Sleep is hard to come by and it’s hard to experience everything in so little time . Spending a week in some cities may seem like an eternity but in others it flies by as you have the time of your life . Unfortunately my time spent in Perth flew by and the friends I made and rekindled made the time go by in the snap of a finger and I only can wish that I return someday and allot more time to stay as I should have done in the first place . Last night we had planned a trip to Caversham to go see some wild animals and the plan is to meet Lara and Matt at the train station by 830 am and get a lift over to this remote area , so we woke up around 6 am washed up and headed out to catch a train . The transit here is awesome .... in the city centre it’s free and anything out of the center is charged per zone travelled . We can’t help but notice how clean the train is unlike our shithole transit in Toronto called the TTC which is disgusting and the first thing we joked about is how we don’t see any pizza boxes lying discarded amongst Tim Hortons cups . If anyone is reading this from the TTC you should be ashamed of yourselves instead of patting yourselves on the back with your phony best transit in North America nonsense . Anyone that travels knows how shite your service is ...TTC stands for Take The Car . And for me as a born and bread Torontonian you are an embarrassment . Back to the story at hand .... we were so pleasantly happy to be riding a clean fully functioning service with friendly and helpful employees and the more we experience Perth the more we talk about the idea of moving here . We met Lara and Matt and they dropped us off on the way to snorkeling and I am almost sure this offer delayed their day a bit but they are such nice people for offering to help make sure our trip was complete . They are typical of all the people we have met in Perth going out of their way to make sure we enjoy our time there and I can only assume living there would be very pleasant .
I love taking these silly pictures . And there were plenty of opportunities at Caversham ! I absolutely loved this place . When we arrived it was just opening so we decided to do all the shows first then wander around so we got to meet the Wombats and snakes and birds up close and personal and then we got to see the koalas and then we saw a farm animal show where they sheared a sheep and had these awesome dogs that wrangled the herd as part of the show then we hit the Kangaroo and Wallaby walk where we got to feed them and hang out with them all and we fell in love with this really cute roo named Digit who was named Digit because she ( I think it was a female ) lost her finger when she was hit by a car 😢 all these animals were rescued and have been taken care of and are all beautiful creatures . I know most of you never see this side of me but I do have a soft side and this definitely struck a chord and Digit was so cute with her big eyelashes and friendly demeanour as she came hopping up to us one of the people working there introduced us and told us her story and mentioned how she was a favourite with the park workers . I wanted to cuddle her and take her home with me so badly 😌 but I was still a bit nervous as we all have that instinct to be wary around wild animals and we left to catch the penguin feeding . The penguins were so small and fun to watch waddle around but my mind was only thinking about going back to spend more time with the kangaroos and to not be a chicken shit and get closer to them all . We spent something like 5 hours at Caversham and if it weren’t for my big game that night I would have stayed way way longer even though it was a blistering hot day and you could tell even the animals were not enjoying it . We went back to the kangaroo enclosure and I wasn’t as scared or nervous around these magnificent creatures and I got much closer to them and got some amazing selfies and fed a bunch of them and then we found Digit again and stayed with her for a bit as she smiled and got close to us also . Aside from playing ice hockey here this had to be the highlight of my trip so far and I have had many highlights but spending time with the kangaroos was beyond amazing . Unfortunately I had to catch an Uber back to the hotel to get ready for my big debut for the Grizzlords .
Now if you recall my first game in the Perth Summer League was a loss to the Grizzlords 😡 and I played for the last place Moose . The Grizzlords were 2nd to bottom and were playing the team above them in the standings and that team is the Wolves who have that sniper I skated with the other day named Scott Hillier who I kept calling “dangles” as he did lighten up in that stick and puck session the other day . He mentioned there are a few guys on his squad that might have a good time lighting me up also ... this is on my mind along with the fact that leaving here without a win will have some serious implications on my future play and might not be good for my ego . This game was not going to be a cakewalk ... I can’t leave here losing both games !
