1st Scrimmage in the Books

September 22, 2008

Greeting from the Coaching Staff,

In a quick review of the week past we coaches felt that it was a great week for hockey! OK, so we ripped off Bob Johnson for that one. You may have run across the phrase: “It’s a Great Day for Hockey!”, as popularized by ‘the Badger’ Bob Johnson. It’s difficult to believe that it’s been more than 15 years since one of the truly great motivators and most successful ice hockey coaches of our time left us. But without question, his legend lives on today in the form of a gift he gave us all – eternal optimism. This is the rare quality that made him much more than an incredibly successful hockey coach – it’s what set him apart in the world of coaching. Like UCLA’s John Wooden and Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi, Bob Johnson was more than a coach – he was an inspiration. We coaches are trying to keep the inspired motivational dream alive.

Practice
We were able to assess who are shooters are and who needs some practice in that arena. All the players can ’shoot the puck’ but three stand out as exceptional. They are:

Ethan Bussell, Colin Henry & Brian McGhie

The lexicon of hockey is high on our list and we knew we were going to stress the players learn to ‘talk’ on the ice. With the impending scrimmage we created a fun offensive drill where the players were able to pass and receive the puck while communicating via our set vocabulary; “Point!, Shot!, Pass!”. The structure of this drill also give the players experience with the ‘right’ way to move on the ice in common game specific situations. The guys did their thing and it indeed carried over to our scrimmage as the players were shouting to their teammates on the ice. Hey, we out scored Yellow 4-2, it must have worked!

Scrimmage
How about this team?! The movement of the offensive players, their tenacity and endurance were impressive. What did you think about the defense? They really have them, ah er…. HECK! Tecumseh with his big body and long reach really messed ‘em up. He was able to get a strong stick on the puck then play the loose puck smartly, looking for a break out pass. Ethan was putting is competitive experience from last season to good use and almost put the puck in the net with a long range wrister (shouln’t even be possible) that bounced off the back glass with a resounding THWANG!

By the third period we had them mostly pinned in their zone. Our constant pressure had physically worn Yellow down. Our guys played smart and instead of trying to jam it down their throats they changed tack and were trying to find open support players and move the puck around. Yes, a lot of work is still needed there. Zach, Brian, Colin and (can you believe it) Max stood out with with some smart offensive play. Bad news for Braden. He played so well on D that he just might get stuck there for the entire season.

Upcoming
Thursday Stick & Puck at NoCo – Don’t worry about the 3:15 start time so much. Most of us don’t get out of school till 3pm so we all hit the ice at roughly the same time.

Friday Power Skating – Would really like to see Brownie (if he has recovered from last weeks stick & puck), Tecumseh and Ryan.

Saturday Practice – More on face-offs, back-hand shooting assessment, adding passing.

Notes:
Will need to get a copy of birth certs to our Team Mgr. Kim.
Should have or planing to purchase your Av’s tickets.

PerformX
We have Tim, Max and Brian committed. Steve-O and Colin are a definite no. We need more players. Still waiting to hear from:
Ethan, Tecumseh, Ryan, Zach, Kevin, Brayden, Brownie an DJ.

Just in from Kim
The Jersey’s are not in yet so distribution will be delayed and ultimately the games will also be delayed. Coach Brian will let us know as soon as they come in and at that time we will collect the Avs fund raiser check. We will also email when the game schedule is available.

Warm Hockey Regards

Coaches Brian & Flash
Team Manager Kim