Game Day - Viking Cup Games 3 and 4

On Sunday morning I headed out to Gawler for the second half of the Viking Cup's round robin schedule.  The early game was against the Shufflers and at midday we would take on the Rockers.  At the end of that match the three teams would be seeded for their finals appearances, an elimination game between positions two and three, followed by a grand final between the winner of that game and the team that had come first during the round robin games.

I knew that I could not be in Gawler for the afternoon finals as I had to be back at the Ice Arena for the Knights final game of the regular season against the Rangers.  So, the best I could do for my team was try and help them get first position on the ladder to maximise their chance for a later victory.

We opened the tally with a 4-0 win against the Shufflers.  Good team effort on our part, especially as we had only five skaters (2 of whom were rookies, one of whom has a shoulder injury).  I got an assist for our second goal in the first period, but much of my game was defensive in nature as I fed the forwards and kept it in the zone.  I made it a point to cover the danger players of the Shufflers as they could each outskate all the others on our team.  It was a totally fun game, no penalties or bad blood on anyone's part.

The second Wheelers game of the day at Gawler resulted in a 1-1 draw against the Rockers.  If our team was about passing and positioning, the Rockers were mainly about strength and cunning.  It was a very close fought game, 0-0 at the end of the first half and both teams tiring a bit.  Each team scored in the final five minutes.  We unfortunately were penalised for too many skaters on the rink with twenty seconds to go, however they only got one face off before the siren went so it wasn't too bad.  Again, I spent much of my time picking up their loose skater through the game.

My greatest failing in both games was my passing, very often putting it straight into an opposing player rather than the intended target (though a surprising number did find the right person).  I will have to be a little more conservative with my passing game, holding the puck and playing for position more than I did, when the regular season returns.

For me, it was a case of pack up my gear and hop in the car and drive back to Adelaide for the Knights game in the afternoon.

For the Wheelers, it was an elimination game against the Shufflers.  Shufflers won that game, went on to lose against the Rockers in the Cup game.  Sigh.

Inline 4
 

Game Day - Viking Cup Games 1 and 2

I am enrolled for my first tournament, the Viking Cup.  I am in the Second/Social Division, composed of three teams in total.  We have six skaters and Matt the Goalie.  The other teams are similarly composed.  Most of the players are from Div 2 in the regular competition, though we have three rookies on our team who are all trying it out (all can play).  The usual combinations have been mixed up for the occasion.  On my team, only Nat and I are used to playing together.  Our team is the Wheelers.

Games comprise two twelve minute halves, with a minute for half time and two minutes between games.  There are two Junior divisions and two senior Divisions., each team plays two games today and two tomorrow, followed by finals in the afternoon (I'll have to miss the finals if the Wheelers make it, being required on the ice for the Knights clash against the Rangers).

Today we played the Shufflers first.  It ended up 2-2 draw.  I tied it up in the ninth minute of the second half with a ridiculous shot from the right boards only a foot or two above the redline.  This was my only score for the day.  I was a bit rusty overall, dropping the puck off my stick a couple of times most noticeably.  Had a good battle with Darryl, a dual citizen from Blackwood, through the game (he plays with the Shufflers in the regular competition and have had a good tussle with him there also).  We played most of our minutes with each other on the rink.

Our second game was five hours later against the Rockers.  This was a harsher affair.  We lost 1-2.  Dallas scored his second goal of the tournament for us.  I pushed myself harder in this game, and my energetics were still picking up by game end (peak HR of 193 was reached in the last shift and EPOC maxed out after the game was over).  The Rockers have a greater emphasis on strength than the Shufflers (who were more about skill - we are about speed and position) and it was definitely a more physical game.  Both teams were blocking a significant significant number of shots.

Most memorable moments for the day included my goal against the Shufflers and the general challenge of that game, wrestling Craig to the floor mid-rink as we twisted against each other's sticks, being beaten by him shortly after in a race to the boards and subsequent battle for body position, successfully blocking a shot by glancing it off my upper elbow guard (lower left bicep) and not even feeling it.

A fun day, with two more games scheduled for tomorrow morning before I hop into the car and drive an hour to the Ice Arena for the important last game of the season.

Inline 2

Endings - Wheelers and Pre-Season

The winter inline season and my Pre (ice hockey) season ended within a few days of each other.  The summer inline season starts with training on the 7th of October and the first game on the 10th.  That's all within sixteen days.  Events have already got away from me as I post this (2 unblogged Knights games) so the reader will have to forgive me if this review of what has been is not as in-depth a post as it ideally should be.

Endings I - Wheelers Winter Season

We lost in the Grand Final against our Divisional foes, the Bumpers.  This was not only the end of the season but also the end of the current team formations.  This is because this Summer we are being encouraged to form our own teams, choose our own names, select our own jerseys (more on that later).  The organisers are of the belief that the Division has matured enough to allow for self formed teams (rather than centralised drafting for need).  As such, it seems appropriate to look back.

In the season just passed we fielded six skaters more often than not.  This was a major change from the past.  Our lines stabilised by the playoffs, albeit not entirely due on rink performance (a consequence of having two family groups, each with their own internal issues to juggle).  In this regard, the stats of Josh and Crystal look very good offensively but that was to at least some extent a result of putting our best defence with them (Merrilyn).  In goal, after a bit of chaos initially we settled in with Nicole between the pipes.  I think she was finding her game by season end.

In the longer term, I have played 48 games with the Wheelers across four seasons during which I went to four grand finals, won gold once and received an MVP.  My regular season stats have steadily improved over time but my post season stats remain woeful.

                                                               Regular Season          Post Season
                                                               GP   G   A  Pt     PPG
13/14 Summer C Grade    Wheelers     5     3   1   4      0.8     (3/1/0/1 0.33)   Silver
14      Winter        DivII        Wheelers   10    8   7   15    1.5      (2/0/0/0  0.00)  Gold MVP
14/15 Summer     Div II       Wheelers   12   12   8  20    1.67    (2/1/0/1  0.50)   Silver
15      Winter        Div II       Wheelers   12   11  14 25    2.08    (2/0/1/1  0.50)   Silver

Endings II - Ice Hockey Pre-Season

After a false start I began an off-season strength and conditioning program on July 1st.  I kept to my schedule pretty well for the first month, and then maintained an acceptable level of commitment through to the start of the season.  I had noticeable gains in leg, core and upper body strength, aerobic capacity and anaerobic performance, quickness and agility.  As the program wore through its second and into the third month I derived a great deal of satisfaction from my commitment itself, the activities themselves and the almost daily challenges such a program poses.

At the end of eleven weeks I was regularly going for a run, interval training, using a HR monitor (thanks Jess for the loan!) and pushing weights (again, thanks Jess!).  To a limited extent I'll be bringing all of these activities forward into the season proper, for both their game specific values AND the intrinsic pleasure I derive from them in themselves.  Who would have guessed it?

As to the value of the program, it was well worth it!  I had a small amount of weight gain (a primary goal of mine for years) and increased performance on many health related indicators.  Perhaps more importantly, the value has already shown itself in my inline games and the first two games of the ice hockey season.  They show themselves particularly in the following ways...

Increased ability to skate a shift and a game out
Better decision making through a game (due being less fatigued)
Decreased recovery time between both shifts and games
Greater strength along the board and in the crease
Quicker and faster
Increased confidence.
Greater knowledge about my own and other's bodies and physical capacity

All in all, a great advance in both my hockey and life potential.

Grand Final Game Day - Bumpers (7) d Wheelers (3)

The North Vikings Inline Hockey Club held its Grand Final extravaganza on Saturday.  All games from U10 up except ours were one goal games.  It was a great day, complete with flag, national anthem and a BBQ to keep the troops fed before the award presentations.  Profits from the BBQ and attendant cake stall went towards sending a Viking squad to the Barmera spring tournament.

We had a full roster, with Nicole in goal.  The Bumpers had their regular five with Matt the Goalie.  We had home advantage.  Game sheet is here.  What is not reflected on the game sheet is the penalty shot given the Bumpers when Crystal got called for unsportsmanlike conduct after losing her stick and throwing her glove towards/at (?) Craig (Nicole stopped the shot).

I have below posted video of various moments in the game.  I'll let it speak for itself.  There are a couple things I'd like to clarify however.  FIRSTLY, it was a closer game than the scoreline shows, though they did essentially outplay us and deserved their win.  There were two 'own goals' (one from a backwards pass that wasn't expected, another from a puck blinded goalie) and one that was a total 'fluke' (cleared hard up the boards by Craig, rebounded all the way to the back of the net).  Two goals were shorthanded.  Add to this the fact that I hit the post without reward and you can see that it was a close game.

The SECOND thing that (especially in retrospect) was memorable was the good feelings evident both during and after the game, more smiles than not and lots of hard but fair competition.  This despite the relatively large number of penalties (5 plus a penalty shot).

The Most Valuable Player in the game was judged to be Mel (Bumpers).  You can see in the video that her defensive play was tenacious, and she ended up with 1-3-4 on the game which is pretty darn good!

