brett | the muellhorns in Manhattan

It was really weird. Packing up my gear in our teeny apartment, walking down the long hallway, taking the elevator, having the doorman look at me like I’m crazy, hailing a cab at 9:00pm with about 100lbs of gear, not knowing where the f_ck Sky Rink is in the MASSIVE Chelsea Piers complex, more walking, taking another elevator up to the rink, entering the public area of the rink and seeing a goalie dressing in front of everyone, me thinking “man, that dude is weird”, walking into the east rink to play for the Dougies, realizing that all of the dressing rooms have been converted into locker spaces to generate more revenue, seeing guys with their bags strewn in the stands and keeping bags on the bench, walking back into the public area and seeing more guys stripping down to dress with wives/girlfriends watching and walking around us, me feeling crazy uncomfortable because I have to dress in front of said women, finally meeting the guy that called me out for the game, meeting another goalie that tells me this is the best ice I’ll find in NYC or any Borough, stepping on the ice late because I don’t know WTF I’m doing and missing the warm up, playing with a bunch of expat Canucks against Columbia University alumni, lamenting that I still have dish soap my water bottle, wiping the floor with Columbia University 11-2, my contact asking me to come out again, undressing in public again, showering in a weird little locker room, hearing guys shooting the shit about their jobs, one was working in sales for a cut-throat israeli startup and the other was on set running something or other for the new Tina Fey show, getting dressed in public again, walking like 500m with my dumb gear to find another cab, riding home while texting Mark in Calgary, attributing my victory to training at higher altitude, getting home and having another perplexed doorman ask me if I play or if this gear was my son’s, walking back down the CRAZY long hallway to our place, airing all of my gear out in the living room(LOL), sipping some scotch and retiring to bed.

After speaking more with my fellow goalie, I found the holy grail of skate sharpening in Manhattan as well, located here. This is good because my 3/8 sharpening is much too sharp for the quality of ice at Chelsea Piers. I think I’ll have to go down to 1/2. I’m going to miss Gus at Breakaway Sports in Calgary.