Reply To: Diary of a Season 2011-12

We have had a good week so far. We played last Sunday vs Red Deer for the third time in our first 6 games and after losing 0-5 and 1-3 we finally beat them 2-1. Yesterday Oct. 15 we played the Bruins who beat us 3-2 in our third game of the season and won 4-1 outshooting them 46-19. The players are getting used to our Tsunami Forecheck but mostly are developing good habits like stick on the puck, identifying coverage, facing the puck. F1 back pressuring the puck like Boston creates turn overs and quick transition and nullifies the really good puck carriers who now have a 1 on 2.

Our D are hinging all of the time which opens up the ice for passes. We have a long way to go but we are now playing with a purpose in every situation. Our pp is averaging a goal a game and we have only given up I think 3 goals in 7 games on the pk.

We play another game in two hours – summary below.

The game went well vs Spruce Grove from the northern division, for us and we led 2-0 after the second and scored two more in the third to win 4-0. We got another pp goal. Our goalie had to make some good saves late to earn her shutout. Shots were 28-19. So that is two games in a row with less than 20 shots against.

We had two on ice and one spin class on the exercise bikes for an hour, practice this week. We had a lot of competitive situations cross ice, one zone and full ice and continue to do skills that require the players to pass and shoot with their feet moving and improve technique. We are not a talent laden team but we can skate and the players all work very hard. Pressure, pressure, pressure, on the opposition both physically and mentally to cause panic and turnovers is our mantra and the players say it in their Team Covenant. It is a hard way to play but the only way we can be successful. Our fitness, systems and effort have to enable us to do play this way and then we can compete with even the most talented teams.

In the second game after dominating the first period and leading 2-0 we started drinking our own bath water and thinking they aren't that good. Our pressure dropped to about 75% and their talented players took over and we spent a lot of time in our end being passive. Our good defensive habits and sold goaltending kept the puck out of our net. I think it showed us that if we give time and space to the opponent we are in trouble.

I have uploaded a video of the first game and it is in the files section. I want to post one game per week for the players to watch and then I delete them and update the game.

https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/downloads/