Update

After a stunning undefeated season we lost our two "playoff" games amidst much drama. I'll spare you the whining (which is why I didn't post about it here), but basically it was a crappy end to an otherwise great season. Time to put it behind us and start fresh- next season starts next week. We've lost several key players to various reasons (injury, being "graduated", moving on to officiating, etc.) so it will be interesting to see how long it takes us to get some chemistry going. We got our roster last night and it's the shortest bench in the league- however, there are a few people who apparently haven't signed up yet, so here's hoping they will and we'll see them by game time next week.

My lessons continue, though I'm not sure for how long. I have been planning for several months to take the summer off from lessons, but I'm not sure if I will stop at the end of April or May. This week I was back on the “real” ice for a session that frustrated the heck out of me. Man, was I off. I'm dropping my hands (especially my blocker) every time I go into the butterfly. Every damn time. How many times does my coach have to tell me “keep your hands up”? I asked him afterwards when does it go from me knowing what I’m doing wrong to me fixing it. He said I was just having a bad day- he hasn't noticed this much trouble with it in the past. That’s encouraging at least. He also brought a shooter with him. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m getting better or because he was particularly tired today and didn’t feel like skating back and forth and all over. ;)

We also did a few new drills; one simulating a lost faceoff and pass back for a shot, one where I squared up to one spot but then had to real quick readjust for a shot coming from just to my left (and then repeated on the right) and then another one from center, and a new skating drill to work on quickness. While I was running through that he said “You know what I’m noticing?” Thinking this was a test I analyzed what I’d just done and said “I’m stopping on the wrong foot?” He laughed and said “No…. actually I was noticing how much your skating has improved. Think back to when you first came out and you’d do a few and fall, do a few more and catch an edge. Now I gave you this drill and you’re just zipping through it.” I was trying not to beam, but it felt really good hearing that. I know my skating’s improved by leaps and bounds, and my team-mates have noticed it as well. But to hear it from him was really cool. But he didn’t want me to get a big head, because then he said “Ok, enough of this. Go!” and tapped his stick…. and off I went through the drill again.

We also worked some more on coralling the puck behind the net on a dump-in, which I've noted here before is a glaring weakness of mine. This is only the second time we've worked on it, but I already felt like I'm starting to get the hang of it. It doesn't feel so awkward now- I just have to work on refining it. It's probably not something I'll bring into a game until I'm a little more comfortable with it, but you never know what you'll do when you don't think and just react. And now that the weather's getting nicer I can set up a plywood board outside and just wing pucks at the fence until I get better at actually moving it more than 4 feet. See? Every season is hockey season.