It feels like it’s been forever…check that, it has been forever since I’ve had the chance to lace them up and play a game in the red and white. I didn’t say meaningful game because lets face it, there wasn’t to many meaningful games left to be played as we closed out the season last year.

Still despite all the negative crap and lack of wins under a guys belt it doesn’t stop me from getting anticipated for the upcoming season. While I will never predict we compete for a championship I am looking forward to being a lot better next year, as a team and individually. It cant get any worse can it?

It’s all that matters this year. Be better…be A LOT better. Being a team game you rely a lot on what the rest of your teammates do for success, it’s no different playing goal, in fact it is probably worse playing in the cage then anywhere else. Let’s face it, the team wins it’s often the highlight reel goal or the shorthanded breakaway on a 5 on 3 kill that is buried top bunk that get’s remembered…it’s not the 40 routine saves made in a night or very rarely a big leg save on a penalty kill early in the second. Of course in a loss, much like in football, a goalie shoulders a lot (if not most) of the blame. A goalie can make 60 saves in a 6 to 1 loss and I’ll argue that most people will question the goaltending.

Perhaps thats why we’re so fucking strange, because most goalies I know wouldn’t have it any other way. We love the fact that we are arguably the most important part of any teams success and usually the least remembered or talked about.

Still being on the ice by yourself for most of the game is possibly one of my favorite things about playing the position. I can’t control anything else then stopping the puck. On the ice we are the biggest loners and often get caught up in being the biggest individual(s) (for the backups) on a team.

I’ve never been one to be obsessed with stats, I hate being scored on but if winning a game means letting in 9 goals then so be it. A win is a win and wins bring you championships. To me that’s all that matters. My stats aren’t good, may never be again but playing a solid 60 and winning games is all that matters to this point. I can’t control what we do as a team, the only thing I can do is worry about what I have to do for my team to enjoy success which is something I’ve taken pride in this offseason.

It’s been a long time coming and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to resort to it but for the first time in my life I’m actually excited to be working out in the offseason to be ready and improve for this year. It seems crazy being this serious only being senior hockey but I can only speak for myself in saying when you’ve won a league championship at any level you desire that same success no matter what level of hockey you play. I truthfully dont know if it’s harder for people who have never won to understand what it takes to win because I’ve been fortunate to have won at least once. It wasn’t much but it required every player on our team to be there best. I know full well playing on this hockey team I need to be better and we need to be better. There are a lot…and I mean A LOT of solid hockey players playing in this league and for a team comprised of a majority of Junior B players we need to do everything and anything we can to raise our game to that level. For me that was being less of a boar and working hard to improve a lot of the aspects in my game…and believe me there are a lot.

There is a lot of optimism on our team heading into the fall when we start skating. We’ve got a few new players rumored to be coming, some to be leaving…we still don’t have a coach but at this point in the summer that doesnt matter. What does matter is preparing yourself for the impending year…

Im probably as guilty as anyone but have realized that