Sunday Clinic

Today’s clinic started with a High-Low drill:

Two skaters from the goal-line along either side.  Take the puck around cones set on the face-off dots – either far or near, depending on which side you’re starting from – then into the zone for a shot.

We ran this drill with groups at both ends of the ice, so there were four skaters converging in the neutral zone at any given time.  Good practice for keeping your head up and knowing where the other skaters are.

This was followed by a passing drill the length of the ice:

From the goal-line pass to the blue-line, then to the far blue-line, finally to center-ice.  The skater at center-ice takes the puck into the zone for a shot and everyone else follows their pass to a new position.

Finally we went around the face-off circle, picking up a puck after once around, then around again and take a shot on goal. 

After a few reps of this, we changed it up to include skating backwards – always facing goal.

Game 2

So game number two for me, after skipping last week due to taking an ass to the groin. 

Even strength teams tonight and we lost 3-4 in overtime.  I wasn’t on the ice for any goals against and was out there for one of our goals, so I feel better about my performance than I did last time.

The goal I was on the ice for was a nice little wrap-around.  I was left wing and I think I was in good position to take a pass from him when he was back there or pick up the rebound.  Maybe a little too close to the goal, though.

I think I played my positions better – tonight I was mostly at wing, with one shift on defense.  After the first game I found a site that lays out the proper position in different situations, something I probably should have learned before the first game.

One confusing situation that kept occurring was in our zone, where, as I understand it, I’m supposed to keep an eye on their defenseman at the point on my side.

But he was never there, he was more down in the slot, so I spent a lot of time in this big box of open ice.

My instinct is to head down their too and keep him off the puck, but our center said, no.  Let our defense clear him out and stay where I should be to take the puck for a breakout.

One thing about the boy-child, who’s still on a bit of a hiatus from hockey, is that he plays his position well.  Having been in a game, now, and felt the temptation to get down there into the play, I have a lot of respect for him doing that.

As in the first game, I think my best shift of the night was a clear that set up a breakaway.  I got the puck in our zone and saw a clear lane out to our center at the blue-line and the other wing almost there.  My pass was on target to the center and I wasn’t too far behind them down the ice.  No goal, but it was a decent play on my part.

I think I was also able to put more pressure on the other team than last game.  I was still behind people a lot, but rather than trying to catch up and touch the puck, I lifted a lot of sticks and kept them in mind that I was back there.

I fell less in this game.  All but one the result of being bumped off balance by other players – it’s no-checking, but you can’t avoid all contact.  The one was rather spectacular, as it involved my leg giving out while I was trying to climb over the boards to the bench – pancaked onto my back right there.  My goal now is to make it through a game without the ref having to say: “You okay, man?”

With about 5:00 left in the third, my right thigh started aching on top.  Twinging from moderate to muttered-obscenity.  Weak and worse when I put weight on the leg, I made it through a last shift in the period – they scored 0:30 into overtime, so I didn’t have to see if it would handle that.

It was an unpleasant ride home, with lots of grunts and mutterings, but the pain subsided after a stop at Friday’s, so all it needed was a bit of rest.  Or vodka.  Rest or vodka, one.

The late end to these games is unfortunate, because there’re no massage places open on my drive home (well, no legitimate massage places).  I would so pay for a massage after these games.

Monday Clinic

Only seven skaters at the start and eleven when the late arrivals finally showed, so Coach went easy on us as far as the end-to-end skating went.  Tonight we stayed around the net, practicing deflections.

First off, taking position between the goal and the point, about at the paint of the face-off circle.  Face the point, legs apart and stick on the ice in front of you with the blade in-line with the path the puck will take.  Now pray that the guy taking the shot from the point doesn’t lift it to groin level, because we had enough of that shit last week.

When I started this drill, I was reacting late and trying to pull my stick back and toward the puck.  This created something of a curling motion, which I was told to avoid.  So hold the stick firmly and just move it side to side, trying to get it into the path of the puck a bit.  By the time the evening was done, I was getting a bit and earned some praise from the goalie when I did it right.  Did I get any past him?  I have no idea, it was behind me.

Also lots of advice about making a ramp with your blade to lift the puck and how it has to be a way-shallow angle to keep it below the crossbar.

A few reps of this on one side, then Coach set up two shooters, so we’d take a shot from one point, then hightail to the other side of the net for a second shot.

Then we took turns shooting, lining up at the blue line.  Take the shot and then follow it to the net to deflect a shot from the next in line.

Last was a two-man attack from center ice.  Skate the puck in and pass back, backhand, to the trailer who’s stopped near the top of the circle.  Then head for the net and set up to deflect his shot. 

This was a high note for me, because my passes were generally on target.  I may not be able to shoot or skate that well yet, but if I can touch the puck I have a decent chance of getting it to someone who can.

