Category: Hockey
Back on the Ice
Hopped onto the ice for the first time in about six months. The Sled Dogs were having a practice and scrimmage, so I took the opportunity to shake off the rust. My stickhandling and shooting have definitely taken a hit during the layoff, but was a lot of fun to be skating again. Hopefully I’ll get in a game before the season is over.
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.
