Fridge

Fridge

Saturday 30 May 2015

Game Daze: Wheelers lose 3-4 (twice).

I've had a bit of a hiatus on this blog since that first round asthma attack.  I have, however, kept up with my hockey commitments during the period.  No particular reason for the hiatus, except for maybe a busy life.  Made it to all games, two of three Viking training sessions and been to see the Pee Wee Penguins continue in their winning ways (will post separately on training and pee wee sessions).  This post will bring us up to date with Wheelers news.

The Wheelers have rolled twice since our earlier victory over the Shufflers.  On the first occasion, we played the Rockers.  I got to the rink, looking forward to the game and in particular the chance to play against Greg (plays for the Sharks on the ice).  When I arrived, he greeted me with the sad news that he'd been promoted to Div I for the following day and therefore wouldn't be playing this Div II game.  He seemed genuinely disappointed.  Jana, however, was filling in for him (she's another Shark, began 'learn to skate' classes the same day I did so we see each other as peers) after having played in the earlier Bumpers game (where she'd scored her first ever goal and was still buzzing).

We had our full roster of skaters initially, though Natasha had to leave before the game to get to another engagement after the whole proceedings were delayed by a fire drill.  We had Krystal's brother Josh in his first ever game.  He can skate okay and has the typical young man's hard shot, so once he gets a feel for the game he'll slot in nicely.  Mike the Goalie was away so Matt filled in.  Reminded me of old times.  Besides Jana, the Rockers had Jai filling in for their regular goalie, and they were boosted with the addition of Mal to their lineup during the week.  He and Jana joined Felicia, Ashley and Pauline to make a pretty gutsy set of players with some good skills.

I can't recall much of the game now, beyond a few impressionist moments.  I scored an unassisted goal towards the end of the first half, tying the score 2-2.  I came down the right boards at speed, cut across behind a retreating defender, swooped towards and past the crease on an angle, held my backhand shot until the absolute last moment and put it around behind Jai into the net.  In the second half we took two penalties after Brenton had put one in.  Neither was questioned by my usually questioning team mates so there was no controversy about them.  They didn't score on the powerplays, but did put the final two goals in to take out the game.  The GWG occurred in the last three minutes, Jana got behind our players as they pressed forward and no one could catch her as I watched from the bench.  Most memorable impression is that Pauline is becoming a good 'par player', enjoyed her physical game and compete level.  And Ashley is a skilled defender.

GP 2 G 1 A 1 +/-0 1/1/0

Last week we played the Bumpers in what promised to be another tight clash.  Their team has had a few changes, Jana is on their roster, they've lost Mal and Matt, Matt the Goalie was filling in in net, Carol was playing with them as a reserve.  They can all skate, and Craig provided a league leading shooter with which to capitalise.  They are the team to beat this season and we knew we'd have a battle on our hands even though they only had five skaters.

We had a full foster of skaters, and Mike returned in the net.  We juggled our lines a bit after they got off to a 4-0 lead by half time.  We settled at the end with Me, Krystal and Natasha on a line and I think that worked pretty well.  The score line would back this up as we'd scored two goals with a minute to go, when I put put a pass in from behind the line to Krystal in the slot (having waited for her to get space while protecting the puck from an aggressive defender) and she thumped it in.  We'd been on the attack for the previous five minutes, so it was a shame that it took over half of the time remaining for the ref's to drop the puck again.  We were on the attack when the siren sounded.

Good game all round, except that Craig tore a hamstring early in the piece (he'll be out for weeks, I'd imagine).  He was writhing in pain for half a minute before the referees blew the whistle, we were on a 3 on 2 attack, we backed right off the pressure while waiting to hear the whistle, even starting to pass the puck to goalie to stop the play so that Craig could be dealt with.  We should have took advantage of the situation and gone for goal perhaps?  Hell, it's C Grade!

I was on for even goals, won all (?) of quite a few face offs, made some good breakouts on the rush, swept behind our net for the first time ever as a reset tactic.  The game was very physical with a lot of tight coverage occurring (good to play against Jana with her ice background as defence).  Also some tight passing on their part.

GP 2 G 1 A 1 +/-0 1/2/0

After three games, we've got four players on three points.  Excellent!

Inline 31 & 32

Tuesday 26 May 2015

Exercise Induced Asthma Attack - Pt 2

Continues (after a hiatus) from the previous post.  I'll keep this short as I have a fair bit to catch up on from my hiatus period.

I was still thinking of managing this on my own as I rolled from the rink, hoping to get to my keys and then my car with as little fuss as possible.  I was relieved, however, when I was met by one of the good citizens of Viking Nation as I started to make my way up the back corridor, asking if I was alright and if I needed anything.  I said I needed a 'puffer' and he said follow me and from that moment on I was in the hands of good people.

