Monday Clinic

So … yeah … not my most impressive showing at the clinic …

On the plus-side, I have a new stick.  The old one was wood, no flex at all and cost $19.99.  New one’s composite, has some flex which may help my shot and was $69 – which is still on the cheap side, but it’s much lighter.

Skating drill was goal to goal pretty fast five times – we were divided into two groups.  Fourth time coach sent the twos off quicker and told them to catch the ones – I was a one and didn’t get caught.  Fifth was the reverse – I also didn’t catch anyone.  Then backwards to the far goal line.

Then we paired up for some passing drills.  Two of us skate to the far end, trying to stay even with about two stick-lengths between us, passing the whole way.

First time down, I flubbed my first pass and put it behind him.  Second time we did well and made all our passes except the last one – that was almost at the goal line and he wasn’t expecting me to send it back to him.  I think I did okay the rest of the times we did this – we weren’t trying to skate at full speed, so that helped me a lot.

For the rest of the clinic, we did a three man breakout drill.  Two goalies, coach along the boards with a pile of pucks and us in three lines at the red-line. 

Coach dumps the puck in and we’re supposed to chase it – the goalie goes behind the net to stop it, but might miss, so the theory is whoever’s fastest gets behind the net, where the puck should be, and the other two head for the boards. 

If the goalie’s missed the puck behind the net, we’re supposed to send it back to the player behind the net and start a breakout – down the ice to the far goal, passing, and then shoot on the far net.

Well, two things happened to me in this drill:

First, it just killed me.  I wound up on the bench about ten minutes before the clinic was over.  See, I’m still pretty much slower than everyone else, so where they might go half- or three-quarter-speed into the zone and down the ice, I have to go full speed just to keep up.  After a few repetitions of this, I was wiped out and had to sit for a while.

Second, and this happened on, I think, my first time, I had a bit of an impact. 

We enter the offensive zone and the guy with the puck passes it to me, but I miss it and it heads to the goal-line, left of the net.  So I skate after it at full-speed and I’m about to the goal-line when I realize I have a problem.

I’m going full-speed, the pucks right there, the boards are in front of me, the plays to the right and I can’t stop on my left foot.  So I could turn left and stop on my right foot, but that’s away from the play – I’m on the puck and I’ve got two guys crashing the net, so I should get it to them.  Or I can try to stop on my left foot and get the puck into play.  What did I do?

I muttered a copulative-verb and skated full-tilt into the boards, missing the puck entirely.

I bounced off the boards and landed on my hands and knees staring straight down at the stationary puck with my stick flat on the ice in my left hand.

Now, I don’t know how this looked to the other guys, but here’s what I was thinking at this point: I need to get the puck to somebody.  So I reached for it with my right hand, dimly realized that would be a hand-pass, and then shuffle the shaft of my stick into it to knock it toward the net.

As I’m doing this, one of the other guys skates over and asks if I’m okay, to which I reply: “Ib tieing ‘oo ‘it ‘oo ‘uh ‘ucking ‘uck.” 

I have yet to master speaking with the mouthpiece in, so translate that yourself.

Why didn’t I turn right instead of thinking about stopping, take the puck behind the net with me and pop it out in front to a teammate?  Because I’m an ‘ucking ‘oron.

The rest of the drill went better for me, though. 

I’d say I was about 50/50 for passes I made being on target or reasonably so.  I made my share that were off target, but everyone did.  On receiving passes, mostly they were too far ahead of me – which is reasonable and expected when you consider my speed.  They’re passing where they think I’ll be, but they’re expecting me to be moving faster than I do.

This was actually a fun drill and I wish I’d been able to finish it, but the repetition of full-speed from center ice into the zone then pushing it all the way down wore me out.  Especially when I had to push even harder when a pass was ahead of me. 

Some of those I got, though, even though I had to skate hard and stretch off-balance to reach them.  It was good to have to push myself that hard – now I just have to push myself into better shape.

T’s Second Game

This morning’s game for T was a league game, the first league game of the new season.

Period 1 – Shift 1

It looks like he took what his coach and I told him about skating harder to heart, because he really did pick up the pace today.  He skated hard on all his shifts and in this shift he not only skated hard in general, but chased the puck hard to the boards and helped get the puck away from the other team.

Period 1 – Shift 2

Much more aggressive today, he went after the puck more often.  He mostly missed it, but was able to block the opposing player from getting it, so that’s still a win.

On one play, he and another member of his team got the puck at the right point of the defensive zone and it got sent down the ice.  Everyone took off after it, of course, but I was amazed that T was the first one from his team to cross the opposing blue line.  He’s usually last and this is a huge accomplishment for him.