Bruce Ross came by the hotel to pick me up and we headed to the PIA rink in Malager lol 😝 and he mentioned we would have a short bench and the whole time up until game time I was hoping their sniper with the Greek surname would be there to lead the charge and at game time I found out that he would not be there and the other squad has a smaller lineup also but their key guys would be there which means I am gonna have to up my game to get the win for the Grizzlords . As it already stood I had to based on not wanting to leave here winless but this added to the pressure and I could tell that the Grizzlords knew this was gonna be a tough challenge for them also . We got dressed and got on the ice and had a good warmup and started the game and right off the bat I could see my team mates were giving their all and we jumped into a lead after a few saves on my behalf and some easy goals given up by the other keeper who was clearly off his game and probably should have said no to playing this game because he was shaky on long shots and we were totally in his head and I don’t think I made it any easier on him when I absolutely robbed one of their players on a breakaway with a smooth glove save . As a goalie when you are having a bad game and you look across the ice and see your counterpart having a stellar outing it only adds more pressure and clearly my counterpart on this night was not good under pressure and didn’t do much to help his team . I think he is not their goalie but a fill in that also lost the game earlier against my goalie buddy Levon which if you ask me would have been shitty if he beat him and I lost to him 🤪
The Grizzlords were utilizing their passing skills and moved the puck really well and blocked shots when they had to and listened to my advice clearly when I shouted at them to stop screening me and positioned themselves accordingly and we played really well as a team with no individual efforts needed . A team of players playing position properly will always beat the individual team ... the individual may come through but if you ask me I rather play for a squad that is playing together and tonight I was one lucky goalie and the Grizzlords went into the third period with a 5-0 lead and when I skated to the bench I told them these guys aren’t gonna lay down and just lose as I could see the fire in their eyes . They were hungry for goals and even though I came through with some big saves I can only do so much . I also told the gang that the hardest lead to hold is a 5-0 lead which I’m sure we all know because we have all been part of that one game that we blew that one day or night and it haunts you . I definitely wanted the team to be prepared for some action and without any doubt the Wolves were gonna come out strong . Halfway through that 3rd frame they broke my shutout after I made a few saves and we failed to clear our zone they had made a backdoor pass that I couldn’t reach when I slid across my crease and as much as it sucked to lose that shutout I almost knew it was going to happen . The pressure kept mounting but clock didn’t stop ticking and with a few minutes left they made the scoreline respectable by potting another goal on a bit of a scramble and a nifty pass from behind my net . The clock soon after wound down and we walked away with a 5-2 win and after the game we all shook hands and I tried to talk to their goalie but he didn’t want to talk to me or accept the fact that he sucked . I probably wouldn’t say he was a shit goalie if he had at least an ounce of respect and offered to talk back to me but he ignored me like he was some mute even off the ice when I went to tell him he had some rough luck .... I guess in his mind he’s better then me and should have won with the more skilled team but instead gave up weak goals from all angles of the ice 😛 change your attitude and people won’t be happy to see you acting like the sore loser you are . As you can see in the photo above he didn’t even want to be in the picture ....
The Grizzlords were so happy with my performance that they named me player of the game and I am honoured to say this because in my mind this was a complete team game . Each and every player out there gave it their all and the only thing I really would want more was to see Lara score on that one glorious opportunity she had becuase she played amazing and really deserved the glory of scoring . After the game we were supposed to leave early but the beers showed up and we enjoyed a few with a few laughs and some of the other teams players showed up to enjoy some beers also . For the most part they were not sore losers and I am almost sure some of them will be in Adelaide at the same tournament I’m in so I look forward to catching up with them over some more beers . Tomorrow is my flight to Melbourne and this wet gear will be very overweight if I don’t get back to my room and begin drying it ASAP ! On the way home Bruce drove me to a burger joint called Hungry Jack which is actually Burger King but the name Burger King belonged to someone else before the corporation decided to move here thus the name and yes they still sell Whoppers and everything else except the6 don’t have a King as their mascot and the food is pretty decent and it was really nice that Bruce paid even though he didn’t have to 🙂 that’s Perth for you in a nutshell ... it’s a big town full of people that do things that they don’t have to do and I would be more then happy to return , even if I had to face that angry goalie again and he had his revenge on me 😛 .
PS- angry goalie ... you don’t have to take everything so seriously and next time try to enjoy yourself and learn to roll with the punches instead of becoming more and more furious . I didn’t say anything here to be hurtful or anything so don’t be hating on me or anything ... I did really try to reach out but you shut me out and I’m only telling the story the way it is .
Time to dry out my bags . Thank you Bruce , Lara , James , Brandon , George , Will and all the old friends and new friends I made in Perth ! The hockey community here makes me wish I lived here . Keep being nice to each other ❤️
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