Before I knew it I was being taught to use a 'spacer' device with a puffer, had people measuring my heartbeat as I had more ventolin than I thought was safe but which I was assured was within limits.  At four puffs every ten minutes, each puff being inhaled four times through the 'spacer', I was getting the ability to speak in short sentences back within the half hour.  It was about then that an off duty nurse called her paramedic friend and sought some basic advice, then they conferred with me about calling an ambulance.  They weren't keen to put more ventolin into me without medical supervision as my heart was racing along.  Early in the piece it had been 140, it was down to about 90 by the time the ambo's measured it.  They said they'd like to take me to hospital.  Not totally reluctantly, I agreed.

There followed my first ever trip in an ambulance, chatting the medic in the back as she gathered info from me before depositing me in the waiting room.  One of the hockey family who'd been caring for me back at the rink drove separately and together we waited and chatted in the room for a couple hours.  At some point a nurse checked my various signs.  I waited some more and watched the passing parade of broken bones and crying kids which is the typical fare of an early Saturday night in Gawler.

Eventually it was my turn and I got to see the gruff middle aged Malaysian doctor who never repeated himself and was all business.  I think once he worked out I wasn't a drunken thug and I was interested in what he was doing he slowed down his speech a little, took a little extra time to explain or describe what he was doing and what he observed and what he thought as he went along.  I walked out of their feeling better about my lungs than when I'd gone in, with a script for some preventative medication to help avoid in future, the earnest intention to see my own doctor some time in the not too distant future and a general feeling of wellness.  Not typical for someone leaving hospital, I'll warrant!

The whole experience was pretty enlightening.  At no point had I panicked or even really gotten scared.  I appreciated being able to trust others to guide my decisions, and the obvious concern but respectful distance provided by the club's members.  It meant a lot to have opposition members check in on me as I slowly recovered on the sidelines.

For the record, I think the attack was due a combination of factors, a 'perfect storm' as it were, that just awaited the right trigger moment.  Which I provided when I didn't do any real prepatory skating, thus not warming up my airways, thus allowing huge lung fulls of very cold air to penetrated very deep and shock everything into paralysis of the airways.  The combination of factors was the fact that I'd been a little 'off colour' for a few days (though not even arising to a level of a low grade cold), the cold and dry weather, the burning off that was occuring in rural south australia, and my own personal 'static' factors (smoker, history of bronchial complaint, middle aged) and it was an attack waiting to happen.

Sigh. 


Saturday 16 May 2015

Exercise Induced Asthma Attack - Part One

As described previously, on Saturday night I had to abandon the first game of the season before it got to half time due to an exercise induced asthma attack.  Quite a drama, resulting in me having a trip to Gawler Hospital in an ambulance and quite a few concerned people.  As promised, here's a post on the experience.

If you've never had an asthma attack, it feels like you're being starved of oxygen no matter how deep and how hard you breathe.  The purpose of breathing is to drive airborne oxygen into the tiny bronchiole passages in the lungs, where the blood whooshes by and absorbs the life giving element.  The blood carries the oxygen to where it's needed, where it converts to energy and life.  In an asthma attack, those tiny capilliaries in the lung go rigid and constrict and the oxygen uptake of the blood to reduce.  Thus, you are slowly strangling even if the lungs are bellowing away.  Quite scary. I'd hate to imagine how much so if one didn't know what was happening.

Which, luckily, I did, so when, in the fourth shift of my game, I felt my breath not functioning properly I started modifying my play.  Initially this was me getting off earlier than I would normally.  Then it was taking an extra 'transition' on the bench before heading back out (by which time my breathing hadn't returned to normal, which it normally would have well and truly).  Then, in my fifth and final shift, I just stayed around the centre line, slowly skating east/west like I was patrolling a blue line on the ice, intercepting, passing, threatening.  Quite effective, but my breathing was now beginning to struggle, so I got off.

Several minutes until half time, I thought I'd try and do as well I could on the bench until the siren, use that time to go and get my car keys and head out to my car where I had a asthma 'puffer'.  These are amazing medicine, causing the air ways to open up within the lungs, providing almost instant relief.  So, I sat panting on the bench.

My breathing kept getting more laboured, so I took off helmet and gloves and made it clear that I couldn't go back on.  A minute later I thought that I'd better head off now, not wait for half time, and left the court.

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Bears (3) d Adrenaline (1)

On Sunday afternoon Jack and me went to watch the Adrenaline play the second game of their weekend double header against the Sydney Bears.  We'd won the night before 2-0 so this game was our chance to sweep the series against them this season.  They were winless.

