3 on 3 Scrimmage - 2011-06-05

A friend had rented some ice at an undesirable time for most skaters, but for me, I was looking forward to it. 11:45 in the morning is a strange time to play, but ice time is ice time, and I needed the work. I got there early, and the ice was empty. I hit the ice before anyone else and focused a lot on my crossovers from the previous practice. I skated around the circles, and I was surprised at how quickly I was going. I'd fall occasionally from leaning in too much, but if you don't push yourself to the line and over, you don't know where the line really is.

I worked on my shot a little bit. Getting it off fast is a real problem for me and getting any elevation on it has become an issue as well. One out of five times I would get it moving well, but most times it felt like just a lob if I ever tried and lifted it. Something to work on.

We didn't have many skaters so we played 3 on 3 most of the time. We played with the nets in the middle for a while, which really forces you to start, stop, start again frequently. There isn't a lot of time for rest, and that's great for conditioning (especially because we had no subs). At the end, I was definitely feeling tired and you could tell everyone was the same way.

I felt I played well. My passes weren't as crisp as they have been in the past, but I did make some really nice ones. I felt I didn't have a whole lot of speed in that it took me a while to really get moving compared to normal. I'm not sure if I was tired, or the ice was just slow. It was nice to have the ice early to myself pretty much because I could take a lot of room to do whatever I wanted. I wasn't worried about getting hit with pucks, running into someone, or falling. We could have used more skaters, but what is done, is done. I should be good to go for the Goaldiggers game on Tuesday.

Open Hockey 2010-09-09

I’ve been really out of it the past month or so. I haven't skated, I haven't moved, I have only really slept and gone to work. Even my dog gets pissed at me that I'm just laying around. I don't know what it has been, but it isn't a good thing. Despite this, I have been feeling better the last two weeks. Lat night, I went and played rat hockey at cheap rink, nice and close to home.

I had only been on skates once in the last four weeks or so. I was somewhat nervous because the guys were really good, and my last outing wasn't very flattering. I felt well rested and such. My back was slightly sore, but that is normal for me. On warm ups, my shot had nothing. Considering I lost 8 pounds in the last little bit, I sort of expected this.

The ice was good and my skates were almost too sharp. I wasn't sliding as much as I normally would like but I have to live with it. Fore checking was almost useless for me because these guys could make such decent passes. I played D most of the night as well, and that was a wasted cause, simply because the skaters were so fast that I couldn't do much. The sad thing was, I wasn't the worst one there.

Overall, it felt nice to have skates on and play a little with better players. I need to do it more, but first I have to get all of my energy and strength back.

Accuracy Sucks

Last night during practice, I noticed something. I miss the net – a lot. And that really drives me nuts. I feel like they’re wasted shots. I rather put it in the goalies chest than miss the net.

I don’t understand. I used to be so accurate in inline. I wonder if it is partly I’m still getting used to ice. But it has been a year now. My accuracy should have improved. I also believe part of my problem is strength. I’m not able to lift the puck as quickly as I should. I also believe I’m not rolling my wrists. I attribute that partly to playing golf. When I roll my wrists in golf, my shots go all over. They’re two different games, yes. But they have similar motions, and I have a problem in I do the same motions in both games. I went back to an older, shorter stick (about an inch and half different) and it definitely helped.

I also must follow through on my shots. That should help get some of the speed back into my shots.