Clinic Catch Up

There was no Sunday clinic last week (4/8) because the rink was closed for Easter.  Monday’s clinic ended abruptly in the following manner.

After a brief skating drill, the first puck drill was to carry the puck from the goal-line, down the ice to the other zone, take a shot from just inside the far blue-line, and then pivot to skate backwards to the starting point.  Not entirely difficult.

So I go … and the puck slips off my stick back to my feet, so I kick it up.  It goes off the back of my stick to my right where one of the guys coming back to the line sees it and taps it toward me, so it’s now over to my left. 

I’m trying to regain the puck and people are skating backwards toward me.  Do I really need to say any more?

My head’s down and I slammed right into the back of this guy.  He went down and rolled over to give me a “what the fuck?”-look, which I richly deserved.

Now for me, I didn’t go down, but since we’re both crouched and skating, his ass and my cup were at a level.  Unfortunately, my cup was not entirely cupping correctly.  It had ridden up a bit and the left one was, apparently, a bit out.  So the left one was caught between the edge of the cup and my thigh, and the top of the cup pounded into my lower gut.  It was a two-fer.

I spent the rest of that clinic on the bench clutching myself.

Today’s drill went better.

First off, three skaters each take a puck and head the length of the ice.  First skater enters the zone and takes a shot.  Second skater hangs at the blue-line to center, then heads into the zone for a shot.  Third skater hangs along the blue-line to the left side and then heads in for a shot.

Next up was a little thing that I can’t even begin to draw a picture of.  Two groups at either end of the ice.  On the whistle, three skaters from each group each take a puck and head for center ice, where they enter the center face-off circle and skate around puck-handling. 

Yes, six crappy, beginning skaters all trying to control their pucks while they skate around in that little circle.  On the second whistle, the survivors exit the Thunderdome circle and take shots on goal.

An easy one’s next – from behind the goal-line, take the puck out of the zone, pass it hard to the far boards, then skate over to pick the puck up and take a shot.

Then we did some four-person passing, follow your pass to your next position.

And finally a drill with cones.  I don’t like cones, they make my ankles hurt.  Which probably means I need to do more drills with sharp turns and stop skating just in straight lines.

Equipment Review

So having used it all for a while and now finally played a game, it seems like a good idea to review my equipment and see what I’m happy with and what I’m not.  Maybe decide what order to upgrade things in.

Skates

Bauer Vapor X:50 – not a single complaint about these skates.  Comfortable, light, and durable, these were the best money I’ve spent on hockey equipment so far.

Shin Guards

Reebok 6K – no complaints about these, either.  They’re comfortable and I’ve hit the ice often enough to evaluate how well they protect my knees.

Pants

Easton Synergy S16 – not much to say about pants, I think.  Comfortable and I’ve tested them enough to know they’ll protect me on impact.

Shoulder

CCM Vector 06 – these will probably be the next thing I replace.  These are really thin around the sides and belly.  Part of the problem may be a sizing issue.  I’m tall, but relatively thin; so a large fits my chest well, but doesn’t meet up with the pants and an extra-large meets the pants, but winds up loose around the chest.

The Bauer X:60s offer more protection and are lighter, so I’ll probably pick one up this month, as the inventory closeouts are all running.

Elbow

Reebok 8K – after much testing, these have proven effective, so I’m happy with them.

Gloves

Reebok 6K – no complaints at all.

Helmet

CCM Vector 10 – my head’s hit the ice and a puck’s hit my face, so I can’t fault the protective qualities of this helmet.  Near the end of a game or practice, it does become a bit uncomfortable around the temples.  I’ll stick with it, but at some point I’ll try some new ones on.

Currently I have a wire cage, but I want to try the visor/cage combination to see if it improves visibility.

Stick

I hate hockey sticks. Length, flex, curve type, curve depth, pattern, material, lie, grip, face, blade length … I’ve bought cars with fewer options. I started off with a wooden Easton stick because it had the $12.99 feature.  Heavy and no flex at all, I replaced this with the same pattern in a composite. This was okay, but I wanted something that offered a little more curve to cup the puck a bit and somewhat more open to help me lift it. So I moved on to a Bauer pattern that seemed to match what I was looking for.

I can see myself spending a lot of money on sticks, looking for the right pattern and features – which equally means that I’ll be giving a number of sticks away when I decide what I don’t like. Luckily all the blade patterns are available on a range of sticks, so that’ll keep the cost down.  The clinic coach just got a new Combat stick that he was trying out Monday.  Slapshots from the far goal line that hit the glass at head height with disturbing velocity.

First Game

So a month and change shy of my forty-fifth birthday, I play my first hockey game.

