OMG, we owned them for the entire first period. The Boulder Bison were stuck in their own zone, scrambling for survival, icing pucks, only to give up two goals. At the end of the first period the score was a comfy 2-0 in favor of coach Brian George’s Bantams. What the heck happened in the second period?! Boulder Bantam goes on a 3-0 streak. Blue gives up three unanswered goals? What was different?

Face-offs? :: We gave away every face-off in the second and third periods. Penalties? :: We racked up thirty minutes of penalties to Boulders six.
Passing? :: What, me pass?!

Several grievous errors kept us from getting back into the game throughout the third period. While we scored two more goals in the third Boulder was able to match us with two of their own. Our defense got beat on three occasions giving up those two Boulder goals in the offing. Our teams players went to their finger pointing game with four minutes left to play.  The clock never stopped and coaches Brian and Flash couldn’t call a time out to setup a chance for the team to  steal a win. That is something that will have to be coached for sure. Some player should have iced a puck or perhaps the goalie could have held on to one instead of sticking them back into play?

With five games left to play the future for this team is certainly in jeopardy. Typical of this time of year are players becoming more comfortable with their teammates and coaches to the point they don’t take the team or games seriously. It becomes more and more an individual effort. While this occurs in all levels of play it is certainly more pronounced at the rec level. The war cry becomes: “Hey, its only rec hockey?!”

See the Photos »
View Stats »

Many teams complain of suffering after the Christmas break. January blues? I get that. It is at this time of our season that I find myself pushing to keep the effort high. Generally I sell January as the time to prepare for the next hockey goal or hockey season. The second year bantams will be looking toward high school hockey. Many rec players will be wanting to make the jump to competitive, and competitive a’s will want to make aa, no?

I take the time to explain how all sports, all successful athletes use the summer to strengthen, add new skills polish up and make new goals. It starts in January!

I  hear stories on a somewhat regular basis that the ice coach doesn’t like roller, and in some cases even refuses to allow players to play.

I’m not insinuating that these players mentioned do not have extensive ice back grounds as well, but I am saying that they’ll also tell you that not only did roller not hurt their game, it helped it.

Summer roller hockey has been a great avenue for players who need to polish up on stick handling, play making. Those slow sport courts and heavy soft urethane wheels will build a players sprint up ice muscles. Just ask Paul Stastny. Paul played roller  hockey growing up in St. Louis, MO and most recently played on the TMD (Team Mad Dogs) Teams in 05. BTW, the guy on the right is Paul Statsny.

Who Plays Roller Hockey?

Brad Boyes (St. Louis Blues)
Paul Stastny (Colorado Avalanche)
Sam Gagner (Edmonton Oilers)
Ales Hemsky (Edomnton Oilers)
Mike Comrie (New York Islanders)
Rick Di Pietro (New York Islanders)
Mike Van Ryn (Florida Panthers)
David Booth (Florida Panthers)
Devin Setoguchi (San Jose Sharks)
Dominik Hasek (Detroit Red Wings)
Gilbert Brule (Columbus Blue Jackets)
T.J. Hensick (Colorado Avalanche)

The Slapshot DNHL tournament over Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend schedule has been posted to the website, http://ncyh.org.
Here is a color coded version. Find the original here:
http://ncyh.pucksystems2.com/page/show/67855-tourney-schedules

View/Download the pdf:
PDF Slapshot Bantam Tournament Schedule Rev. B

Date: December 28th
Time: 4:30pm
Location: NoCo
Cost: $6.00 per player (cash or check).  Brian paid the Ice time on his debit card.
Probable Outcome: Kids take a whoopin’ from the parents.

Coach Brian dreamed this one up, good idea too. I’ll be lookin’ forward to schooling those little munchkins.

We will have 2 Refs at the game oh and by the way they will be on the Ice.

Immediately after the game is a Mexican Fiesta pot luck at the home of Coach Flash.

2718 Antelope Road (Google Map)
RSVP: 970 690-135

Bingle Jells (hic’),

Coach Flash

Blue faced Arvada 1 this weekend and the pressure was all on the coaching staff. Like Hyland Hills, Arvada 1 humiliated this team in their first meeting. That game was physical and those big Arvada boys really put the hurt on the Jr. Eagles Blue team. With the win over the Hyland Hills team still fresh in their minds, coaches Brian and Flash knew if they lost to Arvada, then all the coaching verbiage between themselves, the parents and the players was nothing more than a lot of hot air.

We should have won the game. We dominated Arvada throughout the third period, yet that game winning goal didn’t come. Still our fans were ebullient at the conclusion of the game; as a whole we felt as if we DID win. I would like to believe a progression of skills and game knowledge can be presented and learned where in time an average (or below average based upon our early performance) team can climb that tall shaky ladder to some form of success. Our play against Arvada 1 when contrasted to our earlier meeting certainly demonstrates we are on the right path. The team has grow as a whole. What excites me is they can continue to grow! I’ll look forward to having a better result against the undefeated Arvada Bantam 3 team. Remember we held them scoreless for one period, before succumbing  1-8.