Period 2 – shift 2

This shift started with a goal for T’s team.  HIs league doesn’t track +/- for the players, but I’m going to start tracking it for him, so he develops an idea of how that works.  He was –1 yesterday, so he’s back to 0 now.

Later, in the offensive zone, the puck wrapped around the boards and T was able to stop it.  No one was near him, so he had a bit of time and he controlled the puck, checked where everyone was and made a decent pass to center ice.  I was really proud to see him react intelligently and do just what he should have.

Near the end of this shift he missed an opportunity just because he’s still pretty slow.  His center took the puck and got pushed to the left of the net.  He sent the puck right across the top of the crease while the goalie was locked against the pipe.  If T had been faster and been able to just get to the side of the net, the puck would have bounced right off him into the goal. 

Period 3 – Shift 1

The little runt really does have some strength on him.  The other team had the puck, so T got next to the opposing player and bodied him off the puck. 

After his team took a penalty, T was out there for the penalty kill.  Here’s where we see that he needs to understand the game better, on top of just playing it … see, he played his position at right wing. 

So in his own zone on the penalty kill he’s over at the right-wing boards instead of in front of the net.

Then, after his team ices the puck, one of the other team’s players set up behind his own net to start the play and damned if T wasn’t all the way in there putting pressure on him.  I did mention to him that if you’re going to forecheck on the penalty kill you need to have enough speed to get back to your own zone.

Junior Hockey

After T’s game today there was a Metropolitan Junior Hockey League game between the Florida Eels and the Space Coast Hurricanes.

I saw the Eels play a couple weeks ago at the Kissimmee rink, but I couldn’t stay for the entire game.  This afternoon I was able to watch the game from the start and it was awesome!

These are fifteen- to twenty-year old kids who clearly love the game of hockey.  They’re fast, skilled and they play hard!  In both games that I saw there were some fantastic goals, some great saves and a lot of hard checks. In today’s game, there was even a bit of a brawl that included the entirety of both lines on the ice. 

It started the way that sort of thing typically does, with a breakaway and the defenseman taking the offense off-balance and into the goalie.  So, of course, someone has to shove the guy who knocked the goalie down.  So someone has to shove the guy who shoved his teammate.  And on from there until there’s ten guys pummeling each other in the crease. 

As I watched this game, I started comparing it to the last two Lightning games I attended and, frankly, the Lightning come up short.

So let’s talk price.  Today’s game cost me nothing to attend, but that was because we got three free tickets as part of T’s game.  If I’d had to pay, it would have cost me $5 – the last two Lightning games I went to were only $10, but that’s because they were with groups.  Going alone would have cost a minimum of $20-$30 per ticket.

Today I had a slice of pizza and a Coke during the game.  At the Tampa games I told my son “no” when he wanted cotton candy, because it was $7.  A cheesesteak was $9.  Fries were $6.  My slice and a coke?  Three bucks.  I can’t get just the Coke for three bucks in Tampa.

So, sure, there’s a difference in the level of play between the two, but what these kids lack in experience, they make up for with enthusiasm.  And some of these kids will be moving on the NHL, not all of them with a stop at college, so make your own guess at how many levels there are between their play.

And what did I get for my $5 seat vs. the $25 ($10) NHL seat?

Well, here’s my view at the last Lightning game:

It wasn’t quite the last row of the upper-bowl:

See?  There were worse seats I could have been in.

Here’s my view of the ice this afternoon:

And I could have gone down and walked around right on the glass to watch the game.

Um … no, those aren’t the players, they’re the cheerleaders/ice-dancers.  That’s another plus, the cheerleaders at the Lightning games don’t skate.

These cheerleaders were one bad part about the game, though.  I was enjoying them right up until the point that I realized they were probably in the same age group as the players … then it became icky … and a little depressing that I’m old enough for it to be icky. 

Damn it.

Anyway, I had a much better hockey experience at this game than at a Lightning game.  I think I got a much better value from this game than any NHL arena. 

Another big difference was the crowd.  No, there weren’t 10,000 people there, but those that were had an interest in the game beyond just being a fan.  I was surrounded by a couple hundred people who were the friends and family of the players.  When they cheered or clapped, it was because they felt it, not because the jumbotron told them to.

There’s something awesome about watching a game where the lady next to you is yelling a player’s name, not because she memorized the roster, but because she cooked him breakfast that morning. 

This was the most fun I’ve had at a hockey game in a long time.  If you have one of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League teams near you, or really any of the junior leagues, you should check out a game. 

This was good hockey.

