7 minutes ago, MTH said:

'Merica!

And freedom! And… fish

2 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Mildly flavoured tv static vodka. Shits gross. 

I'd eagerly slurp down a warm Canadian over a white claw. 

Yeah, that sounds fucking gross.

Tell that clown “Hey! The post-game beer thing…? You’re doing it wrong!!!”

5 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Look at Mr. fancy beer here. 

A few of my teammates one one team bring 1/2 white claws when it's their turn. 

Assholes. 

Dafuq is a white claw- and why would you want a full one…?

Yeah, this one was good, and one I had never had before (which is saying something for a guy who has tried >1400 different beers over the last 7-8 years). It’s usually Coors Banquet in the room with this new group I’m playing with this season. It’s fine. 

On 9/12/2023 at 4:11 PM, seagoal said:

Seagoal: Lucky, I'm on vacation in Canada, come eat poutine and drink beer with me.

LuckyPucker: Can't bro, I'm living the good life.

Seagoal: Damn.

If I’m being honest, it did NOT feel like I was living the good life the morning after that last 3 hour chunk

On 9/14/2023 at 2:04 PM, seagoal said:

Pretty heart warming story last night in the 40+ league last night.  Game 1 was last night. There was an unknown name on our roster with no rating.  I get the rink early of course and as I was passing the board with the locker room assignments, there was and older gentlemen looking up at it with his gear.  I asked him if he needed help and he said Yes.  He said he was on the White team, which is my team.  So I introduce myself and it's the unknown name on our roster.  So I give him the run down of the rink and the board, walk him to the locker room.  Turns out he's brand new to hockey and decided for his 60th birthday last year to treat himself to Learn To Play because he thought hockey looked so fun from watching Kraken games.  This was going to be his first real game ever and he was really nervous.  Super nice guy and as the boys started piling into the room, we all welcomed him and the boys started chirping him for his shiny new gear and giving him a good intro to hockey culture, haha.

Home boy got dressed WAY to quick in all his new gear but he did great. We ended up winning 4-1 and he spent a lot of time getting up from falling but he got a shot on goal, probably because of course, I let him score in warmies

Good times.  Hockey players are the best.

 

Love this, @seagoal! Thanks for taking the time to write it up! 
Man, I hope I can still play when I’m >60. Not that I can really play now … 

1 hour ago, MTH said:

I fish all summer up in no man's land, Maine. The eagles are loud.

Eagles are loud to do what…? Loud to steal your fish..? 

2 hours ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Yea, just seems like an unnecessary cost haha. I don't think I've ever seen a single team here have custom pucks. 

Maybe in more vain areas of the country like Toronto or Ottawa @Lucky Pucker, but out here in the humble west it's not really a thing. 

Nah, man - our beer leagues have whatever pucks guys could beg, borrow or steal. My kids hockey association had pucks with their logo, but I only knew that after a few ended up in my bucket after a half-ice practice.

Agree the cost makes it a non-starter - cuts into the beer budget!

22 hours ago, seagoal said:

Just booked myself a vacation trip to Montreal in October and got myself a ticket to MTL v NJD.  Pretty excited to eat some good food, see the sights, and do some serious puck hunting for my collection.  I hope to get up to the local QMJHL arena to get one there, for sure, as well as a Canadiens one, of course. 

I'm hoping a certain Ottawaian/Ottawan/Ottawaster/Ottawaarian ???? on this forum makes the drive over to have some poutine and beers for lunch with me and take me to some gear shops........we shall see.

Oh, man - would be nice, but I’m so jammed up with minor hockey stuff, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there (will PM you).

Was on the ice for a total of 7 hours this weekend doing rust off and sort outs (and then had my own game Sunday night). Then another 3 hours today at 5:00. 

There are simply not enough volunteers.

1 hour ago, A.YOUNGoalie13 said:

Shits almost a 90 degree angle

No - THIS is “almost a 90 degree angle” in the leg:

1 hour ago, ThatCarGuy said:

Brian's, Vaughn, and True all use either pictures or traced pictures to create their customizers. What we see in the customizer is the final pad shape

Well now; that’s interesting!

#TIL more cool stuff that won’t impress my wife 

Avowed Brian’s fanboy here… but can someone show me a picture of this knee bend that is upsetting people so much? I’ve scrolled through the thread, but can’t see anything offensive (other than Coop’s usual shit posting, of course.) I realize there isn’t much out there yet - which is part of why I can’t understand the backlash. Is it based on the customizer images? An artist’s interpretation of the pads for colour zone illustrative purposes wouldn’t be very solid basis for knee bend analysis, IMHO.

Wish I could say I’m buying a set, but the “my gear will have to match my new team’s sweaters” strategy has fallen flat with the CFO here at Pucker Palace. So I’ll have to continue wearing my Gnetik IVs like a peasant

12 minutes ago, Wonder35 said:

Personally, I have never had a goalie coach, or even a hockey coach. As a kid I read every goalie related book that I could find and there weren't many. The key tenets were to remain standing and do not wander from your net.