As for me, I scored one assist and was -1 for the game.  I had a quite a bit of energy left over at the end.  I was happy with my play, generally speaking, though there were aspects that could do with improvement (aren't there always!).

Things that I was happy, or at least satisfied, with include my general positioning and defensive coverage, nice sweep check (not caught on video), hardness of shots on goal and in-the-slot positioning, the fact I'm constantly moving, fitness level.

Things that need improvement include regulating the power of my passes (how often did the puck arrive too far ahead of a player to be of any use?), being a little more assertive onto the puck defensively (ie. aim at breaking up plays and turning over possession rather than a policy of denial), more talk.

A fitting game to end a fun season.

Off Season Day 81 - Week 11

Sep 13 Rest
Sep 14 Rest
Sep 15 Stickhandling, Run
Sep 16 Arms, Vikings Training
Sep 17 Run
Sep 18 Ice (sprints)
Sep 19 Wheelers Game 

September 13 and 14 were rest days.  Significantly warmer than we've had for months.  On the 14th I was at the Ice Arena to watch the final period of the Bantams Grand Final before returning a Peewee jersey and then again in the evening to watch the opening game of the C grade season between the Kings and the Predators.

On September 15 I spent almost twenty minutes in the morning doing some stickhandling practice.  Around midday I went for a run - 22 min, 55% in or above Zone 3, Avg HR 139, Max HR 169.  It is interesting that I was 3 minutes quicker than the previous run, despite having 7 walking periods this time (was 4 last time).  Again, I returned to running from walking mode as soon as HR dropped to 120.  I was using my breathing as the guide to when I thought I was getting close to 120, and then looked at the wrist unit of my loaned HR monitor to fine tune the time of commencement of my running.  which I was generally able to .  I was feeling it in the calf muscles more severely than the other day, I suspect because I haven't been eating as much as I should have the last few days.

On September 16 I started the day with a change up in the Arms routine.  I have now dropped the weight on the 'heavy' lifts to 4kg (plus 1kg for the bar) per dumb bell, and 2kg plus bar for the 'light' lifts, increased the number of reps to 15 per set and dropped recovery time between sets to 30 seconds.  I did two circuits.  Emphasis now has changed almost entirely to muscle endurance and power (previous weeks emphasised muscle building).  All done in less than 20 minutes.

In the evening I went to Gawler for Vikings Training.  I wore the heartrate monitor.  Sadly, wiped the data not long after seeing it, but memory serves to say that I had 66 minutes of data, about 3% of time below Z1 and over 60% of time in or above Z3, Max HR 197(!) and Avg was 148.  I put a lot of effort into the session, but recovered reasonably well when required and was still strong at the end (though the fading point wasn't far away).  The monitor said I burned over 800 calories.

Drills included variants of 1 on 1 race/battle/shoot from prone, the game of building numbers from 1 on 1 to potentially 1 on 4, one with one passing/protection game, 4 on 4 shinny and red rover.  A dozen skaters and one goalie.  I got given some good advice about keeping my stick in front of me rather than to a side when protecting a puck from an opponent behind me.

On September 17 I went for a run in the late morning.  Ran in spurts that took HR out to 155-165 then walked until dropped back to low 120s before running again.  Recovery HR dropped about 20 per minute, fairly consistent.  22 min, 15 min (65%) Z 2&3, Avg 138, Max 166.

On September 18 I made up for getting too late to training the night before by getting the rink in the morning 7of an already busy day and putting in a half hour of drills, including a run of 5 line sprints with 2 min recovery periods.  Probably 60 stops and pivots and half that of undercut takeoffs.  Time 30 mins, 45% Z2, 5% Z3, avg HR 134, max HR 163.

On September 19 I took it easy until playing in the Vikings Div II Grand Final for the Wheelers (we lost 7-3).  We kept to our line changes generally speaking, I double shifted only maybe twice (to take advantage of a Power Play and to work on the Penalty Kill).  I didn't have a HR monitor on (I forgot to bring it) but was pulling my breathing down to the 120 level within the minute during each recovery period, had energy to spare for the needs of each shift, didn't hold back on pushing myself to the limit when required.

On fitness and conditioning scales, in other words, I have reached the pass mark.  In terms of speed, I wasn't particularly aware of any failing.  Similarly with strength battles, whether on the boards or over a puck (including against a significantly larger stronger opponent).  Coped with knockdowns and slashing incidents well.  Overall, I am happy with my level of preparation for the ice season.

Week 11 in summary: am starting to scale back on strength, aerobic and, in effect, agility training, increasing the proportion of time devoted to on-ice activity and anaerobic conditioning in particular.  I failed to perform agility or speed exercises, so this will have to be commenced within Week 12 and I'll have to work on it during the early part of the season.  Overall for Week 11, a yellow grade.

Inline 54 & 55
Ice 36
 

Game Day - Wheelers (5) d Bumpers (4) - Finals Rd 1

We started our finals campaign last night with an intense one goal win over the Bumpers. 

The winner would go direct to the Grand Final on September 19.  Whoever lost this game would have to win an elimination game on September 6 against the winner of the game which followed ours (between the Rockers and Shufflers (Rockers won)) if they were to get there.  The winner of this first round would also have home rink advantage in the final (ie. able to change lines second at stoppages).

We had a full roster of Wheelers and Nicole between the pipes.  The Bumpers had four skaters, with Jana on IR due an upper body injury (received last week while playing up in Div I) and Kylie off to see her beloved Crows at Adelaide Oval.  They had Ashley as a fourth skater and Matt the Goalie in goals.

Our first line was composed of Crystal, Luke and Merrilyn.  Brenton, Natasha and I formed the second line.  The game featured frequent stoppages with few exceptionally long unbroken periods and practically no changes on the fly.  The lines themselves seemed to work well and we were all able to keep up a complete effort till the final siren.  The fact that the Bumpers only had four skaters and, due a major penalty, were then reduced to three with almost ten minutes to go (ie. no-one on the bench) certainly helped us on the night but I think that we would have coped just as well physically if they had had full lines (judging by the good condition we were still in at the end of the game).

The first couple shifts were pretty even.  That changed on the third, when Mel put one in for them from fairly close (deflecting in off of one of our players), and a minute later when Craig was given too much time and space near the centre line on the left flank and set up a crunching wrist shot that found a clear lane past all three of our skaters as it dipped and curved into the top left hand corner of the net.  A slashing penalty on Craig shortly afterwards didn't help our cause, and it took a single handed effort on Josh's part to score an unassisted goal and give us some hope as half time closed in.

We had three OZ faceoffs in the last thirty seconds of the first half.  We won all three and all ended in smothered shots on net.  I took the last face off, chipped it forward and burst past my opponent's sticks to rush the net with puck on stick, only to have Matt collapse himself onto the puck and hold it down until the half time siren whistled.  We were down 1-2.

The second half was one of the hardest periods of hockey I've yet played.  Josh opened the scoring off a pass from Merrilyn a couple minutes in to even the score, only to have Craig drop an impossible shot in from the corner a minute later.  Two minutes later Josh put in another equaliser, this time off a pass by Crystal, and the score was 3-3.  From our bench you could see them beginning to tire.

At this point the game got a bit stupid when a bit of verbal broke out on the rink.  I'm not sure exactly who started it nor over what the initial dispute was, but it resulted in an 2 minute minor against the Bumpers.  This was compounded shortly after by an initial refusal to leave the rink by the affected player, then by some bad mouthing of the referee, hurling of equipment and storming out of the barn.  This last resulted in a five minute major being levied.

While the theatrics played themselves out near the other team's bench we clustered around our gate, resolved to remain focused, make the most of our advantage.  Which we did with a power play goal a minute later (another score to Josh from a pass by Crystal).

At six minutes to go, the Bumpers called a time out to give their three skaters a chance to regather their breath.  We used it to reaffirm our intention to keep talking, passing, short shifting and pressing our advantage.

In the next play, things were starting to get desperate for them, resulting in their bear of a player (Craig) yelling a warcry as he approached the puck on the boards near our bench.  Not sure if his voice weapon was the culprit on its own or actual contact was made but Crystal went down and looked to be a bit in shock so I pulled her off on the fly and skated briefly with Merrilyn and Josh until the next whistle brought my own line mates out.  Next play, Natasha is down the OZ and puts in the game winning goal.

The last couple minutes were crazy with the Bumpers running on pure adrenaline and desire and on the attack.  This resulted in a single desperation goal from Mel, but there was nothing left in their tank during the final minute and we skated out winners 5-4.

My game was as good as its been in a puck possession sense, not surrendering any loose pucks without a massive struggle, pushing hard against their snipers in the neutral zone, kicking and scrapping on the boards to ensure forward motion, charging the net from the faceoff.  In my shotblock attempts I managed to make at least two minor deflections that probably weren't noticed by anyone but were sufficient to tip the puck over the net.  Had a couple comments made to me after the game about an apparent increase in my speed on the night (an artifact of skating practice at the Ice Arena the day before?).

