I got told to go with (I think) Bauers, the things are like little clubs (although I was never one to elbow guys).
I took a shot off the inside thigh once... upper thigh... pretty close to...
I didn't actually try to block it, but that was my V8 moment where I understood that even accidentally blocking shots in recreational hockey was rather a stupid thing to do. Oh I copped grief over not going back on the ice with my skate like that (as posted previously), and I'm sure the same crowd of know-nothings would have given me grief about not blocking shots in a rec league -especially on a team that couldn't score goals (so actually playing defense when you were down by like 5 goals going into the 3rd period was a little silly anyways.).
Anyways I had a huge bruise there ... it didn't really impact mobility- but looked pretty "impressive" when wearing shorts. (It happened in the Summer). Come to think of it - playing hockey when it was about 80-90 degrees out at night - now that is a bit of a trip.
Oh -and about copping grief here... the team I played on here, things got chippy for some guys (no idea why - maybe they saw Slapshot), one time against a team with some giants for forwards. One of my teammates had played a few games as a goalie with the Fife Flyers in Scotland(although he was a forward on the team here) (nothing like a Glaswegian on your team - Glasgow accents- think Billy Connolly or Mike Myers' Fat Bastard)... well Scots don't take much crap (or he didn't) - and he got into a pushing and shoving match with a couple of these guys while I was on the ice -I didn't want to get into it, but I also wasn't going to let the 2nd banana on this other team who was mouthing off at the guy, jump him from behind. None of these other team guys had done anything to me - so there was no reason for me to exacerbate the situation... so it was a bit of getting in a position and watching.
I'm sure that some ignoramae saw things as differently from me... but, it was more about not having a 2 on 1 situation develop for me.
Man, that stuff is stupid in a rec league - in theory everyone out there has some sort of day job to go to - there are no pro leagues in Australia - so it is like -all about avoiding the idiots that don't get that -and having fun.
Edit to add:
Man I forgot this -- I was also going to add about how lame my last team was - we had one game where the opposing team's goalie showed up late and was not dressed for nearly the entire first period -so the other team was playing with 6 skaters ( basically a pulled goalie situation -by necessity).
The rocket scientists on my team kept trying to get in deep, and wouldn't even try a shot unless they were in the slot ... with the natural result that they scored all of 2 goals against an empty net in about 18 minutes.
Try as I might, there was no way I could get the guys on my team to try shooting from anywhere... as of course... they all knew better

...
I didn't have a lot of fun that season... although I do look forward to better days; also their uniform was all right (even if it was green, gold, black and white -with a bit of red). Dunno if I got a photo of it anywhere - had the tie up retro neck area thing going on.
However, if you follow - Billy Crystal used to have a character on SNL in the 80's - his line was something like: "It is better to look good, than to feel good .... and dahlink, you look marvelous..."
paraphrasing that to "It is better to look good, than to play well..." - that didn't work for me ... and I wish you younger guys still in hockey -never to have to go through the coachless experience of a cluster of fools all chasing after your puck in your own end, having a goalie that could hug a post to save his life -and actually jumped to bat pucks that were going about 6 ft over the net -away from him...
I suppose in a sense though - it was bizarrely surreal.