2nd in Regular Season (7/4/1 GF 54 GA 37)
Gold Medalists in Playoffs (2/0/0 GF 4 GA 1)
Best Game: Grand Final - when it all came together when it counted, and we were all present and correct. See my comments in the Game Day report.
Worst Game: Game 9, Shufflers (8) d Wheelers (6). I wasn't there for that game. The Wheelers were up 5-0 in first half, 5-2 at half time and overwhelmed in the second half. I had previously advised that I wouldn't be there, so Mal was brought in as a reserve. Then, to compound the absent player problem, Matt the Goalie injured himself earlier in the day and so we had to import a goalie as well at the last moment. What contributed to the 'worst' rating was that this was against the Shufflers, our longest term closest rivals in the Division. I gather it was all very demoralising for our players, which showed the next week when we went down to the Bumpers 2-4 (again, I wasn't present for that game, which was Dylan's first ever game as goalie as a reserve for us due Matt's ongoing injury).
General note, we were separated by one game from the league leaders, the Shufflers, at end of season. They had one more 'goal for' and one less 'goal against' than we did. Alex (Wheelers) tied with Mark (Shufflers) for goals scored, and led the assists and points scored. Shufflers had second and third spots in both goals and assists (and points). Very close season.
Personal Season
Regular Season - 7/2/1
GP 10 G 8 A 7 Pts 15 +14 - Game Winning Goals in first and last games.
Playoffs:GP:2 G/A/Pts:Nil +/-0 2/0/0
Gold Medalist, MVP
Best Game: Grand Final. I seemed to be everywhere and involved in everything without driving myself by ego. It all came together for me and for my team. Maybe the two are related?
Worst Game: Game 8, our 1-4 loss to the Rockers. This despite me scoring our team's sole goal. I was not happy with my game at the time, nothing seemed to work for me (except the play that resulted in my nice backhand goal). It was also the greatest margin of defeat that we suffered (3 goals), though that in itself was not a problem. Afterall, in all my other games I was reasonably pleased with my own performance (whatever the result). Not, however, Game 8. I was especially disappointed because this was one game where, contrary to the usual when a team can carry someone on an 'off' night, I needed to be firing on all cylinders and I wasn't. The need was there because, while they had two good skaters brought into their roster as reserves, we were missing our gun forward. I was the only one who should have been able to consistently tag the oppo, and I didn't.
General Notes on my season
Game smarts, skills, physical capacity all improved through the season, with a major change in play characteristics occuring in the later part. Essentially, my skating time plummeted from several times per week to less than once. As this occurred, I commenced my 'off ice' program of exercise. Thus, there appears to be a link between my shift from playmaker and pointmaker to disruptor and distributor and the type and degree of training I am putting into my sport. Also, perhaps the later phase, being marked as one characterised by thinking, making position, searching for the pass, and reacting as or before things occur, is also a product of taking the foot off the accelerator for a while and allowing the grey matter to catch up with the rest of me.
To get what I mean, check out my joy at the new experience of finding time and space to look and think before doing in my first game of the season, to the almost sublimated approach to this experience in the Grand Final. Evolution?
I've now played 30 games for my team in ice (10) and inline competitions (20) combined, so one could expect the game experience to be notching itself up from the novelty of sensory overload during that first game with the Knights almost a year ago.
Great season.
*
Off ice - I did another core workout this morning. During the day a few other things clicked about the periodisation of conditioning training through the off/ pre/in/post-season phases of a hockey life, resulting in me doing a modified upper body workout in the evening. Basically, the new 'cut back' upper body work was an acceleration of the tempo of the reps, and reduction in their number from 12 to 10. This is in keeping with a scaling back of strength work into the (ice) season as the season will itself take quite a toll without adding to it. The speeding up of the circuit starts pushing up the body's familiarity with quick expenditures and recovery of energy, hopefully assisting in games by the post season. I'll probably drop it back to (say) 8 reps by next week, and hold it there.
The idea is to work on such things as agility, quickness and skills through the season, slipping into 'maintenance' mode with muscle conditioning. A delicate balance I'm sure.
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