Again, no points in a playoff game for me but, again, a valuable backup role and good last line player.

We go straight through to the Grand Final on September 19.  The Bumpers will have to beat the Rockers in the Semifinal next week if we are to complete a best of three end of season series against them.  We'll have to increase our intensity another notch if we wish to repeat this performance.

Inline 52

Off Season Day 53 - Week 7 Summary

Aug 21 Ice
Aug 22 Wheelers Game

On August 21 I went down to the Arena for an hour's skate in the afternoon.  Had half the ice due Ice Factor team practice on the other half.  Shared the space with a couple figure skaters.  I spent about ten minutes in recovery time.

Individual drills which I did were sideways walking, stops, first 'stride' backwards, first stride from transition (backwards to forwards), power stride recovery action, pivots.  Most technical was the exit from forwards transition onto the left leg.  Most measurable gain was power stride recovery. Least satisfactory were the pivots.

On August 22 I played in the Wheelers' Round 1 win in winter season finals.  We played with six skaters and thus were able to avoid double shifting.  Had a lot of energy left in the tank for the final minutes, could have played out another period.  Very physical game where strength on puck came into it, leg and core up to the task.  Several comments afterwards about apparent increase in my 'speed'.  I didn't think this while playing. 

What was noticeable to me, however, was that I spent more of my time in a 'high energy state' than is usual (ie. race to shut down uncontested space, open up a lane, etc).  This elevation in intensity came about due to increase in ability (physical strength and first step technique) as well as willingness to do so (no holding back energy for potential double shift, fact it was a final), wasn't an increase in speed per se.  That's what I think, anyway.

Week 7 Summary

I have only given myself an 'orange' rating for this past week.  Again, I didn't make quota on anaerobic conditioning (interval training) nor on Off Ice Technique (stickhandling).  I did make the cut on everything else, however, which wasn't too bad considering it was a rather busy week.

Ice 29
 

Off Season Day 48

Aug 15 Vikings Games
Aug 16 Arms
Aug 17 Agility, Run, Legs

In the afternoon and evening of August 15 I played in two games of inline hockey at Gawler.  This was the second week in a row I've done this.  I think I coped with it better despite both games being more demanding than their counterparts from the week before.  Importantly, the next morning I was nowhere near as sore either.

The first game had been four v four (ie. only one on the bench for each team) and every player could skate.  Thus, recovery periods were short and shifts were long and one had to be disciplined.  In the second game I played the role of 'responsible reserve' and tended to give as much time as they wanted to the team's own players.  This time, though, there were only two 'naturals' playing with us, so that led to more and harder minutes than the week before.

My aerobic recovery on the bench was sufficient to the task in both games and I was able to sustain play through extended shifts allowing others to recover.  Keeping my legs moving as soon as I had regained breath and, importantly, through the period between the games dissipated much of the lactic build up I was probably suffering and, I think, made a big difference the following morning.

The improvement from the week before is probably most due to a 'conditioning effect', of knowing what to expect (allowing conscious mindfulness) and having prepared the body for the experience (freeing up the mind).  Although I had eaten sufficient for the task through the day, probably the easiest way to further improve my performance will be through better dietary energy loading.

On August 16 I was still a little fatigued (though less than I had been in the previous week) and thus was again in danger of declaring the day an unplanned 'rest day'.  I did manage, however, to motivate myself to the extent of doing an arms session, usual weights, two circuits of ten reps, cutting the recovery time from 90s to 75s.

On August 17 I commenced my new life as a self funded layabout (having taken a package in return for my day job) so I put my status to good use and spent about ninety minutes on training activities.  I started with 25 minutes of agility drills, limiting myself to the four 'easiest' of them and trying to keep all movements slow and measured so I can drill into my neuromuscular self the movements needed before I step up the pace.  I did five reps of each drill, limiting myself to about the 5s per rep that is recommended for beginners with 25s recovery periods.

I found that by the end of the fifth rep I generally had the gross movement patterns down and was starting to concentrate on the 'popping' of the steps (removing the pause between contraction and extension motions), the point of the exercise.  If the motions are drilled in it will be interesting to see how the quickness develops in the next agility session.  For the record the four agility drills I commenced today were Forward (and Backward) Line Drill, Lateral Line Drill, Split Leg Shuffle and Split Leg 45' Shuffle.

I then went for my usual run.  I didn't stop to stretch and walked only twice (about 100m each time).  I was taking smaller steps than in past due pain in my calves from some ill considered isometrics I was doing yesterday (serves me right, I should know better) so my time was still relatively slow at 24 minutes.  Going at the slower pace, however, also allowed me to be a little more fine tuned with my breathing awareness, able to track VO2 efficiency (I suppose) against energy demand as I varied the pace.  Hopefully the legs feel better tomorrow.

To finish off the day's exercise I spent about a half hour going through my core leg exercises.  I left hardly any time between sets, and generally only 5-15s between reps.  Even so I didn't manage to fit the whole routine into the time available (no squats or Swedish Ball Planks).
 

Game Day - Wheelers (2) tie Bumpers (2)

My 50th game of inline hockey (including when I have been a reserve for other teams)!

On Saturday night I played in the Wheelers' game against the Bumpers.  It was a top of table end of season clash.  Top spot on the ladder was theoretically up for grabs (if we won by eight goals or more we would enter the finals series with home rink advantage, an almost but not quite impossibility). 

Both teams began the game with four skaters.  This occurred due a prior engagement for Natasha and back injuries through the week to Brenton and Craig (Bumpers).  We had Nicole in goal, they had Andy.  They had Greg acting as Bench Manager. We had Josh on the gate and performed our usual act of anarchic democracy in managing it.

Before the game we determined amongst ourselves to keep to short shifts.  We did pretty well in this regard, essentially rotating ourselves in a disciplined turn-taking fashion.  As the second half progressed I noticed that the more fatigued players were tending to the less active roles on the rink as they waited their turn for a breather, gaps between plays were utilised for aerobic recovery by mutual consent, the pace slowed down considerably, and the rotation order became a little more fluid to cater to individual capacity in the stretch.  I was very pleased with this aspect of our game.

I scored the first goal, unassisted, in the eighth minute but I can't recall much about it.  I do recall triumphantly punching the air and pointing my tick towards my team mate who had originally taken the shot that bounced high off the goalie to land back in the crease, where my stick met it on point of landing to poke it over the line just ahead of the open net closing.  Sweet garbage goal!

Two minutes later, Jana scored, and then two minutes after that, Mel did.  The Bumpers had two tripping penalties called against them in the closing two minutes.  I drew the second of these.  Unusually, it was against their goalie, I having 'teased' him with the puck as I moved across the goal front, tempting the pokecheck attempt that contacted my wheels and sent me to the floor.  

The last play of the half was amusing.  I came off the bench with only about 20s to play, took the faceoff and charged the net.  I think both Josh and I hammered in shots from reasonable positions for rebounds, and a third shot was let loose as the siren sounded.  The referee saw the blitz that we were trying to create for what it was and joined me in a wry smile as the half ended.

The second half was a more dour affair, four on four hockey is pretty exhausting!  Luckily, Merrilyn combined with Josh to shoot an equaliser with five minutes to go.  No one scored after that and the game ended in a 2-2 tie, the only tied game in our division all season!

 I often didn't make time for passing lanes to open up, resulting in Jana (in particular) blocking, deflecting or intercepting many of my attempts to create a play with a team mate in good position (often in the central slot zone).  This was the main way I surrendered possession.  I found out later that they were trying to put her on the rink when I was on, presumably to use her good defensive play to counter what they perceived as my threat.  This made for an interesting game, but I will need to work out a counter-strategy by next week.

There was a fair bit of puck protection going on, with attacking forwards keeping the puck on the outside of the more central defender, pushing and shoving against use of the hips to force separation in close, screens and scrums and wide deking to those who could do so (Josh).  I fended off all of their players at different times, I think at some point I both knocked down, and was knocked down by, each of them.   Against a player coming in close with good agility, such as Mel, I could easily find myself having to hip check, stick check, poke check, kick and otherwise use body position to fend of a rapid weaving attack.

Both teams used the rearwards pass to good effect.  These were rarely intercepted though I grabbed at least a couple long backpasses to create a rush.  We will have to keep in mind that if Craig is playing for them next week he will often be lurking in the neutral zone, waiting to collect a back pass and take a shot.  He has grown fitter through the season, content to sit back as their 'defence' and snipe and able to do this for large portions of the game if not forced out of this comfortable groove.

Crystal took a lot of our faceoffs.  She won the majority of those she took.  I think that she is a good second centre behind Brenton in this respect.

I was on for one of ours and none of their goals.  I think I had at least ten shots.  Will need to learn to raise the puck rather than just hope for the rebound.