It. Was. Awesome.

I haven’t had so much fun in a long time.  But, damn, having the clinic and game on the same night makes for a long night.  Six-plus hours.

6:00	30-minutes of yoga to stretch and warm-up, because my balance sucks and I’m not as limber as I used to be
6:30	A quick shower, make sure all the gear’s in the bag, fill the water bottle, take an Ibuprofen as a pro-active solution to the coming pain
7:00	Leave for the rink
7:30-7:45	Arrive at the rink, depending on traffic
7:45	Gear up and bullshit in the locker room (particularly nasty story from the other rink about a guy’s earlobe getting sliced off – yay, hockey!)
8:00-8:15	Wait for the kids to finish up their practice and the Zamboni to cut the ice
8:15-9:15	Clinic
9:15-9:30	Wait for the ice to be cut again
9:30-11:00	Game: 12-minute periods, 5-minutes between periods
11:15	Leave the rink
11:45	Stop at Friday’s, because, damn it, I just played a hockey game and I deserve a sandwich and a drink
12:30	Home

And that would be an optimal night where the kids don’t run long and the Zamboni doesn’t drop a ton of water on the ice that we have to wait on.

The rookie game at this rink is sort of a formalized pick-up game.  It’s not a league with set teams.  The rink manager sets the team each night, depending on who shows up and lets you know if you’re Red or Blue.  Tonight I was on Blue.

Fifteen skaters showed up, so Red had seven players and Blue had eight … well, seven and me.

A quick conference before the game starts and we decide on three defensemen and five forwards.  I’m one of the forwards, but not starting.

The puck drops and before I know it one of our guys is skating for the bench yelling “Right wing!”.  Shit … I’m next on the bench, so I go over the boards and start my first shift … which I don’t remember at all …

It’s all a blur, and I couldn’t recount what happened in any kind of order to save my life, but certain events stand out.

I was surprised at how tired I was when I got to the bench at the end of a shift.  For the most part, I didn’t notice it on the ice, but then I’d sit down on the bench and start gasping for breath.

I made all of my shifts except one.  With about 7:00 minutes left in the third, I returned to the bench and it hit me hard.  Out of breath, feeling like I’d vomit, scrabbling at my facemask to open it up and get some air (because a metal cage stops airflow?). 

By the time I was up again, I just hadn’t recovered enough and someone else had to take that shift, but I did recover my breath and managed one more before the end of the game – unfortunately, as we’ll get to later.

The coach from the clinic referees the game and provides feedback to the teams between periods.  I listened … I really did … and today I don’t remember a word he said.  Something about the D not pinching so much and maybe not letting one guy carry the puck behind their net and get mobbed by the entire other team without any help. 

I cannot count the number of times I fell, but it was easier to avoid flat-out running into anyone than I expected it to be.  Falling I don’t mind – it’s usually the result of pushing my skating skills a bit too far, which is the way to improvement, and it doesn’t hurt with the pads.  Running into the boards does hurt, which I have now managed to do three weeks in a row.  At least this time it wasn’t my left side, so the ribs there got a break.

So on one shift we were in our own zone and the puck went behind the goal-line.  One of the opposing players got to it and one of our guys went after him, but there was a tangle and ours went down.  I was on the other side of the net and went behind it toward them.  I got there before the opposing player got control of the puck and whacked at it.  I actually connected and got it away from him.

The puck went more to the center than I’d have preferred – it would have been better to send it back along the boards, but I managed to get there and keep the opposing player from making a controlled pass, so I’m happy with that.

Later I wound up at center … which means face-offs … which I’ve never done before and it showed.  Lost both of them.  I need to read up on how to take a face-off and find some drills to practice.

My best effort of the night was again in our zone.  I was at right-wing and got to the puck, turned to cut off the opposing player and had open ice to clear it to the other wing.  He was hanging at the blue-line and picked up the puck for a breakaway.  Didn’t score, but it was still nice to be a part of.

I even managed a shot on goal.  Coming in at left-wing, the right-wing carried the puck into the zone, got stood up by the defense and the puck came across the slot to me.  Unfortunately, it came to my backhand and the shot was slow and pathetic, but it was on net.

The last shift of the game was the worst.  We started the third period with the score 4-4 (I think, tied at least).  Near the end it was 4-7 … we’d had a bad third period.

I’d sat out one shift with 7:00 left, but figured I had one more in me.  Everyone on the bench was exhausted, but I’d been there the longest, so when a defenseman came in and no one else moved, I went out. 

So one of them gets the puck on my side and gets around me.  I chased him up the ice and it was incredibly frustrating, because the fucking puck was right there. Two feet.  I needed two more feet of reach to poke it away from him and I couldn’t pump my legs enough to get them.  We hit the top of the circles and I had to let up a bit, because I know I’m not going to be able to turn or stop in time to avoid the boards if I don’t, and he scores.

