Cold as Ice

It's been a cold week, with bitter wind, and lots of snow. The team worked hard all week at practice as we focused on speeding up our game around the net. With good shooters firing shots from the points we've seen a lot of loose pucks in front of the net, but too often fail to quickly capitalize on the opportunities. We worked hard on getting to the net quickly on shots, and moving the puck quickly to the goalie and defense's weak side. This weekend we got three chances to see how this would add to our game. We won two out of the three challenges, but Sunday's second contest of the evening was not as productive as the early afternoon away game. A lot of this was attributed to tired legs after playing a very intense game then cautiously making our way through blowing snow and icy roads to head back to our home rink for game number three. Saturday's first game of the weekend was evident of the foreword's newly found mission to fore-check heavily in the corners and work with the defense to cycle the puck around our opponent, but there was still no lack of productive rushes by our defense. Our goalie was spectacular as usual and made numerous appearances and great plays far from the confines of the blue paint. Early this season we learned how important skills are to controlling the puck and increasing opportunities through good fore-checking and quick passing. Speed and endurance have become critical factors on our rather short bench, where every member of the team must contribute to the effort. Our last game of the weekend was a cautious reminder that when we get tired and we stop playing as a team – the passing suffers as do the opportunities to move the puck quickly and effectively down the ice. All in all other than being a very wintry weekend, the hockey was great, and the team did very well. Two big games against tough division teams does take a lot of effort, and each player on our team displayed a lot of effort and a lot of heart all through each minute of every game. As I have said throughout this season, each game shows improvement and this effort has been the major contributing factor to our success as a team and each player's development as very fine hockey players. As the season moves on I am also noticing an increase in orange apparel at our hockey games, not only from the players, but also the fans. This I have noted, but dare not comment further on.