So, again, I haven’t even been on the ice due to money and time. 🙁 Hopefully that’ll change starting next week and I can get back to at least skating and maybe some skate & shoots, if not the weekly clinic.
T had a good warm up, for him, at least. He caught both passes to him during the warm up and kept control of the second one the whole time instead of over skating and having to go back. His passes to others were right on target, if a bit underpowered, but that’s conditioning, not skill.
His shots were on target, but were slow, week and telegraphed. He doesn’t have a lot of power on his shot, so he needs to learn to be sneaky instead.
This was a 4-1 win and the coach was happy with the team. He has a parent counting passes each period and counted 20-9-10 passes today. Curiously, the scoring really came together in the third, as it was 1-1 at the end of two.
I question the count a bit, or at least its effect on team-play, as I was really disappointed in the first two periods. It seemed like they were drifting back to the I’ve-got-the-puck-and-have-to-keep-it attitude with a lot of guys skating it in and taking shots regardless of what the ice looked like.
Weak shots from the top of the circle through three defenders aren’t going to go well. And taking weak shots from the goal-line instead of waiting a bit for the rest of the team to catch up isn’t going to work either.
As for T, well, I wouldn’t say it was his best game, but he had some moments.
Period 1 – shift 1
On this shift he flubbed a bit. Got the puck in the offensive zone near the top of the right circle and started skating to the blue line. Had a teammate right at the blue-line and another at the right point, with three defenders between him and the goal. Instead of passing, he hesitated and that led to a turnover and a breakaway.
Period 1 – shift 2
Not much from T on this shirt, but the ref did something I found odd. Offsetting penalties and he sent them to the box, but kept five skaters from each team on the ice. I’d have preferred 4-on-4 and some more open ice for the kids to move in.
Period 2 – shift 1
He’s becoming really good at keeping his head when knocked down. In this shift he went down on his knees, but kept trying for the puck and batted it away. Maybe it’s all the practice he gets falling down …
Period 2 – shift 2
Here he misread a play badly and entirely missed a pass – sad, because he doesn’t get passed to often enough to give any up. 🙁
He needs to get better at predicting where the play’s going to go, so he doesn’t waste energy and can be in the right place. An example of this is on the power play when the other team dumps the puck. If two of his teammates are in his zone getting it, he should stay at center ice to take the pass (or at least because he’s so damn slow and can get a head start going the other way).
Period 3 – shirt 1
He stepped up here and challenged another player, making him shoot the puck to the boards and go around – that slowed the guy up enough for teammates to get on him.
He also ran into a teammate and went down and then skated into an opposing stick and went flying … I thought that one would draw a penalty, but maybe the refs are just used to seeing him face down on the ice …
Period 3 – shift 2
Again he managed to tie up an opposing player until a teammate could get there.
Period 3 – shift 3
With the play in the neutral zone, T was in his own zone near the blue-line. He stopped the puck cleared it from the zone quickly. It didn’t make a difference in the game with a three goal lead and less than a minute remaining, but it was a big play for him. He reacted well, controlled the puck and did the right thing quickly.