Just a little more speed and I’d have been able to do something.  I managed to stay with him, but just couldn’t make up those two feet.  Also he was inside of me, so I think if I’d managed to move to his other side, I could have interfered with his shot, at least.  My mistake there was that I was playing the puck and not the man – if I’d been inside, I could have lifted his stick or something.

Next I just got out of position.  The puck was deep in our zone and went back and forth between the net and the boards a couple times – I played more wing than defense and wound up outside the puck and they scored again.

So a couple of decent plays, a couple bonehead mistakes, and a hell of a lot of fun.

Monday Clinic

This week’s clinic got off to a rocky start.  The regular goalie was out of town, but no one at the rink knew to find a replacement and the Zamboni dumped a lake of water on the ice – so we got a late start waiting for the water to freeze and spent half the clinic without a goalie.

Skating drill was forward only, goal-line to blue-line, center, and far blue-line and back.  We followed that with end-to-end puck carries, first side to side, then forward and back.

Then shot practice – wrist, snap, and shot.  In general, the discernable difference in my attempts at these is the progressively greater degree by which I miss the net. 

Once a replacement goalie arrived, we spent the rest of the time on two-man dump recoveries.

Sunday Clinic

Yes, Sunday.  I’ve added a second clinic to my week, this one at the other ice rink in town.  Conveniently, I live about the same distance from each, so can take advantage of both.  This rink is more crowded, though, with about two dozen skaters on in the clinic, and it isn’t week-to-week.  This is an upfront fee for all ten lessons in the current “season”.

Skating drill was through all the faceoff circles – forward crossice and backward down the ice:

Three reps of this and then once forward only.  We were started on this drill in groups of three and, of course, I got passed a lot.  But having to do the drill in-line, instead of line-abreast like we typically do at the other rink, changed things up for me.  I had to concentrate more on what was going on around me and what I was doing, rather than on what I was about to do – if that makes any sense. 

In the line-abreast drills, I find myself preparing to do what’s next, whether it’s stopping at the blue-line to reverse direction or whatever.  In this drill, because I had to watch out for other skaters, including those passing me, I did less thinking and simply reacted.  Oh … there’s a dot already, time to change direction. 

I’m not claiming I was any better at it, but it was definitely different.

The first puck drill was more complex than we’ve been doing at the other rink.  Three skaters start at the goal line – they start forward, with the center carrying the puck.  He passes to either wing, his choice, and then follows the puck to switch places with the receiver.  This continues down the ice and ends with a shot.

I think everyone got two or three reps at each position, before we moved on to something else.  Next was much simpler, just skate the puck down the ice and take a shot.  Then they split us up into two groups – beginners and not-beginners.  I was not a not-beginner.

The guys running this clinic take a more rapid approach than at the rink I’m used to.  Two or three reps of something, then move on to different drill.  I think both formats have their uses and going to both will help my game. 

Next up we did a one-handed carry of the puck around a cone, and then back for a shot on goal.  I’ve never had to carry the puck one-handed in a drill before … and given that it’s only useful if you’re in front of everyone else and can stay there, I don’t anticipate needing it any time soon.

Next up we added defense to the mix, with the person in line behind the next puck carrier skating as a defenseman.  First to a nearer cone than the puck carrier and then pivot to skate backwards and defend.

Pivot, of course, meaning that still magical foot thing whereby a skater moving forward at speed is suddenly moving in the opposite direction with seemingly no loss of momentum and clearly in violation of Newton’s Second Law.  I cannot pivot and still don’t understand it, no matter how often I’ve watched the move in slow motion.  I am convinced there’s a magic pivot potion I’m supposed to drink before a game, just no one’s clued me in where to get it yet.

Because of how we wound up back in line, both my reps of this were on offense, so I didn’t have to demonstrate my non-pivot.  The first rep resulted in the puck being knocked away by the defenseman, but the second had better results – after rounding cone, I went to the defender’s left as I had before, but then I cut hard to my left and got by him. 

The next drill had more cones.

Damn cones. 

My first rep of this was bad – I kept trying to skate through the turns and that clearly wouldn’t work, so it was awkward.  Second rep was better, I leaned more and cut harder in the turns, despite my legs feeling weaker this late in the clinic, and made a better showing.

I can say that my passing was spot-on today.  Both in this drill and earlier ones, nobody had to reach for my passes.

The last drill of the day had us skating a puck in from center ice, then cutting hard across the slot before taking a shot.  They ran this with two skaters simultaneously from either side, so we also got to play don’t-run-into-the-other-guy-who-just-turned-straight-for-you.