On Sunday we were beaten comprehensively by the Redwings. We had nine skaters, they had twelve. They scored the first goal 2 minutes into the game. By the first break they led 4-0. We were all over the place, not talking, not keeping position properly, not having the crispness in our skating that we can have. Needless to say our coach was not impressed.
Second period was much better, with Knights finally getting a goal. For a brief period I felt that we might pull it back together as the sides seemed evenly matched, perhaps even a slight edge to the Knights. At the second break, Redwings led 4-1.
Final period got very gritty. I felt that I was being regularly interfered with, little chips at my skates by an oppo stick for example. I heard later from up in the stands that there was quite a bit of this going on against our team. They scored a goal somewhere in the period, but that didn't stop my subjective feeling that they were trying to hack us out of the game as well as outscore us.
It all exploded in the last second of the final period (!) when their jostling of our goalie got under the skin of our captain, who went for their prime offender. He of course hit back and his mates piled in. Various other players started pulling the goal line combatants apart, not soon enough however to prevent one of them crashing our captain to the ground. He of course struck back, unfortunately the malefactor was down on the ice also so this resulted in a major fighting penalty against Jonesey.
To make it worse, the heckling from their bench took a very nasty turn, resulting in a our coach giving it back in unfortunate terms resulting in a major against her. My memory, ensuring the gate to our bench was shut so that some of my more fiesty team mates didn't go and get themselves a tribunal appearance by skating out to join the fracas, and my blood almost boiling at the sight of a nazi salute from their bench as I went out for the handshake. End result of the play, we got 59 minutes of penalties and they got about 8. Our (temporary) captain and coach are both suspended for next week due their major penalties occurring within the final ten minutes of the game.
Quite exciting. In the washup, also a good team bonding experience.
On a more mundane level, my best plays of the night involved winning a puck battle from my knees up near the boards, several clearances, and generally keeping their champ skater on the outside on their breakouts. My failures were perhaps not always looking before passing, not getting my feet moving quick enough when the breakouts threatened, finding myself out of position and too late too often. All remediable.
I was on the ice for two of their goals and for ours.
GP 7 G 0 A 0 +2 4/2/1
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