GP 12 G 11 A 14 Pts 25 +20 8/3/1

Inline 49

Game Day - Wheelers (6) d Rockers (3)

On Saturday night we played the Rockers in the early game for Round 11 of the Vikings Div II Inline Hockey Winter season.  We had our full roster turn up.  The Rockers had four of their regular skaters, with young Rachel playing up as a reserve and Andy in goal.  If we won we remained in touch with the Bumpers at the top of the ladder, a loss and they'd clinch top spot.  If they won, the Rockers would remain in touch with us for second place and a valuable second chance in the playoffs.

Our 'Young line' opened both halves, scored within the first half a minute of the game.  The Rockers responded with two goals in the ensuing 12 minutes, giving them the lead and me a slightly sinking feeling.  Brenton then scored to tie up the game, and Natasha hacked in another with a couple minutes to go.  We led at half time 3-2, having outshot them 17-5.

In the second half, the Rockers equalised with their first of five shots for the period, resulting in the game being tied 3-3 until the 14 minute mark when Crystal put one in unassisted.  Rather than go into defensive mode, we stepped it up, resulting in a one timer off my stick from an offensive faceoff win and another unassisted goal from Crystal with two minutes left.  We totalled 23 more shots for the period against their 5, skating out clear winners 6-3.

*

We played a better team game than last week, generally down to functioning dyads or triads in each line, and a lot more communication.  We also put more emphasis on taking shots, with a greater tendency for at least one skater to be rushing the net or holding their ground in front of the crease.

We ran two consistent lines through 90% of the game, only minorly mixing it up when a couple shifts needed to change on the fly (returning to standard lines shortly afterwards).  Shift length was pretty evenly spread, with both lines taking short shifts on occasion.

Our only overly long shift was at the beginning of the second half, when the Young line was stuck on the rink for about five minutes (not the first time we've started the second shift like this) undoing the good work that we had done earlier when we gave the Old line a short one minute shift at the end of the first period so that the Young line could have a three minute break over half time to be relatively fresh for the beginning of the second half.  We have improved a lot this year in how we do this but there is still more work to do.

In the Young Line, Natasha tended to be the 'third skater' back behind the centre line.  I think she needs to trust herself a little more and play more forward, putting herself into the sights of Josh and Crystal as they create havoc deep in the offensive zone.  To her credit, nothing dangerous got past her and she wasn't afraid to carry the puck in for a shot when opportunity presented.  Josh and Crystal got into trouble occasionally by finding themselves too deep without an effective reset option, so if Natasha came more forward it would fulfill a number of needs.

Our Old line played slightly shorter minutes than the youngsters.  We were a pretty fluid trio and didn't play fixed roles, rotating off the backline as opportunity presented.  Playing with our third skater still above the redline, nothing dangerous got past us.  We had enough energy left at game end to know that we could have gone longer and stronger had the need presented (in fact, all three of us played as reserves in the second Div II game later that evening).

*

As seems to be the case these days, I was happy with my game.  I had no issues with any of my various injuries, gave myself no new aches or pains.  I didn't put myself into any major anaerobic breakdown, kept my feet moving as soon as I had aerobically recharged at the end of my shifts.  I was back in control of myself and ready to go again generally after a minute.

The training is paying off in other ways also.  For example, I had a couple physical matchoffs with Matt (ex Wheeler) and didn't lose any of them.  He is significantly heavier and more bulky than me and is not afraid of using his strength so holding my ground while protecting the puck, instead of relying on my skating to get clear, was in itself a marked improvement (as it created options).

I was involved in our second goal, getting a point for my assist pass to Brenton who scored from the slot.  I had gone on a rush down the boards but faced a congested centre when I entered the zone.  I held up the puck briefly, advanced, held it held it held until a passing lane opened into the slot and Brenton had come in with stick primed for the pass and his second favourite type of shot (gather, stop, aim, wind up, shoot).  Goal!  Besides the pleasure of this type of hockey, it also shows the benefits of varying my speed to suit the situation and create opportunities.  I'll have to pay more attention to the concept of slowing down in future.

I scored my own goal with a one timer from a faceoff victory pass by Merrilyn from the right offensive faceoff dot.  I hit it sweet and it rocketed in above the Goalie's pad and beneath the glove.  Like most of my other shots, it was a hard shot from middle distance.  Unlike most, it went through above floor level.  Some of the other shots were lovely aimed snaps, but moving on the rink surface slows the puck down, allowing the goalie further time to get pad or stick in the way.  If I could only lift the puck at will ... must figure out a practical practice set up to allow me to master this.

*

Next week we play the Bumpers in a top of table end of season clash.  We can theoreticcally take top spot (if we win by 8 goals or more).  This would be extremely unlikely but, if it were to happen, it would also not be inconceivable that I could score a career high six points more than Craig to take our Division's individual point scoring title from him (though his 25 goals easily ensures he will be the Division's leading goal scorer, unless Crystal scores 8 goals to take that title from him).  As I said, extremely unlikely, but one of the reasons we play sport is to dream!

GP 11 G 10 A14 Pts 24 +19 8/3/0

Inline 47

Game Day - Wheelers (6) d Shufflers (3)

On Saturday night we played the Shufflers.  They only had two roster players plus a 'new' one, two reserves (both Bumpers) and Andy in the net.  We had five roster players and Nicole in goals, so let Jana play with us as a reserve to fill out our lines.

We started with our 'old' line first, being Brenton, Merrilyn and me.  We played a vigorous two minute shift, were pretty knackered at the end of it.  Josh scored a neat singlehanded goal at the end of the next shift, and then it was about ten minutes of trading chances with them before Craig first equalised, and then put them in front a couple minutes later.  Lucky for us, Josh again closed his next shift with a singlehanded goal.  Near the end of the first half there was a pair of penalties against them, which we sadly failed to capitalise on.  We went into half time 2-2.

Almost immediately this was over early in the second half when Brenton got stung for tripping after probably the longest board battle I've seen (him and Merrilyn for our side), the puck never leaving the board as it was battled around from one centre wing, behind their goal and up to the opposite central wing.  We saw off the penalty kill (I didn't play at this point) and then Brenton hit the rink with a vengeance out of the box.  This was the only time our lines got 'muddled'.

Josh gave Crystal an assist to give us the lead after about five minutes.  She scored again (on her own this time) a couple minutes later for what was to prove ultimately the game winning goal.  Me and Merrilyn combined two minutes later, Craig dropped in his third for the Shufflers, and Merrilyn and I repeated our combination goal with one and a half minutes to go to close out the game 6-3.

We outshot them 10-8 in the first half and 15-5 in the second.  Nicole's goal tending continued to improve, with her basic body positioning and butterfly technique starting to occur 'naturally'.  She says that she's organised childcare for the rest of the season, so she should be in something approaching her standard form by the time finals come around.  Excellent.

Josh continues to improve, going like a runaway train almost the whole time he is on the rink (as Merrilyn puts it).  The changes he's made to his lifestyle in the last month are really showing their effect in his skating and general game play, let alone the consistency of his scoring output.  Crystal also took a significant step forward, showing how hard she can skate in the last couple shifts of the game.  I think maybe when she learns to trust her decisions a bit more, this will become a feature of her game.  She's actually quite quick when focused.  Jana played generally with Josh and Crystal, added a little defensive stability to an otherwise improvisational line.  I only played the one shift with her, and managed to block her best shot at goal.

Brenton played a stirling game, taking all of our line's faceoffs and winning them all.  He might not have gotten any points but he saved a few goals just by his faceoff performance.  It's a pleasure playing wing to him when he does this.  Merrilyn was her usual hard playing self, taking it close to her physical limit every time she goes out on the rink.  I played the mobile sweeper for our line, complementing the positionally sounder play of my partners.  It was really nice to start connecting passes again to Merrilyn in front of goal (we haven't played on the same regular line for several games) and feel the chemistry work.  Both her goals came off tape to tape passes by myself on the wing/corner, the second after I had held the puck waiting for a passing seam to open.

I was pretty chuffed with my game.  It didn't quite have the physical element the last game had, though I did have to exert my strength a couple times against Mike and Craig to ensure they didn't muscle the puck from me.  I didn't take faceoffs because Brenton was on fire with them.  I put several good shots on goal, one of which was apparently quite memorable.  I think it was the one where I dodged my way through traffic to cut across the face of goal just outside of reach of the goalie until it seemed that I was too wide to shoot, and then flicked a no look backhand with a lot of power right on the net (barely saved with a deflection of the goalie's blocker).

But the chemistry evident in the passing game with Merrilyn (and to a slightly lesser extent, Brenton) was my highlight.  Together with the fact that I had more than sufficient energy once the aerobic system kicked in at about the five minute mark.

It was about half way through the second half that I felt a loss of power in my left leg, associated with upper rear muscles.  Not knowing better, I thought it might be a hamstring strain, took it a bit easier, considered even stopping.  Played it out and then worried about what I'd done.  Turns out it was all okay.

Very pleased.

GP 10 G 9 A 13 Pts 22 +18 7/3/0

Inline 46

"A tough little bastard!"

