I've only been on the ice a handful of times, and as a result, very rusty. Not only was I rusty tonight, I was out of shape and I played exactly how I expected. I totally expected to be out of breath in warm ups, after 30 seconds. Doing all of the little things that you have to do to be successful comes natural to most players who have been playing for +5 years. For me, I guess I don't have that just yet. I had to think about how to breath. I had to think about how to hold the blue line on the rush. And because of that I missed a lot of basic things. I totally messed up a pass, was bad on line changes, and so on. But the good part of this was I skated as hard as I could. I want to get back to that. I want to be a player who isn't afraid of contact, and will make it on the forecheck if necessary.
So where am I going with this? I need to focus on getting back into shape. I cannot do all of the things that good players do if I'm constantly exhausted. I want to get back to the time where I could skate for +80% of the game, and not be so out of breath that I can't speak.
I am going to try my best to focus on conditioning over the next handful of weeks, and get to where I know I can be. I'm too young to be as exhausted as I was tonight.
You played outstanding tonight. We all get rust from time to time. Keeping up with the rest is all in the mind. If you push yourself mentally, you will be hangin' with the best of them!
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