February 16, 2019: Winning Ways

After last week’s tough defeat, the plan was to get back to our winning ways in game 3 of our floor hockey season.  It was back to the practice floor on Friday night before game day on Saturday.  Practice is fun.

I tried to show my son a couple things heading into this week’s game.  First thing was on defense.  Instead of waiting back and trying to stop someone’s shot, go after it.  Get your stick on the floor, and go get that puck; don’t wait.  I keep hearing Eddie O in my head… eliminate the time and space.  That was lesson number one.  Second thing was a tip on offense.  He’s one of the few kids in the league that tries to actually possess the puck as he moves towards a shooting position.  Not easy to do when you have three other kids hacking at that puck.  I told him to pass it to himself if he gets in trouble.  Just a light pass a few feet in the direction where he wants to go.  We tried that out too.  I also showed him how to lift the puck; he tried that a few times during practice.  Then he said, Dad, I have one too.  It was a new move that he wanted to try; it was basically a spin-o-rama.  So having the puck on his forehand, he would spin back to his backhand and fire it in.  I said, go for it son… haha.

None of these items really came into play on Saturday.  Yet, the first time he touched the puck in the offensive zone, he fired a shot right past the goalie.  We were up 1-0 a few seconds into the game.  He was happy… happier than he was at any point last week.  The team we were playing this week is probably the worst of the 4 teams in the league.  They had absolutely no push on the offensive end, although they did tie the game up in the first as a rolling puck went right through our goalie’s legs.  That was the end of their offensive output. 

We went with a strategy in this game at goalie.  The twins on our team, the smallest two kids, a boy and a girl, wanted to play goalie.  I said sure.  Not sure how many shots they would actually stop, but why not.  The key to doing that was putting someone strong on the defensive side.  My son played defense for a good chunk of the 2nd period.  I think there was only one time where the puck made it close to the goalie.  He was like a brick wall; as soon as that puck crossed half court, he fired it back down.  So between one of our best defenders, and whoever we put at center, we protected our goalies pretty well.  We had great contributions across the board on offense.  4 different kids scored our 4 goals, including the first of the year for somebody.  That kid actually played great; he was great on defense early in the game.  I rewarded him by playing him center, and that paid off, seeing him get his first goal of the year.  We already have our “big 3”, but between this kid and one other one, if they could both play well…

So a 4-1 victory pushes our record to 2-1 which is good for 2nd place in the league.  Only the team that beat us is ahead of us.  Saw them play before our game… they’re pretty good.  They won 6-0.  It’s going to be tough… definitely possible though.  I look forward to the chance.  Until then, back to the first team we played, hoping to get close to those 8 goals we put up first time around.