In the aftermath of Saturday's defeat by the Bumpers their top shooter called me a 'tough little bastard'.  For a middle age player who is 5'6", 135lbs (167cm / 62kg) and not yet four weeks into a pre-season strength and conditioning program, this was almost inspirational.  My opponent was a big 6'2" and I'd managed to forecheck, block, harrass and challenge him the whole game.  But pinning him successfully to the board and then holding him there had to have been the highlight of our battle.

We'd skated head on towards a loose puck behind our goal, he'd tried to protect it and get it out, I'd jammed the puck back in with my stick and then prevented him breaking free by activating core and thigh to push him into the board.  As he pushed back off the boards against me, I jammed my leg between his and held onto the board to push him back in.  Eventually he struggled free, but not before he'd lost control of the play.  This is the first time I've achieved this against a reasonable player who is significantly bigger than myself.  It's for moments like these that I'm training.  It was great to feel the payoff, even greater to have my effort recognised by my opponent after the game.

I was pretty happy with my game overall, though there were some significant failings also (more to do with decision making rather than skill or fitness).  Apart from the above mentioned strength contest, aspects with which I was pleased included several stick checks and steals off of their attacking forwards (I include within these incidents the fact that I managed the gap and my speed to do so), the fact that I protected the puck and thought about what I was doing (instead of just whacking it) when I won narrow races to loose entries, strong harassing play from behind when chasing down their players on the breakaway, getting at least five shots on goal from dangerous positions in the slot (including two on the breakaway).  I made a few good cross rink passes to clear the zone, and used our net to shelter behind when we reset.  All these things were good, noticeable improvements even from the start of the present season.

Other, more 'meta', aspects of my game also showed continued development.  I played to my physical limit, but not beyond, on most shifts.  At no point did I feel totally spent, and I finished the game strong.  I combined well with Brenton, generally managing with him to ensure our defence was covered on our line.  I took my role as 'best skater' on our team quite seriously and generally managed to contain their most dangerous skater or powerful shot on the backcheck.

The times I failed to perform up to ability during the game were generally moments to do with wrong gameplay choices.  Sadly, two of those moments resulted in them scoring.  The first occurred during their power play (Crystal's minor for tripping).  Me and Brenton took the penalty kill and were doing quite well holding it in their end.  I even got a rush on and put a shot on goal.  Sadly, I didn't hold my feet and went down in mid rink.  I managed to gather the rebound in from my knees (!) but, rather than hold and protect the puck while I got to my feet, I dumped it back in after even thinking of taking a shot from the floor (I had time for choices).  Unsurprisingly, they gathered it in and on the resultant rush I was unable to close the gap on their shooter on the far wing.  He got off a crunching laser shot from just past the centre line (said shot curving past me through the air to find the top corner of the net).

My second major 'fail' moment also involved a shot that I might otherwise have prevented.  This time, Jana came down the centre, cut to her right and then came in at the goals from the boards.  I'd dropped back rather than tracking her, meaning she had time and space to close the distance and aim her shot.  I hesitated, ended up attempting to slide in front of the shot on my knees.  She delayed a millisecond and the shot went through (probably at least partially screened by myself).

My own goal was a hard shot from the slot, after I'd managed to shake my coverage and open a passing lane from Crystal in the corner.  I held off shooting for a moment, tapped the puck to create a better angle, released.  I struck it hard and it went through above Mat the Goalie's sprawling pads.  This was the only shot that I deliberately set up and aimed, the others were rushed when they didn't need to be.  I totally forgot my backhand as a shooting option.  I could do better in this regard.

Be this all as it may, I was pleased with my game, and generally with the Wheelers players.  We have our own lives outside of hockey and as a team its up to the rest of us to perform better when one of us is down.  Our failings were as a team rather than as players.  Knowing us, we'll learn.

I think, though, that what I'll most remember the game for is being called a 'tough little bastard.'  It makes the hard slog of training somewhat worthwhile!

Game Day - Bumpers (5) d Wheelers (1)

Last night served as a reality check to my budding self belief and resultant ambitions, resulting from my off season training and conditioning program, as we were soundly beaten by the Bumpers in the late game of inline hockey at Gawler.

We had a new Goalie, Nichole, who is returning to the game after a break of several years and only being asked if she was keen to do so the night before.  She's IS pretty keen, and she looks like she'll be a pretty good goalie when she gets the right muscles woking again, so we might have a good backstop by the time finals come around.  The Bumpers are now two games clear of us at the top of the table while the Rockers are two games below.  There are three regular season games remaining.

The game is fairly simple to describe.  The play was pretty even for the first eight minutes, then Jana scored their first goal singlehanded after deking her way in and behind our 'second' line.  I answered back with a sweet shot from the slot after Crystal drew the defence towards herself in the corner and then passed the puck in.  We went into half time tied at 1.  We'd had six shots on goal while the Bumpers had managed only three.

The second half had more work for the officials.  The Bumpers scored four goals and took two penalties, we were penalised once and didn't score.  One of their goals was on the power play.  We repeated our first half efforts for six more shots on goal, they more than doubled their production for eight.  The end result was eleven exhausted skaters and two even more exhausted goalies.  Bumpers won 5-1.

As a team we didn't play at our best despite good individual efforts.  We most noticeably let ourselves down by a lack of communication and lack of pressure on the puck.  Lack of talk led to passes going into space (effectively becoming dumps for them to collect and take possession), lack of decision making time (good communications allows for more 'processing capacity' to be freed from sensory interpretation and instead used for game play), 'clustering' and a greater element of confusion when there needn't have been.  Lack of pressure on the puck allowed them to make good decisions with possession.  Our failure to rush the net and push forward on the break meant we had fewer shots, and the shots we did take were from further out and less dangerous than they have been of recent times. The above factors are all able to be improved so all is not lost.

There were some good aspects to our game as well.  Josh appeared much fitter, was still powering strong on his last frantic shift in the attacking zone.   We kept steady line combinations for much of the game, both seemed to function pretty well for most of that time (I felt particularly comfortable with Brenton).  We held noticeably more possession in the first half (though less so in the second - probably about even).  We all played a two way game as individuals.  These are all good things.

Next week we play the Shufflers.  Might be a chance to try out different line combination (ie.
'Old line' with Merrilyn, Brenton and me, and 'Young line' with Crystal, Josh and Natasha)?

Next post will cover my own game.

GP 9 G 9 A 11 Pts 20 +16 6/3/0

Inline 44

Fuzzy Wheeler Stats

The other night I worked out a bunch of stats for the top two teams in our Div II competition.  Sadly, it appears I failed to save the results of my calculations so I won't be able to record them for posterity unless I go through the tedious counting and calculating all over again.  No doubt it would be simpler to do the second time around, but I still can't be bothered.  So I'll post my statistically inspired ruminations in their more fuzzy form.

I was able to derive comparative team statistics of Shooting Percentage (Goals/Shots on Goal), Save Percentage (Goals Against/Shots on Goal Against) and a raw team Corsi Percentage (SOG/(SOG+SOGA).  I only worked up the numbers for the top two teams because we are drawing clear ahead of the other two.  Although the sample size is only eight games (320 minutes), the regular season is only 12 games so it's a fair sample for that purpose, albeit subject to a large range of apparent variablility and wild regressions. 

For interest's sake, I also looked at how many points the players on the teams generate as a measure of 'assisting goals' - this last due to the ready availability of the stats and the different styles of play of the two teams.  For all the statistical weaknesses of my data, it is what I have so I made the most of it.

From what I recall, our shooting percentage dropped from 23% to 21% from game 7, Save Percentage went up a percentage point to 86%, Corsi remained about the same at 65%.  About two thirds of our goals are 'assisted'.  The Bumpers SP% was 21% (holding even), SV% was 91%, Corsi 57%.  Less than a third of their goals were 'assisted'.

Until recently, the Big Question about hockey stats was whether they show something meaningful about the performance and style of the team/player analysed.  That question has been answered fairly conclusively in the affirmative in the NHL world, and will no doubt permeate far and wide as a result.  This small study is another affirmation of this answer, because what it shows does reflect the performance and stylistic difference between the two teams studied.

For example.  After our most recent game against the Rockers it was interesting to hear what spectators and our opponents thought, as well as what our own opinions were.  It seemed to me that we basically weathered the early storm, suppressed shots and shot attempts through the game, increasingly played our defensive game (ie. when we didn't have possession of the puck) up their end of the rink, passed the puck around a lot, combined to outfox the goalie and score our goals.  I was told by both observers and opponents that they rarely had uncontested possession, couldn't get shots off, and we played an 'ice hockey style of game' with a lot of (passing) 'triangles' making it hard to get the puck off of us.  In other words, we seem to play an aggressive as well as attractive team game and don't rely on any one player for options.  Which is pretty cool for a Div II inline hockey team at the bottom of the world!

The Key stat, of course, is WINS.  The Bumpers have 7 and we have 6.  They have a total of 43 goals to our 40, and we have two more goals against than they do.  Thus, we need to beat them by three or more goals next week if we want to take top spot.

It looks like being a great game.

