Friday, August 13, 2010

Immortals Game 2010-08-11 - Playing Center

Wednesday night was my first night back with the Immortals in some time. With school and the Goaldiggers' playoffs, it became difficult to keep up. I missed a game and a few practices. It felt longer.

I was pumped going into the game. I also went back to my pre-game routine from a few months ago as closely as I could. I laced them up, went out there for my pregame skate, felt good. I was playing center tonight, inspired to make a difference, and to be an example.

I'm not sure I did that. I played hard. I raced to every loose puck and won well more than my share of the battles. I also had to be aware of what was going on as we had a few guys playing out of position - myself being one of them.

I hate playing center for one reason. Face-offs. I can't do it. I really need a lot of work on it. I won maybe 20% of the draws all night. I'd try and roll my wrists and pull it back to the defensemen. I tried to turn into it to get a better angle. I don't know if it was bad timing, or if I'm just not that strong. Either way, I'll be consulting some of the better centers I play with for some tips on the draw.

Other than that, center is a great position for me at this level. I can skate as much as I want, I've got a ton of space to cover, I enjoy playing defense a little bit and digging into the corners, and I'm fairly decent at just tapping the puck to slow it down or disrupt the play. I'm not known for goal scoring, and I have a tendency to just out work players, even though I'm frequently smaller than them.

I have a ton of thoughts on this game. May as well break them up a little.

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