New Zealand Masters begins

We all have our bad days and today was mine as I woke up on the wrong side of bed ... I was a cranky person and I knew it but I couldn’t shake it . Everything I decided on and did or said was just not right and I am still bummed out about it but it’s in the past now and I think the guys all know I’m not always in a bad mood . Two weeks of travel with tons of partying and a few injuries had gotten the best of me . My pal Drew McMillan who i met last year when I was in Dunedin is on my team here and today is the opening games for my Travelling Goons team so he popped into our mansion to pay us a  visit before heading to the rink to play Dunedin Penguins (white) as there are two teams . I’m still confused about it all but apparently we are in the A Pool . All the guys wanted to go eat but I have my routine that I plan to stick to where I don’t eat 3 hours before puck drop and I definitely don’t eat red meat .... for those of you that know what happened to me in Transylvania a few years back , don’t want a repeat of that on ice performance 🤮 

Last year when I was over the rink was closed so I never even got to see what it looked like so this was my big tourist moment for the whole trip ! I’ve literally seen all the cities I’ve visited before and this trip will not get me a new flag on my bag which kinda sucks but here I am and winning is definitely something I want to do .... I’m on a bad streak over here as I’m rocking an 0-5-1 record on this trip which is bad by anyone’s standards so going into this first game I really needed a confidence builder . The rink is an Olympic sized ice surface and there is a curling facility next to it , the rink has an upstairs bar and food stand with a pro shop for gear and skate sharpening but from what I hear my mate Drew does a better job at sharpening on his private sharpener he owns . So you make that decision if you’re here , I personally don’t get my edges done too often as I like to dig in and have my lateral slide between the pipes . When I got to the rink I also found out about this Penguins team(s) situation ..... from what I’ve gathered the black squad has played together for years at this tournament and are a strong team that wanted to compete in the A pool but nobody was at their level so the organizer asked them to play with the weaker Penguins squad to water down the level but they refused and the organizer told them they would forfeit every game but will be able to play the games which will not be counted and the guys sticking to their tradition agreed as they really just want to play together . I can’t blame them or the organizer for the decisions made but it’s a bit strange . I’m glad I spoke to the guys from the Penguins black squad or I would have had a different perspective about it all . It’s really not their fault that no other teams can compete with them ...

So here we are playing the Penguins white squad and this game counts ! We started off a bit sloppy and the overall level is a bit low but that doesn’t take anything away from the heart and camaraderie both teams showed on the ice . The Penguins are all a bunch of nice people that play with their heart on their sleeve and their goalie put up a good fight against us as the score teetered between both teams . Playing on the big ice is something I actually prefer with wider angles but it’s hard to angle pucks for the guys so the best option is to freeze what I can to get the guys a rest ... big ice is tough on the skaters especially when they aren’t used to it but thankfully we have Drew and Matt who are both locals and have the experience to find space on this surface . The game was close all the way to the end and we came out on top with a 4-2 win and most importantly I snapped my losing skid .... damn did that ever feel good 🤗

The shitty thing is that I’m still in full on bitch mode 🤬I know I suck and I’m sorry fellas for being so out of sorts . As you all know by now I’m not always so moody ...ok maybe I am , fuck off ! Cam got us into the cornhole competition which is where you throw bean bags through a hole in a piece of wood and it started immediately after our first game and will overlap our second and I made the decision to skip it in favour of getting a good feed in and some rest ... my team mate Andrew Richmond wasn’t too keen on the cornhole either so we hung back together and went to a pub called the Rope & Twine for lunch , I had pasta and it hit the spot and instantaneously made me feel better . We got back to the house and started watching Tarzan on Netflix and yeah I couldn’t have asked for a better dude to chill out with . Andrew is a big man who hunts , like big vehicles and is into martial arts ... he’s a kind fella that I would not want to make angry so maybe that put me on my best behaviour also ... regardless , thanks for being patient ! 

And then we had to play Penguins black .... this was like feeding a goat to a lion ! We were the goat 🐐 and when I say goat I don’t mean greatest of all time . Anyways dinner was served and I was probably the only one fighting as we registered 5 shots and honestly I would say the stats are quite incorrect seeing as the whole friggin game was in our end . I tried as hard as I could but we had little to no resistance and got the spanking of spankings by losing 9-0 .... I can say that I at least robbed Benji on a sweet tip which was probably save of the game and possibly the whole tourney but it didn’t help me on the three snipes he put by me as we were out played in every aspect of the game . I hated losing like this and I wasn’t a fan of any positivity from anyone about this but in the end the game doesn’t count due to everything I explained earlier . This team will smoke everyone with absolutely no competition for them . They should be given the gold medals 🥇 in my opinion . 

After the game we had a beer and headed back to our house .... the city gets pretty quiet and it is Waitangi Day here which is a national holiday . Everything is closed except for the usual fast food joints . We went to KFC and it was absolute garbage but I ate it and I know I’m gonna pay for it ...then I went to sleep 💤 first game tomorrow is early against The Wookie’s then we play the Jurassics later on so we all need our rest .