Have you been watching my shinny? So much of what you said is what I live every game that I had to multi quite you…
What I'm talking about is when players are consistently getting breakaways from their own blue line with zero pressure and can go as slow as they want and even stop fully before they shoot. And if you manage to save it, they still have time to go get the rebound in the corner or behind the net and bring it back in front of goal and take an eternity to shoot.
Happens all the time with both shinny groups I play but especially on my Sunday group: by the last half hour there’s one kid who just floats between centre ice and my blue line waiting to convert an “alley-oop” into a breakaway and yes he has a time on some to stop and even back up to get a better angle
Then when your team finally returns to the zone after a goal or save and cover, they take the puck and immediately turn it over.
Last Wednesday’s game – first five rushes against me are breakaways: the first one was the first real play of the game. I stop the breakaway, but while I am trying to recover my D decides the best thing to do is to put a pass from behind the net through the crease and in off my skate…
Add to that, oft times I will start against a markedly stronger team so I get buried (despite the fact the fellow who organizes this knows everyone’s caliber of play he lets them set up their own sides - at the start, but then…) As soon as we (goalies) switch ends at the halfway point the fellow who organizes the skate then decides, “oh, it’s pretty lopsided, I’ll shift a bunch of strong players to the other side, so then I’m yet again getting lit up by a stacked team. I don’t come out of these games looking too good (or feeling too good about my tending abilities). While I play for fun, sometimes it feels like I'm the only one that's trying. At some point your pride just says "WTF?"