T’s First Game of the New Season

So T had his first game of the new season this afternoon and we got to see whether the extra skating he’s done over the last month and a half has really improved his skills or not.  It wasn’t a league game at the rink his team’s at – one thing I like about his coach is that he arranges a couple extra games each season.  This one was at the Iceplex in Rockledge and, I think, they were playing that rink’s squirt/mite travel team – at least that’s what I heard.

It looked a little one-sided at the first face-off, since T’s team is pee-wee.  His team’s starting lineup seemed to be twice as big as the other team and I think the weight-ratio on the centers was 3-to-1.  Then the puck dropped.

Those little buggers can skate.

So T’s team lost, shut-out in fact, but T himself had an awesome game.  I think he touched the puck more in this game than he did all last season and he was definitely more aggressive and his skills had improved.

Pregame

He stretched.  Not everyone on his team does and this is the first time he’s done it.  I think it’s an indication he’s taking this thing a bit more seriously.

He didn’t wear his cup.  His excuse was that he doesn’t have the underwear to hold it over at his mom’s, but he also doesn’t really like to wear it.  I swear, I’m going to spend a few hours at skate and shoots just to learn how to lift the puck, then I’m going to nail the boy-child in the ‘nads just to teach him an important lesson.

Period 1 – Shift 1

In his own zone with the puck in the center about at the top of the circles, he challenged another player pretty good.  He missed the puck, but he took his man off it and kept him out of the play.  A teammate got the puck and cleared the zone. 

Period 1 – shift 2

He wasn’t ready on the faceoff – he was just sort of standing there and not prepared to react.  So when the puck came his way, he didn’t move and the other team got it.

Even in the stands I could hear his coach yelling at him to skate harder.  This is a serious problem – he just doesn’t put his all into it on his shifts.  I’ve noticed it, his coach has noticed it … and I’m not sure how to address it.  I’m going to have a talk with his coach tomorrow and let him know that I have no issue with him sitting the boy if he doesn’t put in enough effort.

In the offensive zone the puck went around the boards.  He got there on the right-wing and kept it in, which is pretty good for him.  He went down on this play, but he kept his eye on the puck and waved his stick at it enough to keep the other team off and move it back to the boards.  The puck finally went to the point, where his team kept it in the zone.

Period 2 – Shift 1

Again he went down (he’s falling a lot, but is skating harder, so that may be why) and again he used his stick and his body to keep the puck away from the other team.  This is a big change from last season – when he fell then, he’d usually just lie there for a while.

One of his teammates took the puck up the right boards with T following behind.  As they crossed the blue-line, T slowed up and let his teammate take it in for a shot.  He should have kept going so he’d be available to pick up a rebound or a drop-pass – or even pushed harder and gone to the slot even with the other guy so there’d be a passing opportunity.

Period 2 – Shift 2

I noticed still that he’s not skating as hard as he can, but he is more aggressive and he’s touching the puck more.

His team took a penalty on his shift so he wound up out there for the first part of the penalty kill.  He not only touched the puck in his zone, but he cleared it.  This is the first time that’s he’s gotten enough on the puck to clear it – I think that’s an awesome accomplishment.

He did one thing on this shift that I see a lot of the kids in his league doing: They’ll touch the puck, do something with it and then turn away from where the puck is rather casually without really keeping track of it. 

Period 3 – Shift 1

I noticed him reaching for the puck a couple times.  He didn’t get it, but he stretched a lot to try.  Last season, if the puck wasn’t right near him, maybe a couple feet from his feet, he wouldn’t try for it.  Today he started reaching out with his stick and this is going to really increase the radius where he can have some impact on the game.

Period 3 – Shift 2

He did skate hard in this shift – at least once he really dug in to get to the puck and keep it in the zone.

Period 3 – Shift 3

In his zone, he got into it along the boards and really dug in there to get the puck.  He got it out and passed it … there was no one where he passed to, but still …

So that was the game.  And as I look at what I wrote about it, I can honestly say that he was involved in this one game more than he was in all the games last season – even the things he did wrong are kind of good, because at least he’s getting in there.

Friday Skate & Shoot

A simple skate & shoot last night and I practiced some of the things I need to work on.

First I worked on something I noticed at Monday’s clinic.  From a standing start, I can start moving forward or backward pretty well, but at Monday’s clinic I was trying to step side-to-side if the passes weren’t right to me. 

So I spent some time, off and on, going from standing to skating short distances right and left.  I still don’t think I have it right, I think – it takes me too much time to start and I’m quite off-balance. 

I also spent some time working on my shooting, which has little force behind it yet, but is starting to stay on target and I think my form’s better.  And I did some passing with one of the guys from the Monday clinic.

