Show William Tells Tell's Son Had Easy Job Compared to What Ice Goalies Do topping Stopping Powerful Shots and Swinging CI I INot Not Boring But It Is Wracking By PAUL GALLICO NEW V YORK March 21 The The current Ice hockey play-offs play are arc I casting the bright light t of oC publicity upon the somewhat dubious position of f tender goal-tender for tor major league teams The physical condition of one Andrew An An- Andrew drew pit pt for Cor the thel New tew York Rangers Ranger has been d ds s- s cussed at some length in the public prints and the consensus is that the young athlete is on the verge of a nervous br breakdown My tattletales advise me that Alt Alt- shakes ore are purely the he result results re re- re- re suits sult of his labors 1 as RS a t target during a season of ol scheduled games gaines that he heis heis hes is s a a model young man who neither drinks nor smokes now chews and that hat once before the approach of the S Stanley cup matches es gave Jave him himan himan himan an attack of the j bics This is unfortunate Unfortunate un Un- fortunate because those hockey players play play- ers can con flip a puck through the hole of a doughnut and i if a goal tender gets to quivering the least bit they will start timing his quivers and begin begin begin be be- gin to shoot the puck between n them The gals raIl In ermine and white fox who alt lilt in the boxes and the promenade seats sub clap their tinted hands and yodel ecstatically when the wing men fl flex x their muscles and go dashing madly up and down the ice The maidens in the he he arena and me mezzanine swoon with joy when the burly d defense men Interpose their p padded porches as some lunatic attacker comes charging down the lc Ice But who heaves a sigh for the gallant goalies Who ho I ask uk The goo coolie lie of course e gets blam blamed d for or everything The forwards may be picking their teeth the center waving to hi his girl in the b balcony and md the d defense fen men p paring rin their ringer lInger nails when the attack altac sweeps s down the ice but U If the goalie lc lets th the little black rubber disk slip sUp past him and into the net it Is LI his fault faul Everybody turns around and looks st f him as though h he did It O on pure pui pose Fifty and sixty times Umes a night a rock hard solid oUd rubber r disk dik I. I Is U sept cent sizzling at him hm They come from far down he the ice long lena pitches that hat ha arc ara difficult to follow because on a longshot long longshot shot th the black puck will wUl get lost against 1 the dark background of crowds I have seen goals scored from mid Ice that thet any chIld chUd could have stopped But a p moments moment refraction lion tion of light o or a black dinner C coat Rt lii n th the au audience lenc and th the damage Js pc By fly the time h he found It agan l n t I I ad d past m and ino th hr 1 I 1 Likewise the they are Iii d at al him from a dis distance nce of 01 three feet fed and ad the he shooters arc not fooling If U a shot were to hit him in the face from five fhe feet and one sometimes does he can lose los an aney ey eye or at least get ret his scalp split open But even further indignities are arc added The attackers ers come and md yeUng dawn arid foe foregather with the defenders rs at the vcr very mouth othe atthe o at the goal Boal where they hey stage stae most ds di I graceful brawls lh that t are arc n a welter of oCI legs arms st ste steel l skate blades and shinny sticks At the bottom of oC this welter lik like truth the goalie may usually be found Cound searching himself and his Immediate surroundings for forthe forthe forthe the puck with wilh a curious and intense concentration His comrades are hackIng hacking hack hack- Ing clawing scratching biting blUng slashing slashing slash slash- ing Kicking and and a hockey stick Is not exactly a maidens maiden's The goalie crawls around Under under un Un- der their less legs looking for tor the puck so that when he finds It he can throw i It away This sort of ot thing eventually eventual ly will g get gel on 01 your our nerves My sympathies sym sym- to M Master ter Aitkenhead |