Category: Hockey
On the Break
photo by penjamins
This is my breakaway goal from last night’s game, a throwback to early-80s hockey that the Sled Dogs won 9-4. Lots of people getting goals in this one. I centered the first line and we all got at least a goal and an assist. I ended up with a goal and two assists. For the most part the team was in sync — our passes were crisp, people were getting to open ice, and we weren’t running around too much on D.
I’m trying to catch up after a bit of a hiatus here. It’s been a busy last month or so. Jordan and I took a trip out to Chicago and then Colorado Springs. We had a good time seeing friends and family in what is probably our last big trip before our daughter’s scheduled arrival this September. Thanks again to Torry and John for hosting us in Chicago, and Pete and Sarah in Colorado Springs.
The new iPhone is out, and Jordan’s going to try and get one this week. I’m on the hook with Sprint until the end of the month, so the mad rush will have ebbed by then.
Selling Pucks
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images. Yes, I believe that is a built-in beer holder on that Hulk hand.
Slate recently ran an article on the difficulty of selling hockey through star power. It’s a good read, touching on a few common hurdles to watching hockey: stars only playing part of the game (what are these shifts you speak of?), the difficulty identifying players on the ice (helmets + visors = robocop), and the difficulty of following the play.
Bounced
My rookie ice hockey season ended in disappointment last Saturday, in a 3-1 first-round knockout loss to the Tigers. We had beaten them several times this season, but despite scoring first we failed to put them away and they ended up scoring the last three goals to take the game. The loss means that we will be staying in Div. 8 this spring.
I hadn’t played a game in about a month, not counting scrimmages. I centered the third line with Kapp on LW and Todd on RW. Despite the time off I felt like I played a strong game, with a couple of chances that I just couldn’t put away. The first came off a partial breakaway, when Kapp made a brilliant touch pass at the blueline to send me in alone. I tried a deke but put the puck right into the crest of the goalie, which was pretty much where all our shots were going during the game.
I got a second chance in the third when Bryan drew the D to the left circle on the rush while I coasted down the slot. I managed a decent one-timer, but again the goalie smothered it. I also got a few crisp passes to my linemates and generally felt like I was strong on the puck in the defensive zone.
It’s easy at this level to get discouraged because everything needs work — skating, shooting, stickhandling, passing. Forget about holes in my game, sometimes it’s just one big black hole. But if I think back to the start of the season (when I could barely get over the boards properly) it’s nice to see small improvements: learning positional play, keeping my legs moving after a pass, keeping my head up at all times. I know that I’ll be spending extra time this spring and summer working on both my shot and stickhandling. There’s a few weekends off before we get back into it for the Spring season.
Catching Up
Lots of stuff on the burner. Finishing a big project at work, so I’ve been quiet on this space for a bit longer than I anticipated.
Evan brought me along to see the Kings/Rangers game last week, which proves what a great guy he is – burning one of his season-ticket shares on a last-place west-coast team is a lot to ask, and going into the game I hoped that the Kings would just do me a solid and at least make things interesting. Somehow they managed to sneak away with a 4-2 win, with Frolov playing a whale of a game against the surprisingly sluggish Rangers. Sean Avery was running around early in the game, perhaps trying to show up the Kings for trading him exactly a year ago. It was great to see the kids like Kopitar and Boyle score. Given how horribly the Kings’ season has gone this year, at least there’s plenty of young talent to look forward to.
Visited Mom in fair Belchertown, MA a few weekends ago. My (newly-engaged) brother and his fiancée Kristen made the trip out from Boston and joined me for a weekend of skating on the backyard rink. Check the recent flickr stuff for a few shots of us out on the ice. Dad expanded things to 60 by 40 feet this year, and it was nice to fly around and build up speed out there. However, all that work didn’t save me from getting laid out multiple times in the Sled Dogs’ last game, a 5-3 loss to the Hotshots.
Other recent distractions: a new Pioneer flat panel. After five years, my trusty Samsung CRT HDTV will be getting a new home with Joseph and Kristen. I will say that the Samsung is no slouch compared to the new panel, proving once again that it’s hard to beat CRTs for picture quality. That said, having the extra screen real estate is nice. Bluray discs and upscaled DVDs from the PS3 look fantastic – I have a feeling I’ll be loading up the Netflix queue again. The Pioneer also came just in time for new episodes of LOST. I’m not listening to the haters – last year’s finale got me back on the Oceanic 815 bandwagon and so far things haven’t disappointed.
I’m also playing Uncharted, and I’ve switched over to Nullriver’s MediaLink software to pipe my music, photos, and videos from my Mac to the PS3.
Somewhere in there I also upgraded to Leopard, which I’ll pay a compliment by saying that it hasn’t gotten in my way at all.
A Tale of Two Games
The Sled Dogs just completed a back-to-back series against the Tigers, and the games couldn’t have been any more different. The Jan. 12th game was a 7-5 barnburner where we were up 5-1 early in the second, only to start a parade to the penalty box that saw the game tied early in the third. A late goal and an empty-netter let us escape with a 7-5 win, but it was a lesson learned in closing out a game. I tallied a goal (a one-timer from the slot from a nice pass by Bryan coming down the left side) and an assist on one of Tom’s goals where I carried the puck wide on the left side, curled around the back of the net, and sent it in front where Tom hammered it home. We had just missed earlier in the game in almost the exact same situation, so it was nice to connect. Alex centered our line and whenever the three of us were out there with Bryan on D we were flying on the ice and the passing was connecting. Hopefully I’ll end up on a line with them again this season.
The most recent game was a 1-0 game that brought me back the the NHL in the mid-90s. All defense, with a few sparks of offense. The odd-man rushes were at a minimum, so we got the feeling whichever team scored first would take it. Fortunately for us Harry tallied one in the second period, and our goalkeeper Nigel kept the scoreboard clean the rest of the way. I went down hard in the first, so my right hip was bothering me most of the game, but I did have some good shifts with the scramble of players that we had on the forward lines.
During both games I played on right wing, where I’m not usually comfortable, but I think I played ok. I may be getting more used to the speed of games, since I felt like I had enough time to keep my head up and make the right pass, instead of concentrating so hard on not losing the puck and making blind passes. We’ll see how that holds up in the upcoming games.
I’ll be heading up to my parents’ place this weekend and hopefully I’ll get some time on the rink just to work on my shot, which is the weakest part of my game.