Game Day - Wheelers (5) d Rockers (0)

Last night, we played the Rockers in Game 8 of the North Vikings Winter Season of inline hockey.  We had five Wheeler skaters on our bench (Crystal was away) with Matt in goal (I welcomed the news, saying that he brings us luck, he said that he thought we lost our last game with him in the pipes, I said that doesn't mean we weren't lucky, and how could he come back at that except in the way he did (ie. with a shutout)).  The Rockers had Andy in pipes and six on the bench, including Mel from the Bumpers as a reserve.  We'd been asked earlier if we needed a reserve, to which we'd fired back the information that we had four definite starting skaters and our fifth might be late (Brenton got there on time shortly afterwards) so, now that he knew that, we'd leave it to the co-ordinator.  We ended up going with our own five starters.

My thoughts before the game were that it was going to be a fairly close contact type of game, with four regular Rockers who play a solid c grade game.  I thought we had the edge but that it would be a tough battle either way.

Which was true.  The end scoreline doesn't really give an accurate picture of the game.  Merrilyn and me started on the bench, watched the Rockers have at least one shot on goal and us generally relying on strong defensive positioning.  This continued to be the way of it for the next few shifts, their initial onslaught regressing until a pattern of play established itself half way through the period.  We tended to suppress their shot attempts without necessarily keeping possession in the both ours and the neutral zone, making rapid forays which usually resulted in either a shot or a scrum in front of goal.

At the ten minute mark I carried the puck through the neutral zone for a mid range shot at goal, which rebounded out and resulted in a competition between me, the goalie and a rapidly arriving pair of Rockers to get control of the puck.  Somehow I managed to tap it to Tasha, standing near the far corner post, who lifted it neatly over the goalie's outstretched pad to open the scoring.

As is often the case, we started to find our rhythm from this point on, put a fair bit of emphasis on preventing their having any good opportunities, keeping them in the corners, etc.  We didn't make the regular attacks we had been prior to opening the scoring but, to be fair, we were also beginning to become quite tired.   Sitting on the bench as the final minute of the half ticked down, Merrilyn and I both commented on how spent we felt.  I knew that Josh was struggling with his recoveries, Brenton and Tasha seemed to be holding reasonably steady.  With less than a second to the siren Pauline got off what was probably the Rockers' best scoring opportunity of the game with a high hard shot from the slot from an intercepted attempt at a clearing 'pass' that sadly went right to her.  Matt caught the shot and the siren went and I told Josh to catch his breath as he came off.  1-0 at half time with us playing a more settled game than our opposition.

The second half began, much as the first half did, with a tight ten minute tussle.  They were desperate to get shots on goal and, to their credit, they succeeded in doing so.  Significantly, however, all came from outside 'the house' and Matt dealt with them quite well.  Our shots, on the other hand, tended to come from close in on the crease, and on the rush from, or through a crush in, the slot.  At about the ten minute point, Josh put in a goal from one of his kamikaze assaults and I breathed a sigh of relief from the bench.  It certainly feels better to have such an 'insurance goal' than not to.  From this point, the game changed dimensions in the last ten or so minutes.  They started finding it hard to get the puck out of their own end as we pressed forward.  The game had swung into our hands and all we had to do was capitalise.

In the last ten minutes we scored three more goals.  The first went through with five minutes to go, Merrilyn potted it after catching Natasha's pass, who herself had received it after a relief pass from her to me, recovering in D on the centre line, and subsequent return.  A minute later I broke up the right boards, cut in towards centre across the high slot while being pursued, managed to flick a blind backhand laser shot into the near corner of the net.  Neat shot.  4-0.

I played a role in our final goal, receiving a releasing pass from Josh near our goal as I skated up the left flank, drawing two defenders onto me as I held it up and allowed Tasha to get into position, cross ice pass to her and a quick lifted shot into an upper corner.  Great shot.  5-0.

Two minutes to go and our last shift was on the rink.  Me and Brenton sat it out on the bench, though I think we were both pretty right to go back on.  It was interesting watching Josh's skating, you could see him hit 'the wall' as his power, technique and decision making all went by the wayside as he gutted it out to finish the game.

GP 8 G 8 A 11 Pts 19 +17 6/2/0

Inline 42

Game Day - Wheelers (9) d Shufflers (1)

On Saturday evening the Wheelers played the Shufflers in the early Div II game in the Vikings inline hockey competition at Gawler.  It was the seventh game of the season.  All our skaters were available and we had Andy in goal again.  The Shufflers had five skaters and their regular goalie.

I promised myself that I wouldn't play to the point of being spent.  This due the fact that I had been suffering a head cold all week (had not gone to training as a result).  It hadn't progressed down into my body, which was the only reason I adjudged myself fit to play at all.  This inconvenience was dwarfed by the fact that Merrilyn's mother had died the day before.  We all wore black armbands to mark the occasion.  I suspect that the game offered a little relief from the period of grieving for her and her family.  I hope so, anyway.  My thoughts remain with them, and her in particular.

Despite the scoreline, or perhaps because of it(?), there isn't a great deal to now say about the game - famous last words for a blogger...

I played on the opening line with Crystal and Luke.  We played a good two minute shift before rotating off.  The Pfeiffer line then went out and played a good defensive shift before our return.  At the 14:30 point, Crystal slotted the first goal of the game off a neat pass by her brother.  We immediately changed up.  Three minutes later, the Shufflers scored one of their rare goals this season against the Pfeiffer line.  Game was tied, and the play matched the scoreline.

We changed up and I took the faceoff.  The Shufflers had had a morale boost with their goal, a couple of my team were thinking that this game wasn't as easy as they'd thought it would be.  It is such delicate moments that can see games and seasons swing, so I approached the faceoff with a predetermined result in mind (which is rare for me) and followed through to create it (which is rarer still).  Tap out to the right, grab possession, force the puck past the extended stick of their centre, deke left then right around the next shuffler, tie up sticks with puck between on their last skater, kick the puck free and swoop in on the goal before slamming it home unassisted.  Probably my strongest skilled goal and turned out to be the game winner.

From there it was a bit of a parade.  Crystal scored three more goals in the first half, with assists from myself, myself and Josh, and then from Merrilyn when we mixed our lines up a bit.  We went into half time 5-1 up, having allowed only four shots to our sixteen.

Second half was much the same.  Brenton scored off a pass by Merrilyn into the slot, Josh and I each scored unassisted (him off his own rebound, me from a breakaway up the boards when I took my opportunity upon noticing the open '5 hole' (between the goalie's legs) with no stick, through which I promptly fired my shot a few inches off the surface), and a final goal by Brenton off a nice backhand backhand pass from me when he was open in the slot and the goalie had been drawn to my side of the rink.  Final scoreline, 9-1.

To the Shufflers' credit, they never stopped resisting us.  In the final couple minutes, for example, there was a passage in their high slot where all six skaters were within a fairly narrow radius and the puck rocketed back and forth between bodies, sticks and skates maybe five or six times before it indecisively rolled free.

Other moments of note occurred in their goal crease, including a hard shot from me on a break out like that which had resulted in my second goal, except that this time the puck slammed into the bottom of the goalie's helmet and she remained stationary for a few seconds before gathering it in.  I thought I might have harmed her, but she later told me that she was just checking that all her bits worked before moving them.  The other really weird thing was when one of us slammed it in towards the goal corner hard from close in with a crush in front of net.  I was low on the other side of the net, heard it hit the post nearest me, heard it hit another piece of pipe before slowly rolling out on the far side of the goalie.

As always, a hard fought game.  For the second week in a row, no penalties.  We outshot them 34-10 on the shot clock.  Again, we scored twice as many goals off of assists (or multiple assists) as we did unassisted.  Five of us scored points (Me 5, Crystal 4, Josh 3, Merrilyn and Brenton 2 each).  We were constantly trying the passing game, with shots when they presented themselves.  Natasha was just unlucky not to have joined us in the points.  Our shift discipline was perhaps the best it's yet been, rotating down to short shifts of a minute or so in the final few minutes.  I think there was only once where we unintentionally mixed the lines up due lack of attention (as opposed to changing on the fly).  We are developing into a team that plays hockey, not one that just funnels in shots. 

My own game was pretty good.  As you'd expect considering I walked away with five points 2-3-5.  I was on for six of our goals, none of theirs, played pretty fierce defence, hunting them in the corners, clearing the crease, closing the gap at every opportunity.  I think of the way some of them crowed last season when they comfortably wiped the floor with us (they had a couple new guys with them, who are playing Div I at the moment) and felt no guilt.  That's hockey.

We remain second on the ladder, one game behind the Bumpers, two games clear of the Rockers.  Next week we play the Rockers in the late game.

GP 7 G 7 A 9 Pts 16 +13 5/2/0

Inline 41

Game Day - Wheelers (4) d Bumpers (2) & Benchboss!

On Saturday night we played the Bumpers in a top of table inline clash to mark the halfway point of the regular season.  A win would put us within a game of top spot.  We had a full line up of six skaters, with Andrew filling in goal.  They had five regular skaters (effectively their full roster) and Matt the Goalie.  The Wheeler's rostered goalie, Mike, turned up for a while in his civilian clothes which was pretty cool considering he confirmed that his wrist had been cracked in round 4 (?) and the jury was still out on tendon damage.