At this rink, they have the kids on one end and adults on the other with cones along the center line, so I spent some time weaving through the cones with a puck.  I was having a lot of trouble with this to start with and then realized what was wrong when my inner-retard spoke up:

“Where’s the puck, dumb ass?”

“It’s behind me … oh …”

Yeah, I’d been practicing my shot and dragging the puck behind me and that carried over into skating for some reason.  I was trying to skate through the cones with the puck a foot or more behind my feet.  I still don’t know why I did that little bit of nonsense, but things went much better after I started skating with the puck where it should be.

I’m not the Slowest! (except sometimes)

The skating drill at tonight’s clinic was an important milestone for me: I wasn’t the last one across the ice in one of the drills. Yay!

So skating drill tonight was goal-line to blue-line forward, then return backward; then the same to the red-line; then the same to the far blue-line.  Then to the far goal-line and back, both forward.

It was at the far goal-line that I realized I’d made the turn and there were others behind me.  Maybe I’m getting faster .. maybe they just weren’t skating as hard … don’t really care which, I’ll go with feeling good about it either way.

Then we did goal-line to goal-line and back three times … backwards.

I am not not-the-slowest going backwards.  I am, in fact, slower than the goalie.  That’s right … I’m slower than the guy with 500 pounds of equipment on him. 

Also, I don’t turn well backward.  How do I know this?  Well, since I’m the slowest, it meant that everyone else reached the goal-line and started coming back before I did.  (anyone see where this is going?)

I’m doing what I’m supposed to, looking over my shoulders frequently, but I seem to have trouble seeing directly behind me.  And when I finally do see him, he’s close and we’re both moving.  And I was unprepared to maneuver, so there was a bit of a collision.  I went down and he kept going, which was rather disappointing.  I mean, if I’m going to go down after colliding with someone, I’d at least like it to be mutual, you know?

The hockey drills were interesting.

First off, we ran an offensive drill with two defensemen and one forward.  Passing and shooting while the coach put pressure on whoever had the puck – it’s a bit sad that at three-on-one he still could’ve kicked our asses if he’d chosen to, I think.

So we all line up and the first three go in.  After a bit we cycle, so right-defense moves to forward, forward moves to left-defense, and left-defense moves back to the line, while the next in line takes over at right-defense. 

This drill uncovered a serious problem I have – I kept trying to walk.  At defense, I found myself trying to take steps side-to-side instead of skating.  So I need to work on moving left/right by skating instead of thinking I can step back and forth.

For the second drill we line up in two groups at opposite blue-lines, along the boards and facing the far blue-line.  First skater from one group skates to the far blue-line and turns, taking a pass from the other group and skates down to take a shot on the net.  As he gets the pass, the passer from the second group takes off and does the same, but taking his pass from the other group.  On and on.

Of the three times I did this, I missed the pass I was supposed to receive twice – but I’m going to blame the passers.  The passes were ahead of me … okay, so that makes it my fault for not skating faster to get them, but still …

The three passes I gave, though, seemed to be on target.  I didn’t notice any of the receivers having to stretch too far or really work to get to them.  So I’m happy with that, because I’m realistic enough to know that 1) I’m not fast enough to skate with the puck and B) my shot sucks – so my best bet to help the team if I touch the puck is to pass it and it’ll be good to at least be accurate about it.

Boy-child’s Draft Skate

The boy-child’s draft skate was tonight, so we got to see him in context with the other players in his league again and there was some improvement over the first draft – which I didn’t blog about because it was still close to the whole divorce-thing starting and I wasn’t doing much of anything.

Suffice to say that in his first draft he was the slowest, suckiest one on the ice – much like his old man is in his lessons.  So, after a season of play and about six weeks of skating three to five days a week since the end of that first season, was there an improvement?

Some.

He’s still slow – both skating and reaction time – but his skills, in general, have definitely improved and in several drills he was not the worst one out there.  That’s an improvement over the first time and not bad, I think, for just a few months. So what drills was he not the worst at?

First one I noticed was skating down the ice – hop over the blue line, hit the knees across the center line and then hop over the other blue line.  He had trouble getting up off his knees, but so did lots of other kids and he made it up faster than some of them. 

Next was skating backwards – goal-line to goal-line – still in the bottom quarter, but not dead last.

He did best at the drill where he had to skate to the center-line and stop then step sideways back to the blue-line, reverse direction and side-step back to center.  I’d say he was in the top half of this one – a lot of the kids had trouble stepping instead of skating.

So he’ll probably be picked last or close to it again in this draft based on overall performance, but he’s worked hard and gotten a lot better.

Monday Clinic

Tonight’s clinic started in what I’m going to start calling The Bad Way – that is, goal-line to goal-line skating drills that I’ve described in two of the last three clinic posts.  Not going to elaborate further again.