Jack and I went to similar seats to where we'd based ourselves last time in the temporary stand above the small ice, down the scoreboard side.  No go, we couldn't see the end zone because the organisers hadn't fully pulled aside the opaque plastic curtain which acts as a screen against flying pucks and it was screening the view.  We migrated up the other end, but condensation on the glass around the scoring box had the same effect on the far corner, screening a large segment of ice from our view.  So we upped and moved to the regular stands during the first period, where we just merged into the throng about half way up, above the Sydney bench / blue line.

The game itself was entertaining to watch.  Adelaide seemed to ouplay the Bears in the first period, reflected in the scoreline of 1-0 at the first break.  Highlights for me were a couple great saves by Peter King, and the fact that though we generally outplayed them, they got two clear breakaways against us, and a third that was only defused by a desperate diving stickcheck from behind by the scrambling defender.

About half way through the Second Jack observed that the Adrenaline appeared to be running out of legs.  They just weren't generally getting that first step, and not accelerating smoothly.  Sure enough, the scoreline started to reflect this with the shot clock evening up and the Bears running out winners.  Adelaide seemed to be doing all the right things, just not getting it in.  Plenty of 'almosts' so nothing to be ashamed of.  Favourite moments were some of the skating/stick work by our long haired winger, and a ruck on the defensive blue line when two opposing skaters swept in and leapt up to compete over a lobbed puck (from memory, we won the contest).

It was getting a bit feisty by the end of the game, with a couple almost-fights and a fair bit of chest thumping.  Which Jack enjoyed so much that he has again started talking again about working himself up to playing ice hockey competitively.

Which goes to show, the spectacle of the game will generate its own future if it gets out there enough.

I've added a link in the side bar to the newly revamped Adelaide Adrenaline home page.  Much better than it was previously.

Monday 11 May 2015

Game Day - Wheelers (6) d Shufflers (1)

The Vikings winter season opened on Saturday night.  We played in the first Div II game against the Shufflers.  They had six skaters of whom five are on their roster.  We had five skaters (to start with) of whom only me, Merrilyn and Brenton were on the roster.  We also had Craig (Bumpers) and Rachael (U14's) playing with us.  In goal, we had our new goalie, Mike.  The Shufflers had Jye in net.

I was only active for the first fifteen minutes during which time I put in maybe five shifts.   It was on the fourth shift that I picked up my solitary point for the evening, collecting the puck behind their goal line and angling a shot on net as I crossed the red line, which deflected off of Jye's pad into the slot for Craig to hammer it home for the only goal of the half.

My last shift was highly abbreviated as by that time my Exercise Induced Asthma Attack was grabbing a hold of me, to the extent that I just hovered around the centre line, limiting myself to rolling East West and using my head to best position myself to either direct or deflect passes.  It was a productive minute resulting in at least one good chance at goal before I had to get off due lack of breath.

I hovered on our bench, making it clear that I was not able to come back on.  I was trying to hold out to half time, which I planned to use to get my keys and get to my car to get the asthma medication I keep there for just such an emergency.  However, with only a couple minutes to go, I realised that things were worse than I'd thought and so left the game to sort myself out.

What follows is a summary of the remainder of the game, of which I was only vaguely aware while I sat on the sidelines receiving treatment.  More of that in a future post...

The Shufflers scored on the first shift after half time, but from there it was all Wheelers.  Craig played a part in every goal, putting in another three himself and getting a helper point on the two remaining goals.  Brenton and Merrilyn each scored both a goal and an assist.  It was a comprehensive win.  I suspect it would have been points to us even if Craig hadn't played (assuming I had remained healthy) but we'll never know and he certainly made a difference.

In my five shifts I participated in about five face offs, or which I won four.  My favourite play involved a swoop in from the boards across the goal front, somehow capturing a puck and doing a spin o rama to pass it to an open Brenton (?) in the slot.  It didn't end up in a score but drew a few comments at the time.  Crazy move, for me!

Mike our goalie will be a real asset to our team.  He is very focused and has a good loud voice to lash us into activity.  I don't mind the play being directed as long as there's a hockey brain behind the voice.  I think we get both with Mike.

GP 1 G 1 A 1 +1 1/0/0

Inline 30

Thursday 7 May 2015

Wheelers, Wheels and Vikings Training

The Vikings winter season starts this weekend, first training was last night.  I am again on the Wheelers in Div II.  The Pfeiffers and Krystal return to the fray, Rick has been put into Div I.  We get a new skater, Krystal's brother, and a new goalie (unknown).  The Bumpers and Rockers each have six skaters on their roster, the Shufflers have five at the moment.  I know 90% of the skaters in the division (including Greg and Jana who start this season, from ice skating and then ice hockey).  The teams look pretty even, with no real 'super stars' and few if any that can't skate.  It's really cool how the division has improved in its overall play over the past year.