I finished a short second shift by scoring the game's opening goal at the four minute mark.  It seemed to me that we were a bit scrambly in defence, but had always covered their plays - perhaps due our basic skills and doggedness, perhaps due luck.  I can't recall much about it except that I thought at the time that Merrilyn passed it to me in the slot from about midway after she'd battled out of defence, and I got it in on a bit of a rush at the net.  Crystal was officially credited with the assist.

I went straight off after the goal, and watched the next shift produce Josh's first ever goal (again, off a pass from Crystal) less than two minutes later.  Seven minutes after that, Jana scored the Bumpers' first goal singlehanded (I watched her stickhandle into the centre and past our defence from the bench, picking it before she'd passed half way).  Less than a minute later, Brenton and I combined from a backhand pass from me and a hard shot by him and Josh battling for the rebound and sneaking it in for his second goal.  3-1 at half time.

The first shift in the second half ended after two and a half minutes with Craig sending a slapshot from half way in the general direction of the goal and hoping his wingers would be there for any rebound, only to see it sail through just under the crossbar in the corner.  Craig was more surprised than I was (I had again been in position and had the foresight to have been able to try and block the shot had I not chosen to stay with the player and leave the puck to the goalie).  Josh was keen to reinstate our buffer goal, and I was on with him and Natasha when they combined after a pass by me to give Josh his hat trick and us our 4-2 game winning score.

I noticed early in the game that Mel wasn't totally on her game for the Bumpers (she later confirmed to me that she hadn't eaten or drunk sufficient through the day), Craig appeared to be a bit out of sorts with his energy, leaving Jana the only one on their team in full form.  That is perhaps to unfairly discount the Juniors, Ashley and Laura (Ashley probably the best skater on the rink, Laura the most ferocious in her attack on the puck (as befits her years)).  Ironically, Craig was the only one on their team that we could generally outskate, so it was quite a physically strong game amongst the rest of us.  Albeit, no penalties and a lot of puck protection so it was clean if fairly hard fought for C grade hockey.

Our best player was Merrilyn, despite the fact that she was the only one on our team who didn't score a point on the night.  Her defensive value is immense, causing turn overs by her quick poke check, or preventing the rush by her ability to tie things up on the board, not to mention her ability to consistently win these battles outright against two opponents through sheer determination, use of her feet and ability to twist and turn, and her general refusal to play it the opponent's way.  It was due in no small measure to her efforts that we limited them to only three shots compared to our nine in the first half.  The second half was even on the shot clock (eleven shots each) but the damage had been done by then.

I got about three good shots off at goal that were stopped, one noteable one just caught under the goalie's pad.  I didn't miss any open goal shots this game.  I managed to deflect several shots at goal off my stick, and didn't get deked around in the centre of the rink.  I was on for three of our goals and Craig's slapshot for them.  I won around half (?) of my faceoffs, and chased down most of theirs before it could be cleanly received (or crowding the receiving player immediately thus preventing several shots in our zone).  Our team is talking more each week, getting more and more passes out of pressure situations, continues to play an aggressive defence (keep it in their zone).  I found myself several times using my body to seize control of a loose puck, and reaching wide with the puck to keep it away from harrassing opponents.  Loved it!

Half way through the season, we are one game behind the Bumpers and one ahead of the Rockers.  The poor Shufflers remain winless at the bottom of the table.

In the next game, I was 'door opener' for the Rockers in their 2-1 win against the hapless Shufflers.  Merrilyn was filling in on the Rockers and I had the pleasure of watching her and Pauline combine to play good strong hockey.  It was nice to start my coaching career with a win, also!

GP 6 G 5 A 6 Pts 11 +7 4/2/0

Inline 40

Game Day - Wheelers (4) d Rockers (1) & Shuffler duty

I played a double header on Saturday after nine days without skating.  Heading to Gawler I was attempting to resolve in my mind how I should play the first game, where I believed I would be a Reserve playing with the Shufflers against the Bumpers in top v bottom clash.  The difficulty was created by the fact that to play conservatively is not something I naturally do but to play the first game 'full on' ran the risk of me being burned out before the second game, when I would be with my own team.  It was nice to learn when I got there that I had the order mixed up, I'd play the earlier game with the Wheelers, and my Reserve game at the end of the evening. I'd play them both as strongly as I could.

Wheelers d Rockers

We had five Wheelers (all bar Natasha) and Matt the Goalie.  The Rockers had six skaters and Andrew in Goals.  I'd thought we were probably the better team all round but that it would be a tough physical game, especially with their top three skaters (Pauline, Matt and Mal) not being adverse to holding their ground.  The winner of the game would go one game clear into second place on the ladder as we approach the season's half way point.  They'd beaten us 4-3 last time we met, though on that occasion the reserve they had play for them could pass, shoot and check and this had made a difference (always handy to have four front line skaters instead of three).

The first half began quite physically, with them putting their best line out to open and us holding back a little.  It was end to end for a couple plays before we entered their zone with a hard shot by myself from the centre, Josh scrapping for it in front of the net before passing it back to me on the centreline, who held it briefly before passing off to Merrilyn in the corner area.  She lined up and put a shot in from an almost impossible angle, finding a gap just wide enough between torso and goal post to put the puck through with a beautiful shot.  She was wrapt with the shot, Josh had scored his first point, and I had dished out my first assist for the evening.

The Rockers didn't take this well and stepped up their aggressive play almost immediately.  We were a little on the edge for several minutes before there was a four person battle on the boards with less than a minute to go.  I just remember being locked in the contest with Mal, boots and sticks hacking at the puck, others joining in, me eventually kicking it into open ground and pushing my way through obstructing sticks to get it.  The whistle went just as I collected it.  I thought I might be done for holding, or perhaps another for high sticking, or another for interference/roughing.  I looked to the referee expecting rough justice only to see him pointing at Mal.  He'd hooked me as I broke free, earning two minutes.

We launched into attack immediately on the power play, with less than half a minute to go.  It was a short power play.  Brenton shot the puck in within 20 seconds, the rebound lay on the floor in front of and slightly to the side of the goalie who was swatting at it with his stick as I got my stick their first and tapped it onto Krystal's blade in the corner and in it went.  She got the goal, and Brenton and I got an assist.  All five of our skaters had at least a point as we went into the half time break 2-0 up.

The second half was again pretty brutal for the first seven or so minutes, when I found myself on a breakout after seizing the puck in mid floor and swinging behind Brenton and up the wing, telling him to rush the net as I did so.  I was being chased, had to concentrate on protecting the puck as I raced towards the corner, heard the call 'Centre!' and backhanded it on a blind pass to where Brenton was steaming up the middle, just out reach of the goalie at moment he hit the puck and scored.  He was pretty chuffed!

Our final goal was put through by myself a couple minutes later.  Again, there was a melee in the corner, leaving Krystal on the floor in pain.  No whistle, so have a shot on goal, which rebounds amidst a couple other falling bodies who have snagged the goalie in his corner (both these bodies were Rockers).  I pick fight a stick battle to gain control of the puck, carry it back out of their reach, think twice about having a shot and having to elevate it over the bodies before me, give it a back hand tap to the other side of the net and then a final tap to put it in.

It seemed that much of the stuffing had been knocked out of them by this goal, with some of the intensity dropping off the game from this point although the speed was still there.  Mal scored the final goal of the game in a last minute rush up the boards and a shot from just over half way.  I was in a blocking position, but consciously decided to get out of the way to leave the goalie an unobstructed view.  Unfortunately for him, the puck curled slightly and found the top far corner.  The final whistle followed soon after.  4-1.

We'd had fifteen shots on net to their nine.  We limited them to 3 in the first half, mainly by staying in their zone for much of the time.  I found myself playing the D role a fair bit, hovering on the centreline when we were in their zone and providing a safe outlet option several times to our forwards.  When I was deep in their zone it was usually as the result of joining or starting a rush.  The pattern continued in the second half, although we by then were ceding more ground and the zone times would have been less lopsided.

I had quite a few shots at goal, all along the ground, with all but one either missing the net or being blocked by blocker or pad.  I think I lost most of my faceoffs, but only took a small number this game so it didn't hurt us.

This was my first ever four point game.  Two of our goals came from double assists, only one was unassisted.  We played an aggressive passing game, tended to play aggressive defence also (ie closing the gap, blocking the shot, screening the pass, etc).  Josh appears to be hooked on hockey, after starting less than two months ago.  Krystal is talking of playing on the ice this summer.  It's a good team that works well together that we have.  Next week we play the Bumpers, top of table clash, half way through regular season.

