I felt good all night about this game. I had a lot of energy, I knew the team was beatable, we had plenty of players on our bench, and I got a nap in.
I found out I was playing on the top line with arguably our two best players, and I was excited about that. Both are fast, skilled and can move the puck.
On my third shift, in a face off in their end, I was on the far wing. The puck came to me, and I knew exactly where I was going. I grabbed it, gave a quick pass to the d-man in the center of the ice. He wound up and blasted a nice slapshot. Unfortunately, it was right into the pads of the forward. The puck bounced out of the zone, and we gave up a break away goal as a result. Somehow, I felt responsible for it, but I really wasn't. I noticed later in the game, that that specific guy has put a lot of shots into the pads of skaters.
At one point in the offensive zone, the puck came to me from the corner. I drove the net. My work on my blance must have been working, as I plowed through a defenseman while I maintained possesion of the puck.
Another time in the offensive zone, a player was skating around, trying to defend against the puck carrier. Unfortunately he ran into me. I put him down as well as I was prepared for it. He did not like that. He tried to get me to take a penalty, but I'm just not that type of player.
I felt that our d-men pinched a lot, and we gave up many odd-man rushe because of it. When I was on the ice, I tried to make sure that didn't happen. Once I was able to come back, and play as a d-man. I broke up an odd-man rush, and it felt good. Another time, I made a great keep in on the blue line. Unfortunately I lost control of the puck when I kept it in, and gave up posession. But still, it was better than just having it exit the zone.
At the end of the game, I was actually sad it was over. I still wanted to play. I had a ton of energy. I could have easily played a second game. The strange part was I was moving my feet the entire game. I can only think of one bad pass, but there wasn't a time or play where I didn't give it 100%. I like this.
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