The first game of the season was definitely not what I had expected. The team we put on the ice today has yet to have one practice with everyone on the ice at the same time. The flu and injuries have taken their toll on practices. We need to get the whole team together to work as a unit, even if this means some players only show up to watch the practice to see what we are working on. There was a lack of communication on the ice, and more than a few car wrecks where everyone was going after the puck. This began to improve in the second period, as did our goal scoring. We did come from behind very well. With only two lines there were no ice time issues to deal with. There was more than enough playing time for everyone. The final score was 8 to 11. It looked more like a lacrosse game score than hockey one. We lost, but I could see that even though we have a lot to work on, we are playing better than I thought we would. This is not a bad starting point to work up from. Our goalie played an unbelievable game. The saves were spectacular and many were unbelievable showstoppers. Eric had 59 saves. The opposing goalie had 37. There was no shortage of shots on goal. Our biggest problem was breaking out. We spent 70 percent of the game in our own defensive zone. When we did get the puck down to the offensive end and shot on goal, we proved that we could score. We need to work on “offensive-defensive” play. Our wingers played too deep in our end, and left the points open too often. This also limited the amount of turn over situations that we could capitalize on. There were a lot of loose pucks we should have tossed back in the net, but we didn’t get to the net fast enough sometimes after a shot on goal created a rebound situation. The other team liked to cherry-pick on our blue line. This is something I don’t often see from a team that is ahead by a few goals. That was kind of different and not really my favorite style of hockey. I still prefer a solid breakout as a team. That is what we need to focus on. If we had kept the puck in the offensive zone the cherry pickers would have not been an issue – in fact it would have given us a man up advantage. We need to avoid too many penalty-killing situations, but we still need to make good checks when appropriate. Bad checks don’t help us. Good checks give us the puck. We got beat a lot in the neutral zone, and left our goalie open to a lot of one on 0 and two on 0 runs because we failed to lock up the puck in the offensive end. We looked tired near the end of the second period. This was expected, but we did not look as tired as I thought we would. The team did play right up to the last second and didn’t give up even though everyone was getting worn down and tired. For the first game of the season under the conditions we have been facing we did better than expected. This is a good team to work with, and I see a lot of potential in our players as individual as well as team players.
Everyone gave 100 % of effort. Now we need to review and improve our game one step at a time. The goal is not to rack up wins, but to become a great team. I think that is worthy goal, but this will take a lot of hard work, effort, and heart. That’s what makes great teams. That’s what makes great hockey players. That’s what makes great hockey.
Coach Heldt's Notes
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Great Goaltending Steals the Show
Posted by Coach Heldt at 5:24 p.m.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment