T’s Game (playoff)

After starting the season with some losses and poor play, T’s team has gone 4-0-1 in their last five games to finish the season (including today’s “playoff” game) with 11 points and leading the four team league.  So they go into next weekend’s championship game with home-ice advantage – of course, all four teams play on the same ice all the time, so the other guys have that too, but it’s all good.

He’ll actually have no break between seasons this time as the Spring season starts April 5th – so he’ll play his championship game, then go the next weekend for his draft skate into the next season.  This has two downsides: A) I won’t be able to get him extra ice time between seasons like I did in December/January, and 2) I had to come up with $370 rather unexpectedly today. 

Both of these things suck.

But on to more fun and interesting things:

Period 1 – Shift 1

T was bragging before the game about how he was going to put forth more effort than he ever had before out there today … and he actually did.  He had a good first shift, worked hard, positioned himself well … at one point, he was really well-positioned in the neutral zone and one of his teammates actually passed the puck to him.  He missed it, but it was still a deliberate pass to T and not just a dump out of the defensive zone. 

Period 1 – Shift 2

Again in the defensive zone, the left-wing passed to him.  He was able to stop this one, but wasn’t quick enough about doing something with it and the other team took the puck.

Puck handling is something he needs to work on, as he skated hard to get to the puck later in this shift, but couldn’t keep it or pass it quickly enough.  Another turnover.

Since most of these kids can’t jump over the boards yet, T needs to learn to give way to the players coming onto the ice during a line-change – bit of a muddle as he was coming off and blocked his replacement at the door.

Period 2 – Shift 1

Offensive zone along the boards, he’s able to get his body in front of a defender and keep him away from the puck. 

Later in the defensive zone, there’re three of the other team in the high slot with the puck … T skates right through the center without doing a thing.  The words: “What the fuck are you doing?!” were almost yelled.

Period 2 – Shift 2

I have no words for this shift.  He was simply awesome. 

Face-off in the defensive zone, puck goes behind the net to the other side and the opposing team comes out with it … T’s there and puts a body on the kid to take him off the puck and into the boards.  Puck’s loose because of him.

Other team gets the puck back and to the high slot … T’s coming across the center as fast as he can, stick on the ice and outstretched to block anything that comes.

Player’s hanging around the net looking to cherry-pick … T’s there and all over him like a latex bodysuit … okay, unfortunate metaphor, but you get the idea.  A little shoving and this kid can’t concentrate on where the puck is to do any good.

Other team gets the puck to the point and try to skate it into the slot … T comes out of nowhere and leans into the puck carrier.  They both go down and the puck’s loose.

And something else he did that I actually can’t remember because there was so much. 

And, to top it off, after all that mucking about on defense, his team got the puck on a breakaway and scored.

I think I can honestly say that without T’s work in the defensive zone that wouldn’t have happened and, in fact, the other team might have scored.  That he contributed so much on a shift with a goal is awesome … that it happened to be the game-winning goal is icing (not the bad kind of icing).

Period 2 – Shift 3

Puck carrier crosses the blue-line and T’s on him, turning tight with him and really stretching to reach the puck … who the hell is this kid and what did he do with my son?

Period 3 – Shift 1

Still working hard, still aggressive. Came up on the puck-carrier and took the ice away from him.  Puck’s loose.

And then, he’s behind and to one side of his own goal … teammate behind the goal, teammate toward the boards.  He gets the puck and makes the best pass I’ve ever seen from him … right on the tape … of the opposing player in front of his net …

Oh, well.  Not the end of the world, but I keep telling him: “It takes a lot of atta-boys to make up for one oh-shit.”

Period 3 – Shift 2

Still aggressive and skating hard all the time.  I’m really proud of him.

Then #7 on the other team gets the puck at the blue-line and he’s nearby.  He seems to hesitate … he doesn’t go after her.

Yes, her.  #7 is a girl (hockey-chicks are so cool) and I think it’s the girl who played on his team last season.  I think he gave her a pass because he likes her.  Got to talk to him about that … I don’t care if it’s his girlfriend out there, he needs to stand her up.

Back on the Ice – Finally (and with Flat-Bottom V)

In looking back in this blog, I see, depressingly, that the last post about me and not T was January 24.  And, yes, that was the last time I was on the ice at all – nearly two months. But today I finally got out to skate today – and with the Flat-bottom V sharpening I got for T a few weeks ago.

Because I normally get a 1/2” hollow, they started me out with the 100/50 to try.

All I can say is … wow …

Literally, the first step onto the ice with this sharpening is a noticeable difference.  There’s a distinct change in the “feel” of the skate against the ice – it’s smoother with significantly less drag.

A few strides to the blue line and then coasting makes the change even more noticeable, as there seems to be virtually no loss in momentum compared to a traditional sharpening.

In the turn, the edges bite and there’s no sense of slipping or scraping at all.  Doing crossovers I’ve always had a feeling of losing my inside edge a bit as I put my outside foot down, but that doesn’t seem to happen with this.

Stopping takes some getting used to, as there’s a much different feel to it.  It seems like the edges bite more, but less deeply, if that makes any sense.  I was able to stop in the same distance, but with less effort and a feeling of still being on top of the ice instead of digging into it.

T’s Game

So, again, I haven’t even been on the ice due to money and time. :( Hopefully that’ll change starting next week and I can get back to at least skating and maybe some skate & shoots, if not the weekly clinic.

T had a good warm up, for him, at least.  He caught both passes to him during the warm up and kept control of the second one the whole time instead of over skating and having to go back.  His passes to others were right on target, if a bit underpowered, but that’s conditioning, not skill.

His shots were on target, but were slow, week and telegraphed.  He doesn’t have a lot of power on his shot, so he needs to learn to be sneaky instead.

This was a 4-1 win and the coach was happy with the team.  He has a parent counting passes each period and counted 20-9-10 passes today.  Curiously, the scoring really came together in the third, as it was 1-1 at the end of two.

I question the count a bit, or at least its effect on team-play, as I was really disappointed in the first two periods.  It seemed like they were drifting back to the I’ve-got-the-puck-and-have-to-keep-it attitude with a lot of guys skating it in and taking shots regardless of what the ice looked like.

Weak shots from the top of the circle through three defenders aren’t going to go well.  And taking weak shots from the goal-line instead of waiting a bit for the rest of the team to catch up isn’t going to work either.

As for T, well, I wouldn’t say it was his best game, but he had some moments.

Period 1 – shift 1

On this shift he flubbed a bit.  Got the puck in the offensive zone near the top of the right circle and started skating to the blue line.  Had a teammate right at the blue-line and another at the right point, with three defenders between him and the goal.  Instead of passing, he hesitated and that led to a turnover and a breakaway.

Period 1 – shift 2

Not much from T on this shirt, but the ref did something I found odd.  Offsetting penalties and he sent them to the box, but kept five skaters from each team on the ice.  I’d have preferred 4-on-4 and some more open ice for the kids to move in.

Period 2 – shift 1

He’s becoming really good at keeping his head when knocked down.  In this shift he went down on his knees, but kept trying for the puck and batted it away.  Maybe it’s all the practice he gets falling down …

Period 2 – shift 2

Here he misread  a play badly and entirely missed a pass – sad, because he doesn’t get passed to often enough to give any up. :(

He needs to get better at predicting where the play’s going to go, so he doesn’t waste energy and can be in the right place.  An example of this is on the power play when the other team dumps the puck.  If two of his teammates are in his zone getting it, he should stay at center ice to take the pass (or at least because he’s so damn slow and can get a head start going the other way).

Period 3 – shirt 1

He stepped up here and challenged another player, making him shoot the puck to the boards and go around – that slowed the guy up enough for teammates to get on him.

He also ran into a teammate and went down and then skated into an opposing stick and went flying … I thought that one would draw a penalty, but maybe the refs are just used to seeing him face down on the ice …

Period 3 – shift 2

Again he managed to tie up an opposing player until a teammate could get there.

Period 3 – shift 3

With the play in the neutral zone, T was in his own zone near the blue-line.  He stopped the puck cleared it from the zone quickly.  It didn’t make a difference in the game with a three goal lead and less than a minute remaining, but it was a big play for him.  He reacted well, controlled the puck and did the right thing quickly.

Second Game of the Weekend

It’s a two-game weekend for T’s team and both were league games.  After yesterday’s win, I was curious to see if their level of play would stay consistent.

Today’s game was a 3-3 tie at the end, but T’s team really dominated the first period.  Even though there was no scoring, they controlled the puck well and kept possession for most of the period.

Their team-play was still there from yesterday and it they showed a lot more discipline than they did earlier in the season.  Players stayed in their positions more and you could tell that they were thinking things through before beginning a play or passing – well, not always, but often enough to notice.

This was really noticeable and very interesting to watch when the other team didn’t play a disciplined game.  It showed most on a couple plays where there were turnovers in the neutral zone and T’s team got the puck.  They’d pass back to one of their defensemen who were just inside their blue-line. 

At that point, whether by design or just a result of that defenseman taking a moment to think about what he was going to do, the other team would converge on him like flies to honey … at which point he’d make a cross-ice pass to the other defenseman who had almost the entire neutral zone to choose from for passing it up.

T’s own game stayed consistent as well.  He worked hard and challenged the other team. 

One big improvement I saw was that he ran into another player and stayed on his feet – the other kid went down, but T maintained his balance and stayed in the play.

Money and time have kept me from getting him extra ice-time like we did in December and January – that’s impacting me, as well, since I haven’t been to a clinic or skating since I last blogged about it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to start getting him (and me) back on the ice more this month – it’s clear that one practice and one game a week aren’t enough for him to improve as much as he should to really be competitive.

The Pro shop at his rink now has the Flat Bottom V sharpener now and I had T’s skates done this way after yesterday’s game.  The way this sharpening is described is that the flat-bottom, instead of curved, allows the skate to glide better without having to sacrifice control:

Logically, it makes sense – with a curved hollow, the skate’s cutting into the ice more, but this has a flat surface to ride the ice and edges to gain control.

So I had T’s done at 90/75, which the brochure said was a good place to start.  He didn’t notice a difference that stood out enough to mention, but I thought he was better able to control his turns.  There weren’t really enough rushes for me to gauge his speed this game, but I’m going to keep an eye on it.

I’ll also be trying this on my skates to see if I feel a difference myself.  I’d really like to be able to gain some speed without reducing what little control I have.

In other equipment news, I think it’s time to get T better shoulder/chest pads.  This is one of those times that I wish I didn’t live in Florida, because I really want to make this sort of purchase “hands-on” and there’s just no store that really carries wide-range of hockey gear. 

I’m leaning toward the Bauer Vapor line – probably because I like my skates so much. The Vapor line of products seems to be of pretty good quality and I’ve been happy with all of the Bauer equipment I’ve purchased. 

Right now he has the Bauer ONE35 pads, but the Vapor line seems to be made of lighter/stronger materials.  Since he’s going to be doing this for a while, I can get him something good.  The Vapor X:60 looks pretty good:

Blowout!

T’s team had a massive blowout today, winning 7-1 in a league game.

The team itself played awesomely and as a team.  Remember a few games ago the coach was complaining because they’d only had five decent passes in a game – well, today they had five passes on a single rush up the ice. 

One of the goals was really surprising – keeping in mind that this is PeeWee (11- and 12-year olds).  It’s a bit jaw-dropping to see a top-shelf goal from the point at this age.

As for T, he had his best game yet, I think – and I like that I’m saying that often, because it means he’s really improving as time goes by. 

On his first shift he actually caught somebody with the puck.  He started chasing the kid in the neutral zone and caught him at the blue line – he says he didn’t touch the puck, but from my angle it looked like he did.  At the very least he managed to take the other kid off the play and a teammate was able to get the puck and take it out of their zone.

On every shift, though, he worked really hard, which was good to see.  He was even sweating at the end of the game, something the coach has been trying to get out of him for a while.