There was an interesting anecdote about when Gump Worsley came to Montreal, and how he was excited to meet Toe Blake, who would undoubtedly (in his telling) have great insights and tips for him as goalie. Paraphrasing, but I think it amounted to Blake saying “What the hell do I know about it? Just stop the puck”.

To be certain, the “stay on your feet” advice was for self preservation/injury prevention as much as it was about effective puck stopping (if not more so). It’s been such a fascinating history and evolution of the position!

I’m aware of Plante’s book, but what others do you recall reading?

12 hours ago, seagoal said:

@Lucky Pucker

Dude, are you playing these days? What's going on in your personal hockey life?

Well, until this summer, I had never played as a skater in full gear (which I never owned). @johnchoinvited me out to a skate a while back, and I kitted out at PIAS, and hit the ice as a shitty, dime-a-dozen skater. But I still loved it, so  I’ve actually been playing out as a skater in pickup games 1-2 times a week (with a few appearances between the pipes as well). Funny thing, as I was concerned in May-June that my summer was lining up to be WAY too quiet on the hockey front. The hockey Gods have looked kindly on me - lol!

Changes on the horizon for the upcoming season though, as I’ll be leaving the team that decided to roll the dice on a 40 year old who was just starting out in nets. It was a very amicable break up. They’re moving on to a 50+ league, so I wouldn’t be eligible to play anyway.

During my kid’s hockey season, which I was head coach for, it turned out that the President of an invitation-only league in our area had his son on my team. He was very pleased with my style, and we got to be friends - at which point he said I should play (as goalie) with their league next season. Fast forward to the other week, and I got confirmation from the new President that I’m in as one of the 6 goalies. I’m thrilled about this, as I have a lot of dads that I have coached with and/or played with and/or coached their sons that play in this league (and they all said “you should play with us!!”)

Website is a bit out of date, but gives you a flavour of what they’re about - and at my age/stage of my life, this is exactly what I’m looking for!

https://ngmhl.ca/index.php/the-ngmhl

NGMHL: ”Beer Beauts Since 1971”

Damn, @seagoal! You’re HAAAAWT!

…or your thread is, at least 

29 minutes ago, seagoal said:

These are simple and kinda neat too

Or something like this with vertical slots is a possibility too

Or maybe something like this?

41 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

As in he has a specific fondness for us? 

For Canadiana, certainly. For us as individuals…? Well, he and I get along famously. You…? Unsure…

25 minutes ago, coopaloop1234 said:

Maybe @seagoal was never in Washington in the first place? 

He does seem to be quite the Canadaphile… I mean, for an American. 

20 hours ago, Wonder35 said:

Except that I would be standing whilst making the glove save. "Stay on your feet and don't play the puck. You're a goalie." So sayeth the 1960's coaches.

Well I never said it was a GOOD or ACCURATE impersonator- lol!

So you’re saying you got coaching beyond “just stop the damned puck”…? Lucky!

@seagoal

So I’m picking my kids at the day camp at Carleton University (daughter did team sports, my son did hockey). As we’re walking out, past the windows of the offices, I see this display. An Ottawa homage to your display…? 

On 8/10/2023 at 9:54 AM, johncho said:

I was still a wee lad probably still in Korea depending on how mid 80s. 

Marche de l’Ouest was a gem when the Arcade was still there!

Damn… that’s going back! I had forgotten about that one. We lived in the East side of Sources, so we went to Pinocchio’s in centennial plaza, back when they had tokens.

17 hours ago, seagoal said:

I was just going through some old paintings that I did in the early 2000s, my early 20s, and found this goalie.  I had forgotten about it.  Gonna frame it and put it up near my gear room.  My partner couldn't see the goalie.  I said he's making a glove save...still, couldn't see it.   Oh well. 

Feeling charitable just now, so I’m going to say that it is modern figurative abstraction . I could also say it reminds me of those rune-like minimalist pictograms that they have at each olympics

5 hours ago, seagoal said:

@coopaloop1234 I used to see a goalie in the shapes when playing Tetris as a kid, so that's probably where it comes from in my deepest psyche.

Plus this.

Nice pic of a @Wonder35 impersonator 

6 hours ago, johncho said:

Was my first job (the one on Sources)! I was terrible at it.

Fawk! The one on Sources, but when it was teeny-tiny, right? Like before they put in the Guzzo theatre? It had a certain charm to it - but then I never worked there. I did work at a butcher shop in the Marche de l’Ouest a bit further up Sources; wouldn’t recommend it

Before that one though, the Canadian Tire on Sources was on the other side of Brunswick/corner sources. Not sure if you remember it…? Circa mid-late 80s, around the same time that the store at the north end of centennial plaza was Toyville

(apologies to @seagoal for high jacking the thread, and setting a course for memory lane)