Matt Hazard

Here I am.  Well, there I was.  This picture is actually taken from last spring, but I trust you’ll accept that over the past year I haven’t gotten any prettier and not much has changed picture wise.  Not even the jersey, as I’m pretty sure I haven’t washed it yet.  I am a spongee and a hockey goalie.  Fun, right?  Actually, it is!  Or at least was.  Last year was my rookie year playing goal, and I quickly got the nickname ‘Pavelec’ (after Andrej Pavelec of the Winnipeg Jets) for my quick taking to the art of ninjutsu between the pipes.  This name couldn’t be more accurate.  For whatever reason this year I’ve fallen out of my groove!  Honestly, my stats are about as bad as Pavelec has been playing this year.  Both Russian and North American stats.  At the beginning of the season I was in the top rated goalies of our league, and have since plummeted near the bottom.  Not exactly sure why this happened, but unfortunately I am a man of both motivation and inspiration, so naturally once my stats dropped just slightly, I lost my inspiration which in turn turned me unmotivated.  Ha!  So dramatic.  It didn’t help that my trip to Mexico followed by my work trip to Flin Flon took me out of both teams I play on for about a month.  This weekend should prove interesting…I’m going to guess a score of 1000 to 0.  For them.

No one cared who I was until I put on the mask…  – Bane

This is Dave, my middle bro.  He is aces.  Basically any dumb idea or notion I’ve ever conjured up, he’s always been on board – no matter how stupid it is.  Seriously, this guy needs virtually NO convincing at all for anything!  Now that I’m 30 and have gotten most of the juvenile crap out of my system, my dumb ideas have tamed down to ridiculous goals and adventures.  Lately, he has become my gym buddy.  He’s even decided to run the half marathon with me in June!  He figured since I’ve been dragging him out running and working out with me EVERY DAY, he’d be more than my motivational mascot and join the race.  This guy has seriously been my rock in life lately, both in and out of the gym.  Normally I wouldn’t post such emotional man garbage, but this guy seriously deserves a shout out.  He’s helped me realize that most motivation should come from within ones self, even though he hasn’t needed to say it in so many words.  One of the many inspirational people in my life for sure.  Now I’m off to take a shot of tequila and snort a line of shaving cream to regain my manliness and then head off to the gym.  Real men train at night.