However, they didn’t wear me out as much as previously.  I’m wondering if it might have something to do with the enormous amount of water I drank between noon and skating – maybe there’s something to that whole hydration-thing.

Drill tonight was shots again – first dragging the puck in from the blue line and taking a shot, then something different.

Coach set up on the right boards at the blue line with a pile of pucks – seems most of his drills consist of him standing in one place with a pile of pucks and making us shag them.  It’s good to be the coach.

Anyway, two lines of us – one at the left boards and the other at center, but on the blue line. 

Coach dumps the puck in around the boards – skater at the left boards goes in and gets it, skater at center heads for the net.  Shot, pass, deflection-attempt, whatever and then back to the end of the other line.

On my first attempt I was on the boards.  I tried to stop the puck with my skates and forgot how to stand, which resulted in me flat on my back on the ice. 

Second or third attempt from center and I’m trying to screen the goalie and maybe deflect the shot, but the guy taking the shot lifted it a bit. 

Note to Self: Puck-deflection with ‘nads inadvisable.

Not really – it hit me on the outside of the thigh about two inches below the level of Mr. Johnson and the Boys, but it was the first time I’ve taken a puck anywhere, so it was surprising.  And made me glad I remembered my cup, just in case.

Will now always remember my cup – pending divorce or not, I may need those again someday.

My “shot”, and I use the term with much derision and mocking, showed itself again to be weak.  I need to figure out a way to strengthen my right elbow – I broke it a few years ago and it twinges quite a bit taking a shot. 

I also discovered, when stopping the dumped-in puck along the boards, that it’s difficult for me to see a puck right at my feet.  I stopped them all after that first fall, but had to look around to find them again – kept getting lost under me and squirting away.  Since I’m not heavy at all, I’m going to blame this on all the gear.

I felt really good after the clinic – tired, but not completely worn out like previous ones.  I think I might target trying to play in the Monday game starting in February. 

Monday Clinic

Last night’s clinic started much the same as my first one – that is to say, lots of end-to-end skating drills.  This time, though, I seem to be in a little better shape – I’m still out of breath and dragging at the end, but at least I was able to continue with the rest of the clinic and didn’t wuss out and leave the ice.

The rest of the drill concentrated on shooting, which I haven’t practiced very often, even at skate & shoots … which is probably a good thing, since I apparently do everything wrong.  Now that I’ve had a bit of instruction and demonstration, I can practice without, one hopes, developing any bad habits out of ignorance.

Now I just have to remember to get my left wrist at my right hip, puck behind me, both arms moving forward, pivot the stick when my arms are fully extended, point the stick where I want the puck to go, but in line with the puck not in front of my body and, oh yeah, shift my weight to my left foot and get the right one back … all while trying to skate … and not run into the goalie after … or the net … or the boards … and with five other guys trying to take me off the play …

Yeah.

The drill was simple in explanation: start at the blue line with a puck, skate in and take the shot from the hash marks.  Keeping in mind all that stuff above.  Except for the five-guys, which, in my case, is probably not necessary anyway – I can see it now: I’ll be playing my first game, take the puck over the blue line and someone on the other team will just wave everyone off and yell: “No, let him, just watch … wait for it … ooohhh, that’s gonna leave a mark!”

Second drill of the night came out of the coach’s sadistic-bastard bag. 

Start at the blue line and he dumps the puck in around the boards.  Skate into the zone, pick up the puck, then take it, hard, down the ice to the other zone for a shot on goal … then pick up another puck from a pile at that blue line and take it, hard, back to the other zone for a shot on that goal.  Then back in line.  Repeat.

After a few of these we, or at least I, added practice for the skills of wheezing heavily in line and chanting “please god let this be the last one” over and over again.

I did bail on this one and sit on the bench, but I’m pretty sure it was on the last one and I wouldn’t have been up again, so I consider this a completed clinic for me.  I’m especially happy about this because it started with the same skating drill that wiped me out the first time.

So I’m going to really have to work on my shot, such as it is, and figure out if I’ll ever really have a decent one.  A few years ago I broke my right elbow and I have a bit of carpal tunnel in my right hand because of my work as a computer programmer, so I wind up with pain in those two places after only a few shots.  I’m not sure yet if strengthening those areas will help in this respect.

Another thing I learned is that my stick sucks.  It has no flex to it at all, or at least is very difficult to flex.  I’m not sure why this is, since I had clear criteria when I bought it (“Hi, show me your cheapest stick, please.”)  So I think that’ll be the next piece of equipment I upgrade, both for me and the boy-child.