Puck stops with me... and I love it
AFTER a few weeks playing for Braehead and getting more and more into the season, I’m pleased I can say I’m enjoying playing again.
I’ve played on bad teams for the last three years and one of things I spoke to head coach John Tripp and my family about was the fact I haven’t enjoyed my hockey.
It was one of the reasons we wanted to make a change. I’m getting older and having my son involved is really important to me as well as the having fun part of it.
I came here not knowing what to expect and although I spoke to a couple of guys who were here last year, you don’t really know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
I arrived with the mind-set of working hard and trying to enjoy myself and so far I’ve been doing just that.
I’ve been getting man of the match awards, which I’m grateful for, but that’s not my main goal. I’m just trying to give our team a chance to win and I’m enjoying playing again.
I became a netminder largely down to my dad, Phil, who played competitive juniors in Canada until he was 20 and then got married and had kids.
When I was a kid, I wanted to put on his pads and we would go down to the basement and he would shoot tennis balls at me. It was something I did for fun.
I’m not quite sure what makes someone want to become a netminder, but that was my reason for doing it.
You’re the guy that can make the biggest impact and the concept of it is easy – you just have to stop the puck.
Compared to the other guys, they have to learn systems and have to know where they have to be at all times. I just have to stand on some blue ice and stop the puck.
A timely save can be a game-changer. It comes down to if you get scored on and you’re already down a goal or two.
Losing a third can be a momentum killer for your team and gives the other guys a spark and it’s one of the jobs in pro sport where you are the most important player.
I’m not big on being obsessed about stats, but it does bug me when I see game sheets where they say there have been no shots on me for a whole period and you know it’s wrong.
You can’t let it affect you because ultimately you’re playing for wins. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have the best stats in the league. Of course I would.
But having played for teams that haven’t done well in recent years, my stats haven’t been good. But then again stats don’t tell you everything about a player.
As long as we’re winning and having fun, that’s the most important to me.