Piranhas Game - 2011-10-23

First game of the season for the Piranhas. I'm excited, and I've got a great attitude about it. Not only do I expect myself to play well, I'm thinking the team will have a good season. A few new players, and a few returning players should mean that we have a full bench every night, which has been a huge problem since I joined the team.

My defensive game last night was very strong, and probably the strongest I've played. With the exception of my first shift, I couldn't have played defense any better. Our team took a lot of penalties, so I didn't get a ton of time out there, but my one shift on the PK, I did very well. I was able to throw a hit, I deflected a shot out of play, and I didn't get too excited, skating all over. I probably had two other hits as well that were solid at different times of the game.

At one point off of a face off, the guy I was lining up against was determined to not let me in closer than him. Eventually I noticed he was leaning on his stick right on the face off. I lined mine up behind his knowing he wouldn't let me in front, and right as the puck dropped, I hooked his stick away so he'd fall on his face if he wasn't ready. He fell, and he cried about it to the ref.

The defense men would sneak into the slot all game. I was very careful to cover them. As a result, they never really got good scoring chances while my line was on the ice. I also don't think we had a goal against, but I could be wrong. I had a couple of good exits from the zone and made great passes to the center and wingers that generated good scoring chances. But other than that, there wasn't a lot of chemistry between me and the rest of the line.

The previous day, I had been practicing my stick handling with the dog in my living room. I'd use my body to protect the ball, and play keep away from him. I'd spin, throw it through his legs, etc. It was also what I worked on in practice a week ago. It paid off. Twice I used my body to protect the puck. At one point, I did a small spin move, and got a good shot on goal, but the goalie saw it the whole way.

Not too much else stands out. We lost 4-1, and didn't get a lot of shots on net. There was no traffic in front of the goalie, and we just couldn't keep the puck in their zone.