Goaldiggers Game 2010-11-01

I haven't played in nearly a month. I hadn't done much of anything. See, I was having issues with my lung again. Usually this is two weeks and I come back, but when I tried to do an open skate, I made it worse. This with the combination of all the recent injuries made me question if I even want to play the game anymore.

I got to the rink, suited up but was still fairly nervous. I could feel myself just out of it and wobbly. The team had 7 forwards, so I said I'd just rotate through lines when I could. In the first, I tried to play my regular amount of ice time, or rate. It was tough though. My shifts were 30-40 seconds max, but I went as hard as I could on them. I had a couple of rushes, and got good shots off, but no goal. It was clear my balance was off twice. The first was about six minutes into the first period when a shot from the point rebounded to right behind me. I tried and reached for it to get the shot off right away and whipped it as hard as I could at the net. Problem is it was so far behind me after I shot, I fell over on my butt. The other time my balance was really bad was a chip in our own zone. Our d-man chipped it from the slot to my wing up on the boards.. it was right past me. Unfortunately , I was going the other way. I stopped, but I couldn't move. All of my weight was on my back heels, and I felt I couldn't even turn to get there and make the opponent work for it. I played maybe two shifts in the third, and then felt like I was going to vomit, so I called it a night. It was nice though to make a little contact, skate hard and not feel bad doing so. I feel fine a few days later, so I think I'm fully healed.

The team won 5-2, and I was a -1 with no points. Bad statistically, but all things considered, I couldn't be more pleased with how the night turned out. It was exactly what I needed. I now just need to get into shape and that'll happen over time. You can't expect to lay around for a month, and come back and be where you were.