Saturday, January 21, 2017

Biohazard vs 96ers

I had been playing well for Biohazard for a few weeks. Because of conflicting schedules though, I hadn't been seen the last couple of games. I was excited to get back out there. I started on a line with pretty much the best line mates I could ask for on the team.

In the first period, I seemed to be doing alright, winning a puck battle here and there, but I wasn't involved in the play much. Our defense was a bit more active, so I ended up covering on the blue line quite a bit. I also was the first man back quite a bit, which helped rush the opponents' passes.

All night I struggled on the break out. I tried changing where I should be, coming back a bit, going forward, but the puck would regularly go into a different direction. The times I did gain the puck, I didn't enter the zone the way I would have liked. I had an opportunity for a pass to my winger, but didn't have a strong enough hold on the puck to move it to him. I put a weak shot on net instead.

Most of the interesting things happened later in the game. I had made a great netural zone pass to a player who would carry the puck into the corner and lose possession. I had poke checked it back to my guy, and went to the net. He would fire a shot over my shoulder, and the goalie never saw it because of the screen and his defenseman standing in front of him.

As the game would go on, we were down and making a bit of a come back. I went in on a forecheck, but then tripped - on myself. I fell, the pass was still rushed. Before I could get up, the play was coming back into the offensive zone, and I was offside! I couldn't get back fast enough, which caused the puck carrier to skate across and didn't get a good scoring chance. Bad times.

In the third, I caught a pass in the defensive zone and felt my stick bend a little bit. I looked and it looked ok, So I kept playing. As I was bringing the puck up, I could feel it being unstable. I got to the blue line, dumped the puck into the opposite corner (was supposed to be a pass but ended up being a dump) and just went to the bench. Sure enough, broken stick.

We were down a man, and down by one goal at the end. Again, a defensemen pinched. I saw this, and went a little higher to help cover up high. But we needed the goal! The puck would squirt out, and up to me. At this point, I was exhausted, and needed a change. I took one stride in to see if anything would open but had nothing. I see the other defensmen wide open, knowing he'd have a better angle. I gave him a great pass, saw it slide right onto the tape of his stick. I turned and went for a change. I threw my skate over the board and heard, "Bad change! I looked, and there was a break away going against us." They would score, but I felt responsible for that.

We'd give up one more, but it was a whole lot of bad that night.

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