Notes:

1. The Arvada coach congratulated us on great goal tending, as if that was why they lost. They did out shoot us 24 to 17.
2. Ethan Bussell begged for an offensive shift and did well when Coach Brian offered one up.
3. Tim George looked like he actually knew how to play hockey in this game.
4. Stevo continues to shine on defense. Gave a drop-pass to Happy on one rush.
5. Max actually lifted the puck on his backhand for the goal on a pass from Colin. That is a first!
6. Goals scored by Max (from Colin), Ethan (unassisted), Colin (from Stevo). View Box Scores»

Game Photos: Gallery»

Upcoming:
Wed. Dec. 17th :: ½ Ice Practice – NoCo at 4:15pm
Sat. Dec. 21st :: Game – vs.  Hyland Bantam 4   -  Time: 8:45 AM  – Location:  NoCo

Congratulations on the teams first win! I hope we can keep things moving in this positive direction. As some of you know Coach Flash decided to ‘cheat’ in this game. It is his opinion that the boys come out too lackadaisical in the first period and get behind mentally, if not behind on the score board. To mitigate this intolerable situation Bantam Blue started the game with a Power Play line. That worked pretty well until some weird call put us back in our own zone for a face-off.

The whole PASS THE PUCK thing has been gaining ground, albeit slowly. It served us well for two and a half periods. When one defense man’s ‘creative’ defense ideas allowed two quick goals with a scant five minutes to play; our boys went back to hackers hockey, it was every man for themselves. No more winning face-offs, no more head man passes, no more angles out of the zone, just one big messy scramble instead. Phew! We held on for a win!

Where are we going from here? Overall we’ll continue to emphasize the break-out. On the offensive end we are beginning to work in ‘puck support’ where players without the puck learn how to support the puck carriers. If all goes well then puck support will lead us into cycling. On the defensive end we are encouraging our boys to use skating skills, escape turns, transitions to create space for passes that will facilitate our break out. Additionally we will be stepping up our understanding of and techniques for hitting.

What is up with these Denver area teams? I don’t take it personally and from the reactions in the locker room after the game neither did any of our players. The general mood was quite upbeat. The players shared Coach Brian and my feeling that as a whole our merry band of hockey players are coming together and improving their skills.

Improving our face-off skills can be a boon and a bust. When our centers Brian McGhie and Colin Henry would win the puck back, which they are quite adept at, the Hyland forwards would charge full speed ahead after the puck. Our defense men were often caught flat footed and the next thing one knew; the puck was in the net! This happened twice in the first period (maybe more?!)

I couldn’t help but notice how efficient the Hyland Hills defense men were at taking the puck from the center and reacting immediately to either go D to D with the pass or immediately skate hard up ice and pass to an expecting winger. This is what I would like to see our D Men doing and expect they will. If you were at the game you may recall a third period play where Big T (Tecumseh) reacted to the Hyland rush with a hard fast pass to Max Alexander. I thought the pass was too hard and would bounce off Max’s stick but that did not happen. Instead Max turned it up ice with two quick skating strides and passed up to one of our breaking centers, who in turn whipped it to the right wing – VOILA! – we were in their zone with possession.

It is great to have Ryan Bell, AKA “Happy”, on board. Ryan plays defense. That is one missing puzzle piece now in place. If we could just scare up a couple more wingers we would have full lines. It is going to be great if and when Kevin returns from New Zealand.

Next up at Practice will be some work with the defense men, continuing our skating, passing, shooting. Did you see the first drill we did last Sunday morning? What a disaster. I think we can break that down a bit and clean it up. The key to that drill is the transitions that every serious player (especially wingers) need to create time and space in the zone.

Sorry, no photos this game. You can view the game stat sheet here»

Aaron Grosul explains; “If the players look good then they will feel good and play good”. Well, this reporter agrees. The players looked good, felt good and played to their best ability. The coaches knew at first glance they were in for a rough ride. They new they had a ’small’ team but didn’t realize just how small until they set eyes on the Arvada One team (Arvada has 3 Bantam rec. teams).

The Bantam Blue team was short benched, playing with just two lines on offense and defense.  Goalie Tim George (coaches kid) was conscripted to defense as was Braden Stalnaker. Yes, the defense had reasonable size while up front it was pretty much all up to Colin Henry to present any kind of size to the opponents. He did his best, going so far as to spend approximately six minutes in the penalty box (according to PointStreak stats ).

All things considered, Coach Flash thought things were going pretty good through the first period. About halfway through the second one could see the wear and tear starting to show. Brownie was gettin’ bummed, Colin was just plain hot under the collar and Ryan was spending more time lying on the ice than skating. Ethan Bussell was taking more charge of D and proving some offensive moments, still the Blue team couldn’t get a puck to go in the net.

Blue had their chances even though the shots on goal differential was 14 to their 24 on the Blue netminder DJ Johnson. Brian McGhie used his speed and maneuverability to get some decent chances but the bounces just weren’t there; ask Max Alexander as he just couldn’t reach the loose pucks.

How does one survive this  kind of hockey where your team is out sized? Says Coach Flash:

“You have to play more as a team and rely on one another. The break-out has to improve, especially by making the head-man pass or at least using a drop-pass in the zone to give the offensive line a chance to be near the net for second chances. We have some great talent on board, we just have to get them the chance to show what they can do.”

The future looks ominous as one of Blue’s counterparts, the Bantam Yellow team took an even worse beating from the Hyland Hills Bantam One team, losing 1-11 with the same complaint of being out-sized.

View Stats»

See Photos»

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

Coach Brian and I put the brand spanking new rec Bantam Blue team through three skills tests in order to give players and coaches an idea of where they stand on day one of the season. The test included Speed, Agility and Stick Handling.

All times have been rounded off to whole seconds. It is our intention to repeat these test half way into the season and at the end of the season in order for players to chart their progress. At the end of the season times will be rounded to the quarter second. (It is a hand held stop watch after all)

Jr. Eagles Bantam Blue Basic Skills Test 1