The Knights won out 3-2 over the Rangers in a seven shot shootout after being tied at the end of regulation time. I'm not sure where that leaves us on the ladder, but we get the bye next week and then two more games to have completed playing all other teams in our division. At present we are in the middle of the table. I dare say that's where we'll be after the bye.
We had the most players I've skated with for a game, twelve plus a goalie (Tommy), who it sounds like will be our regular net minder from here on in. Thus we were able to run two lines, each consisting of a centre and three wings (a tyro skater being the third winger, ideally for the softer minutes, with the other two taking the tougher ice time until the tyro learns his role). If our Beau had been able to beat his hangover we would have had thirteen skaters present, allowing three complete lines up front and two defence pairings (a full roster). The most we had last summer was ten, I think.
I was assigned to defence, which I take as a kind of compliment. Ironically, I suspect it is mainly because I had absorbed the very basic positioning that a winger needs to conform to at C grade ((almost) all beginners start on the wing). Watching others, I'd say that some never get it. Be that as it may, my growing game sense and ability to skate backwards as comfortably as forwards (in fact, more so while my knee remains suspect) probably have a bit to do with my progession to defence also. From Beau's one game so far, I'd say he's potentially the quickest skater on our team, so I don't imagine things changing too much upon his return.
Unlike previously, each of our defensive pairings had a 'full time' D playing on it. I was paired with Cap'n Tom (Mike and Cam formed the other pair). Tom's one of our most valuable players with probably our best shot and certainly the ability to play the most physical game. I wasn't keeping my eye on his location as closely as I should have while in our own zone which meant that I found myself out of position more than I did when the puck was in their zone or between the blue lines. In the forward zones I found myself more naturally reading the play, was more easily able to be aware of Tom's actions and thus frame my own around it.
In this at least I have the basic mindset needed to be laid over the essential positional and functional requirements of Defence. I now need to move it into our own zone. The one time our lines got scrambled I found myself on the ice with Mike. Even after only half a game, I felt the disjointedness. Our defence 'bench manager' (Bacon, a Knight through and through despite being moved up a Division) got our original lines back together as quickly as he could after both of the scrambled pairs had had a shift.
My knee didn't give me any grief all game, which is great considering that I didn't consciously hold back at all. It was, however, still lacking strength so I wasn't yet at full speed and really lacked on the acceleration ('quickness'). I made up for it with my skating facility, at least in term of (generally) holding my position relative to the play. Apart from this general observation, my lack of strength only really showed once, when I was harrassing their biggest player as he drifted through the high slot and he eventually just shoved me aside before skating off. Even thusly, I had achieved my main goal so all was not lost. But it will be good to put a bit more power into my core-leg strength so I can push back and give some of these big guys a surprise!
I only iced the puck once this game, during my first or second shift. This is a huge improvement. Instead of my previous panicked striking of the puck, I generally tried to either pass the puck, chip it off the board, or knock it down the ice with a long diagonal clearing shot. Learning to lift the puck would be handy.
My play in our zone was still very 'scrambly', a lot of forebrain decision making used up a lot of my neural energy, less fluid skating showed in the result. Taking into account my occasional moments of totally confused 'stationariness' (dangerous in a fast game such as ice hockey) I generally kept the opposition winger out of the play on the face off, covered the point when I had to a couple times, had a couple corner battles and won several races to the puck with enough time to clear the corner (my preferred with of dealing with a cornered puck, especially with my knee), tied the puck up on the boards at least once, cleared it from beneath our centre's feet a couple times, kept a fast attacking winger on the outside as he neared the goal several times (a function of speed), and manned the front of our goal a number of times when we were exposed (though was never challenged for it, someone needed to be there).
The Rangers were more aggressive in the high slot than the low. I'll need to work on stick and poke check technique and bodywork for when we meet a more efficient team (no body checks allowed in our Division, but that doesn't mean there's no bodywork, especially in front of the net). Keep mentally rehersing the principles of close-in positioning in our own zone and tracking my D partner until it becomes automatic.
I held the blue line on the offence quite well I thought, protecting the rim shot along the boards as an easy out and shutting down my wing on attempted breakouts. My puck disposal from the point wasn't that good most of the time, though I did have a couple moderate strength but long distance shots towards goal (in the vague hope of causing rebounds or at least some chaos) during the first period. Most of my passes were wayward, or merely to get the puck to a more skilled and advancing forward. In the forward face offs I several times collected a puck that came dribbling out from the circle, a couple of these occasions resulted in a short pass towards Tom for a shot, the others were basically wasted. Twice that I remember they cleared it past me, but I was able to collect and reset our offence. All in all, I was reasonably pleased with my play on the blue line.
I was on the ice for both of their goals, and involved with them in some way. For their first, it was a shitty pass of mine that was intercepted in their zone and resulted in a three pass rush that caught me entirely out of position and powerless to stop them slamming it into a virtually empty net after they'd undressed our goalie. I felt directly responsible.
Their second goal also resulted from a battle lost by me (albeit, I think I was outnumbered), followed by my player going unhindered into the low slot while I was confused by the melee around and an eventual goal from his stick amongst the chaos. I don't know if this goal was as obviously 'mine' as their first, but I certainly felt that it was.
To counteract the negative of being on ice for both of their goals, I was also core to the play that resulted in our second goal (our first was Foxy's first for the season and great to watch from the bench, after the longest and largest goal mouth melee I've witnessed in 34 hockey games of one sort or another). My role in the play was defending the blue line. In the one short sequence I recall pinching in to get the play started, stretching to cut off the boards as the puck threatened to whistle past, catching it, dropping it off to the Centre as they came to my aid, stretching the other way to cut off the soft pass and hitting it back in, getting back to the boards and stopping it on the line, racing to the puck as it was about to cross the line being chased by their forward and deflecting it off her stick back into the zone and our marauding winger. From this last, a couple passes and a sweet goal. Excellent!
As the clock wound down and we went into a shootout, tension rose. It was a great feeling to win such a hard fought game.
After the game I caught up with Jess and Craig before heading into the change room and a nice cold beer. It was really cool that they came to watch. I think I'll be catching up with them at the Ice Arena on Wednesday night (knee permitting, but I am feeling a lot better about it).
GP 3 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 +/- 0 2/1/0
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