The Rat

I finally manned up last night and went to rat hockey. Rat hockey is pickup hockey that lasts an hour and a half and is generally populated by very good players, mostly B and A leaguers.

I was a bit nervous at first; all of the guys out there were good. I felt better though when I saw a guy warming up who was worse than I was. I don’t know why, but I really don’t like being the worse skater on the ice.

I also haven’t skated for like 3 or 4 weeks so I was expecting to be burnt after one shift. I sat for the start, and it was my turn after about 5 minutes of play. I subbed in on defense. I knew one thing about playing with good players, make sure you skate hard and play like you really want to be there. They don’t like to see people fucking around out there. I was skating hard, and feeling pretty good. My legs felt good. I was playing above my normal skill level so I could actually compete with these guys. I made several really nice defensive plays. (My ass got burned a couple times too.) I even got a couple complements from Mr. Kwon. That’s THE Mr. Kwon, from the A team that bears his name.

This one fast as hell dude was skating down towards me. He makes a move and I force him outside. I’ve got a nice shoulder wide stance so I can move quick, he tries tip the puck through my legs. I glance down and just react and do a little side heal kick and get the puck on my stick. It was awesome. How the fuck did I do that? I can’t do that!

I even ended up with two goals on the night. One was a little wrister that dribbled past the goalie, and the other was a sweet ass one timer. The goalie didn’t have a chance.
Now I know that most of these good players were most likely playing at about 75%, and I was blasting at 100%, but I felt like I could hang with them. After this winter and a few more rat sessions, I’m going to consider playing in B league next summer.