Take Your Timeouts

The weekend is winding down, and I am looking back on some great hockey from the team.
Yesterday’s game against a strong opponent was a good game that focused on pressuring the puck and holding the puck in the offensive zone. The old auditorium in Utica is a decent rink to play in, nice and bright and full of tradition. This was the game I wanted to come back in the season and see how much the team had improved since our last encounter. The coaching from the other bench was very good. Playing against an excellent opponent makes for a good game. These are the games you appreciate how hard the team works for the win. We had a few moments where the constant pressuring the puck was noticeably taking it’s toll on the energy level of both teams during the second period. During the third period the boys got their second wind and held the middle of the ice. Keeping the pressure on the puck caused a lot of loose pucks to bounce our way. It may have looked chaotic in the neutral zone, but it worked. We still need to improve the quickness and strength of our passes, but we had some nice goals. There’s a time to dump and chase when you’re going against the trap, and there’s a time to drive it in to the net when your players effectively maneuver around the defense. I like to see a player move with confidence on the net using speed and smooth stick handling, especially when his team moves forward with him to set up for recovering the puck using some nice passing and control to move the defense out of position. Our last couple of practices have been focused on moving the puck quickly through the neutral zone. This has improved. Today’s game found us behind, in the lead, behind again, coming back from a three goal deficit, going up by a goal, then ending with a tie in the last 30 seconds as our opponent pulled the goalie for a six on five. Although I am proud of the effort from the team, I still do not like tie games. I never have, and never will. I should have called a time out on our last whistle while we were still ahead by one. I should have settled the team down and made sure we focused on protecting our end of the ice. When there’s an open net at the other end of the rink, there’s a lot of temptation to get that last goal. We got caught overloaded in the neutral zone, and it resulted in an easy breakaway on the weak side. We dropped our guard, and I fumbled the ball with less than a minute left in the game. Yep, I should have taken the time out and settled the team down. There were a lot of things about that game I didn’t like, but I did like how the boys played. We did run out of gas in each period, but that wasn’t a huge factor. There were some big players slamming our guys around pretty good, and I saw a lot of little extra chipping that didn’t get caught, but the team didn’t let up driving for the puck. Our captain came up to the other captain’s shoulder - if that, but the boys still kept the pressure up and made the big guys cough up the puck in the neutral zone. I don’t like ties, and I don’t like to make mistakes. Today I was two for two..... What I do like, is how well the team played and practiced this week.....Nice job gentlemen.