I was sort of ambivalent about whether I wanted to play in this tournament, mostly because I was too lazy to find a team, but also because I wasn't sure whether it would end up conflicting with a ScrumMaster training course I wanted to take on Thursday and Friday. I decided to continue being lazy and leave it up to the fates.

As it turns out, the fates (or rather, Tina) asked me if I wanted to play for the Senators, and since I knew Nielle and Shelly and Katrin were already playing for them, I said yes. The fates stayed with me tonight, as my ScrumMaster training let out early, and I didn't hit any rush hour traffic between King of Prussia and Bristol. I actually arrived at the rink a bit early instead of halfway through our 5:45 game.

Tina isn't playing this weekend, so it turns out that there are only 3 or 4 actual Senators on our team. Some of us knew each other from our regular teams or pickup games, but overall we're a pretty random crew. We figured out lines about 30 seconds before the game started; Leanne and I were one wing pair, and Lily and... someone whose name I need to learn tomorrow made up the other.

There were three centers, including Shelly, whom I thought Leanne and I played our best with. I think it was Karen who was out there with us when we scored our first (and only) goal, however. It was fairly early in the first period, and there was a scrum in front of the net. The rebound squirted out to my side, and I was able to poke at it until it went in. (I poked like three times, and almost didn't bother continuing because I thought for sure the ref was going to whistle it dead, but it was never covered—just blocked by the goalie's stick the first couple times.)

I think it was between the second and third periods that Lily moved back to D and one of the D took her spot at left wing. I came off after my first or second shift and yelled "LEFT WING! That's YOU... whose name I don't know!" (I later learned it was Kristin, and that I should probably take the time to learn EVERYONE'S name before we play our next game.) A couple things happened as a result of this change: Lily obviously felt more comfortable, Kristin turned out to be a fast and amazingly tenacious forechecking forward, and I missed several breakout passes up the boards in a row. (Lily turned out to be very good at winging the puck right up the boards, hard, and I couldn't seem to catch it with my stick or my skates.)

I also managed to trip over Lily at one point, causing a spectacular fall and a declaration from Shelly that I'd already used up my one ride to the emergency room with her. I think I had intercepted a pass by reaching my stick out, and the puck had bounced off it and was headed toward the blue line. Since I was already fully extended, I couldn't quite get to it in time before it slid over the line.

I was very focused on GETTING THAT DAMN ELUSIVE PUCK, and had just knocked it back into the zone at an awkward angle when I skated into Lily. I hadn't seen her in position just behind the blue line, and I tripped over her right skate with mine, landing hard on my left hip with my still-injured-from-the-April-tournament-in-Greenfield-that-I-never-got-around-to-writing-about shoulder and arm extended past my head. I looked like I was swimming the side stroke on the ice. (Judging from the sore red mark on my hip, there will be a bruise tomorrow.)

There were some spectacular plays on D, and a few more chances in front of Queenston's net, but the game ended with Queenston up 2-1. Nielle will be joining us at forward tomorrow, and Michelle (one of the D) will not be able to make it, so I think we'll have 13 again. I think Al and the Beaner are going to come watch, too.

Posted by Lori at 08:25 PM | Link to this Entry

I find that the longer I'm away from this blog, the harder it is to get back to writing, probably because it's difficult to know where to pick up again. It's like scrapbooking: the further behind you get, the less likely you are to resume. Rather than fretting about it for much longer, I decided to just post some observations and hope that these kick-start some more regular posting over here, since now's a good time for me to write—I'm in the process of finding a new job, and in the meantime I have more time to write about (and play) hockey.

This past Freeze season was a bit of an off (I originally said odd, and that would probably apply too) one for us, especially after winning the championship last year; as I mentioned in earlier posts, we lost several players at the top end and and gained a few from the D team, so it was really a rebuilding year.

I was disappointed to finish the season with NO GOALS (arrgh!), but I did make some progress skillwise. My shot got harder and higher, for one thing—although knowing that I have a decent shot now just made the no goals thing all the more frustrating.

I think Billy knew it, and noticed that the shot I have in practice (which is usually executed at full speed or nearly so) is not the shot I get a chance to use in games. In games I'm usually camped out down low, staying 1-5 feet outside the crease until the puck is definitely over the blue line. (I'm still not fast, exactly, but I can clear the zone quickly when necessary, and I feel like it's a good idea to stay in front of the net until I'm forced to leave it.)

Staying down low until the last second gotten me lots of chances, but most of them went right into the goalie's pads or glove. Billy had a solution though: He said that since I was down low so often, I needed to master a kind of snap shot that goes high, fast, so I'm shooting over a goalie who's dropped to cover the crease.

It took a bit of practice, but I can now execute it pretty reliably both on and off the ice. I actually miss *over* the net more often than not now; I've lost a few pucks over the glass, and two over the chain link fence I shoot against behind my house. (I have no idea what the neighbors did with them.) I'm looking forward to trying the shot in actual games now, since I only learned it with a couple games to go at the end of the season.

The other big thing I learned this season (and to many it will seem like a little thing, but to me it's a milestone) is how to kick the puck onto my stick and keep going. I can't do it every time, but to my shock, I can do it fairly regularly. It makes a huge difference in my puck handling in that I'm able to recover from bad passes or my own mistakes.

Oh, and can I just say that it was nice to be the good example a few times this season (as in "next time, do what Lori did and cut across the ice to shorten the pass") instead of the bad one ("STAY AT YOUR POINT!")? Yay me! Looking forward to mixed-level, refereed pickup this summer, and especially to the regular Freeze season in the fall!

Posted by Lori at 12:19 PM | Link to this Entry

In general, I'm a fan of staying up at my point. I can cycle*, sort of, but I'm totally fine with staying high most of the time in the defensive zone. I'm not great at getting control of the puck when it comes out to the point, but I'm fairly decent defensively and can usually block a shot or keep my check from doing much other than popping the puck forward blindly.

More importantly, by staying high I'm not clogging up the slot and causing confusion, and I'm backing up the opposing D if we get control of the puck. (This is something Billy taught us; by moving out of the defensive zone aggressively, we force the D to back up instead of trying to hold the blue line.)

It also happens that I'm a fan of forechecking. I've forced lots of turnovers by forechecking in the offensive zone, some of which have even resulted in goals. I usually *don't* forecheck in the defensive zone, for the reason stated above: namely, I'm covering the point and trying to avoid clogging up the slot and confusing our D. There are exceptions, however, and this is one:

The girl carrying the puck was their slowest, most tentative player, and yet we kept backing up whenever she got the puck. Maybe it was her strange skating style that froze us all (we tended to stop and stare at her, slack-jawed), but whatever it was, I finally got sick of just letting her walk around unchallenged. I left my point and and skated straight at her, offensive-zone forechecking-style... and she passed to Carol. :-)

*Incidentally, this video also shows me cycling a bit; Carol had come up to the point at the beginning of the clip, so I'd covered the slot. We switched when the D sent the puck around the boards.

Posted by Lori at 10:47 AM | Link to this Entry