Hosed by Hyland Hills Bantam 1

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»

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