GP 5 G 4 A 5 Pts 9 +5 3/2/0

Inline 37

Bumpers d Shufflers

I played a second game on Saturday evening, having been asked the week previous at training if I could make myself available to be a reserve for the Shufflers.  I've not played as reserve for them before but am always looking for more chances to play hockey so had grabbed the chance when I could.  For this game the Shufflers had six skaters (two veterans, two classic c graders, Bec and myself), talkative bench managers who provided good coaching direction (changed at half time), and their regular goalie.  The Bumpers had five regular and one reserve skater (Rachael), with Matt in goals.  Bumpers were undefeated on top of the ladder, the Shufflers were winless on the bottom.  How times change!

Their shooting was too good for our goalie.  The score was 7-0 after Jana put in her third goal (she was 4-2-6 over forty minutes).  We celebrated our lone goal with a half minute to go in the first, with me protecting the puck in the corner (having told the two rookies I was with on the rink to go for the net as I'd raced past them for the puck back in our zone) before turning around and seeing both of them steaming in from centre with sticks on ice in an attacking line with no-one between them and the goalie.  I put a forehand pass in front of them just above the crease, pretty certain that at least on of my two forwards would knock it in.  Which is exactly what happened!  7-1 at half time.

In the second half we limited them to 3 goals, despite having a penalty called on Jess (the first time newb on my line) and the wear and tear of our tired bodies.  Final score line was 10-1.

What I found most heartening was that I was +/- 0 for the game.  This, in a 10-1 loss!  We were doing something right defensively, because I was by far the best skater on my line and the other two had to play determination and position.  Which they did most splendidly!  A spectator who had seen both of my games wondered to me after the game why I hadn't played like that for the Wheelers.  Considering I'd scored four points in that game, I took this as an unintentionally high compliment on my play.

It had been a great night of hockey!

Inline 38

Game Day - Wheelers (6) d Shufflers (2)

On Saturday we played the last game of the evening at the Gawler Rec Centre against the Shufflers.  Our four 'old hands' were present, plus Mike in goals.  The Shufflers fielded six skaters, including Mel and Jana from the Bumpers.  We realised this would be somewhat of a challenge, resolved between ourselves before the game to rotate with short shifts.  The fact we were only running out of legs in the last five minutes of the second half is some evidence that we managed what we had pretty well.

The first half was a fairly tight affair.  Brenton copped a penalty for 'interference' in the first couple minutes.  I didn't see the incident but gather he was nonplussed, as were at least one of his linemates.  Because, from the following face off, Krystal single handedly charged into the forward zone and crashed a goal on her own.  We held them out for the rest of their powerplay.  Jana equalised with a goal three minutes later, only to have Krystal steal the lead back for us with seconds to go before half time.

Two and a half minutes into the second half and I scored what turned out to be the game winning goal from the joint assist of Merrilyn and Krystal.  Krystal followed this up with two more single handed affairs and I scored our sixth goal with freakish style from behind the half way line.  They scored a late consolation goal with a minute to go.  We skated it out to be eventual winners 6-1.

I was moderately happy with my game.  I think I won all of my face offs, generally tapping the puck behind and to my right, then  protecting it with my body as I decided whether to skate or pass backwards.  This is the second week in a row with this sort of record!

I had quite a few shots at goal.  Two rang off the post, and a third was counted this way though I half think I saw it somehow go through and bounce out (of the top left corner) as I skated past at speed on my follow through.  I don't recall much of my first goal, only that it came from a shot from a swiftly rolling puck in the low slot through traffic and the five hole.  I was complimented for it later by a couple of the opposition.

For my second goal, I was actually congratulated on court by some of my opposition, it was such a freakish shot.  I was lurking just on the defensive side of the half way line, about a third of the way in from the rightside boards.  Merrilyn had control of the puck in the back right corner, under some pressure from Jana as the Shufflers pressed forward.  Merrilyn saw me free, snapped out a pass that I saw coming as though in slow motion.  As it drew near I thought, 'bugger it, have a go'.  I was facing our end as I positioned myself so that the puck would pass me about three feet to my left.  As it passed I performed a tight shooting turn, 'sling shotting' the puck off my stick as it passed me and redirecting it to hurtle towards their goal.  It went straight through at shin height.  The goalie didn't see it coming.  It was the only long shot we had all night.  I've only seen similar attempted maybe thrice in all my games and shinnies, and only seen it work once (on a NHL highlight reel from last year).  I saluted Merrilyn as the whistle blew.

This game was marked by a fairly high level of ferocity in its puck battles, both on the boards and in front of the nets.  It was not unusual to see sticks and boots still flailing after a player from either side hit the floor, sometimes more than one at once, with those who'd kept their feet wading in and adding to the chaos.  It converted the goal fronts to dangerous places, at least twice for Mike and thrice that for their goalie.  To their credit, both goalies kept their nerve and hunted the puck down amongst the swinging boots and sticks, sometimes as bodies fell upon them.  It was tremendous fun!

At the end of the game it was heartfelt handshakes all round, and we disected the game between ourselves regardless of team.

Now we have a week off from competition, then I think it is continuous weekends into September.

GP 4 G 3 A 2 Pts 5 +2 2/2/0

Inline 33

Game Daze: Wheelers lose 3-4 (twice).

I've had a bit of a hiatus on this blog since that first round asthma attack.  I have, however, kept up with my hockey commitments during the period.  No particular reason for the hiatus, except for maybe a busy life.  Made it to all games, two of three Viking training sessions and been to see the Pee Wee Penguins continue in their winning ways (will post separately on training and pee wee sessions).  This post will bring us up to date with Wheelers news.

The Wheelers have rolled twice since our earlier victory over the Shufflers.  On the first occasion, we played the Rockers.  I got to the rink, looking forward to the game and in particular the chance to play against Greg (plays for the Sharks on the ice).  When I arrived, he greeted me with the sad news that he'd been promoted to Div I for the following day and therefore wouldn't be playing this Div II game.  He seemed genuinely disappointed.  Jana, however, was filling in for him (she's another Shark, began 'learn to skate' classes the same day I did so we see each other as peers) after having played in the earlier Bumpers game (where she'd scored her first ever goal and was still buzzing).

We had our full roster of skaters initially, though Natasha had to leave before the game to get to another engagement after the whole proceedings were delayed by a fire drill.  We had Krystal's brother Josh in his first ever game.  He can skate okay and has the typical young man's hard shot, so once he gets a feel for the game he'll slot in nicely.  Mike the Goalie was away so Matt filled in.  Reminded me of old times.  Besides Jana, the Rockers had Jai filling in for their regular goalie, and they were boosted with the addition of Mal to their lineup during the week.  He and Jana joined Felicia, Ashley and Pauline to make a pretty gutsy set of players with some good skills.

I can't recall much of the game now, beyond a few impressionist moments.  I scored an unassisted goal towards the end of the first half, tying the score 2-2.  I came down the right boards at speed, cut across behind a retreating defender, swooped towards and past the crease on an angle, held my backhand shot until the absolute last moment and put it around behind Jai into the net.  In the second half we took two penalties after Brenton had put one in.  Neither was questioned by my usually questioning team mates so there was no controversy about them.  They didn't score on the powerplays, but did put the final two goals in to take out the game.  The GWG occurred in the last three minutes, Jana got behind our players as they pressed forward and no one could catch her as I watched from the bench.  Most memorable impression is that Pauline is becoming a good 'par player', enjoyed her physical game and compete level.  And Ashley is a skilled defender.

GP 2 G 1 A 1 +/-0 1/1/0

Last week we played the Bumpers in what promised to be another tight clash.  Their team has had a few changes, Jana is on their roster, they've lost Mal and Matt, Matt the Goalie was filling in in net, Carol was playing with them as a reserve.  They can all skate, and Craig provided a league leading shooter with which to capitalise.  They are the team to beat this season and we knew we'd have a battle on our hands even though they only had five skaters.

We had a full foster of skaters, and Mike returned in the net.  We juggled our lines a bit after they got off to a 4-0 lead by half time.  We settled at the end with Me, Krystal and Natasha on a line and I think that worked pretty well.  The score line would back this up as we'd scored two goals with a minute to go, when I put put a pass in from behind the line to Krystal in the slot (having waited for her to get space while protecting the puck from an aggressive defender) and she thumped it in.  We'd been on the attack for the previous five minutes, so it was a shame that it took over half of the time remaining for the ref's to drop the puck again.  We were on the attack when the siren sounded.

Good game all round, except that Craig tore a hamstring early in the piece (he'll be out for weeks, I'd imagine).  He was writhing in pain for half a minute before the referees blew the whistle, we were on a 3 on 2 attack, we backed right off the pressure while waiting to hear the whistle, even starting to pass the puck to goalie to stop the play so that Craig could be dealt with.  We should have took advantage of the situation and gone for goal perhaps?  Hell, it's C Grade!

I was on for even goals, won all (?) of quite a few face offs, made some good breakouts on the rush, swept behind our net for the first time ever as a reset tactic.  The game was very physical with a lot of tight coverage occurring (good to play against Jana with her ice background as defence).  Also some tight passing on their part.

GP 2 G 1 A 1 +/-0 1/2/0

After three games, we've got four players on three points.  Excellent!

Inline 31 & 32