I went to training last night.  I was really looking forward to it, badly missing hockey for the past six weeks.  When I got there I found out that I wasn't the only one who felt this way.  It was really nice just to meet up with my fellow players and get skating.

I'd bought some new wheels for the occasion.  Seeing as I won't get much if any chance to skate in the neighborhood for a while now, I got a full set of indoor wheels.  They should give me a better grip on the indoor surface and not wear out too quick.  That is, unless and until I learn to do a power slide!  For the record, I have two Mission 76mm 74a and two 80mm Rink Rat 74a wheels on each skate.  I've popped my old Bauer bearings into the worn wheels and put them aside so I can do a quick change into outdoor wheels if the opportunity presents.

For training, the Vikings have shifted to a combined Div I and II session, the group dividing into 'experienced' and 'beginner'.  Which is basically Div I and Div II, because it wouldn't be right to call those with whom I skated 'beginners', everyone could do the basic skills required to participate in the session.

Concentrated mainly on passing, passing while moving, puck carrying, puck protection and stick checking, finishing with 2 on 1 battles.  Good session, not too exhausting.  Being able to travel direct from work, rather than via home to pick up a car and rush back, was sooooooo much more relaxing also!

Inline 29

For the record, I went shooting for a hundred shots down the school a few weeks ago.  I'll put up the stats when I do my next major outdoor skate, but I should make the point of counting it here.

Tuesday 5 May 2015

Pee Wee Game Day - Penguins (4) t Oilers (4)

On Sunday morning me and Nancy went down to the Ice Arena for the first game of the day to watch Blake's Penguins take on the Oilers.  It was a really good game, hard fought nil all at the end of the first, a burst of three Penguin goals within two minutes half way through the second with the Oilers getting one back in the dying seconds of the period.  Oilers score again, answered a minute later by the Penguins with five minutes to go, draw within one goal with two and a half minutes on the clock, equaliser in the final minute, and a shot on the buzzer that the Oiler's goalie only just stopped on the line with a fast glove.  No penalties.  Very intense play.

Post Game: From 3-0 lead to 4-4 draw.

The Oilers looked stronger than they did last week, a couple of their older/larger players finding their legs and driving to the goal on several occasions.

The Penguins continue to evolve as a team, Blake was played in defence this game.  He was pretty effective at it also, preventing several threatened breakaways, putting his body in the way in the scrum, taking the competition to the boards, manning and defending the blue line, clearing the zone.  Although he only had light minutes in the first period, by the third he was getting consistent defensive zone starts and was playing when the game was in the balance via double shifting.

We videoed several of his shifts, gives an idea of the pace of the game.

3 May, 2015 - Penguins v Oilers Highlights

I've put a link in the sidebar to this blog to the Pee Wee stats.  They're not totally accurate (eg. Blake has played 4 games, not the reported 3) so take them with a grain of salt.


Monday 4 May 2015

Play with a Penguin

On Saturday I went over to Blake's place and we did some stick and puck stuff out the back.  We were quite creative with ouselves.  It's not a big space, so we had to be.  He uses the back of an old couch as his target board, pushed up against the roller door and a free space of about 20 square metres in front of it surrounded by the usual garage clutter one would expect.  I came up with the bright idea of using some old squashed cardboard boxes to shield the roller door from the odd stray puck that otherwise gets wacked into it with an otherwise loud CLANG, using a couple broom handles to 'line' the edge of the couch to prevent pucks finding their way under, and using a couple witches hats in various ways for targets.

Having sorted out our space we were soon playing a number of game/drills which, us being boys, were always competitive.  Passing, shooting, one timers, accuracy, speed, forehand, backhand, deking, stickwork into passing lanes, etc.  Our shared methodology gained from ice hockey training meant that we worked well together and our games were constantly evolving.  Before we knew it an hour had gone by.

Really enjoyed myself, and learned a thing or two.  Will do again.

Friday 1 May 2015

Beard Martyr and Playoff Picks


In this time of Playoff Beards and such like, it pays to remember those who are prepared to make the great sacrifices for their bearded selves.  Such as the Truck driver sacked by BHP Billiton for refusing to shave off his goatee losing an unfair dismissal claim.  What is this world coming to?

Those who can shave off their NHL playoff beards after the first round include Nashville, St Louis, Vancouver and Winnipeg in the West, and N.Y. Islanders, Ottowa, Pittsburgh and Detroit in the the East.  So I only scored 2 out of 8 :( 

Which goes to show what being an optomist can do for you.

These are my picks for the second round

Tampa Bay over Montreal
NY Rangers over Washington
Annaheim over Calgary
Chicago over Minnesota

Hopefully I improve my average.