We suffered our first loss of the season last night at the Ice Arena in a top of table clash with one of the new teams, the Blades. We were down a number of players but managed to field nine skaters and Tommy in goal. I think that they had ten skaters, so no major disparity there.
Our main problem was on the blue line. We'd lost Bacon to the Kings, Mike was not available to play, Cam was there but still suffering the aftereffects of the illness that stopped him playing on Saturday and I was only functioning at about 80% (at best). Shifting Jonesy back to join Cam and I on the D was the best we could do, which let us run two lines up front. We ran with this until the back end of the third period when Stewart moved back for a couple shifts on D when Cam couldn't go out any more and I was badly suffering.
They scored early in the First Period, with a virtually unassisted goal to their fast skating, deking hard shooting star from the inside of the upper right circle. At the time it went in I was busy closing the gap to his double, coming in from the other side, coming to a defensive stop just above the crease and moving into his stick as the shot went through. They backed this up early in the Second Period to go to a 2-0 lead. We struck back, closing the game to one goal, before they slotted another shortly before the siren. 3-1 in the last break. The last period was a cracker. We again closed to within a goal early in the period and then it got down to trench warfare. They somehow held us out as our game broke down from the strain. The final siren saw them victorious 3-2.
This was the toughest assignment we've yet had. Our bench was probably the weakest it's been this season, the competition the strongest, but we all put in our absolute best and created a cracking game as a result. The game was played at high intensity and had a degree of ferociousness absent from previous contests. After the game we had nothing left, we'd left it all on the ice. You can't ask for more from a hockey team!
Our worst preventable failings came from our line changes and confusion on the bench. These were most evident in the third period when there were several occasions when we only had four on the ice when we were entitled to have five. There were other times when we were totally out of position at a face off. These failings flowed through to on-ice positioning, with several occasions when both wings were down low in the same defensive corner but the puck was over in the other and a breakout was potentially stalled before it had begun. We also gave away too many penalties (three) to comfortably manage with our short bench.
My own game was a strange hybrid of good and bad. Early, their gun skater was able to get around me on the backcheck, a failing I subsequently remedied by transitioning earlier on his approach thus enabling me to keep the inside track on him to our red line. He started treating me with a little more respect once I had this worked out.
Generally I managed to keep the slot clear of danger, either by shoving them out of position or by lifting their stick at awkward moments. On the blue line I managed to use my feet effectively both on the boards and in the centre. I was more willing to engage along the boards in our corners, prevented any clean take aways or unobstructed passes through the slot. My own passes were still more to position than to a player, and I still found myself clearing it through centre-ice (ironically, picking up our own centre and setting up a play that resulted in our first goal).
My major plus AND minus came about through conditioning and health respectively. I drove myself harder than in previous games, was able to pick up the slack created by Cam's illness through the first two periods as a result. Again, it was a game where I seemed to be 'everywhere', covering forwards on the breakout, my D partner, assiting in the rush, protecting the blue line and the crease. All on top of a short bench, so I was running at the outer end of my ability.
Alas, I was pushing it too hard. By the end of the second period, was feeling tightness in my breathing. After a brutal first shift in the third, this only got worse. I was considering benching myself, but riding the line and was able to get out for a strong second shift in our zone. This culminated in a physical battle which resulted in me being hooked and then myself being called for roughing on the same play (my first ever genuine penalty on the ice!).
During my penalty time, I vacated the bench to get some ventolin in to me, was able to skate out the game at reduced intensity. Not exactly an exercise induced asthma attack like the inline game in May this year, but a bit of a scare never the less. Cause: combination of not enough sleep, wrong diet, sudden and dramatic weather change and resultant very high pollen count, long periods of maximal effort during the first two periods. Solution: better preparation, better management of aerobic resources when at risk.
I was on the ice for one of ours and one of their goals. I incurred my first minor penalty on the ice. At the end of the game, quite a few lessons to learn. And an affirmation of the potential strength of this team, we all stepped up to the mark and played out of our skins to equal them with shots on, blocked shots, took hits, skated until we were totally exhausted at game end, still came out smiling, had the opposition's respect (I got the feeling that they were worried that we would take it despite our chaos and exhaustion, you could see it in their eyes). Our next clash will be an interesting affair.
GP 6 G 2 A 1 Pts 3 +4 4/1/1 PIMS 2
Ice 46
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