This Spring was one of the high notes in my hockey career (obviously I’m using that phrase very loosely). My team, the Skating Dead, won their first championship at World Ice in only their second season of existence, albeit with a huge roster turn over. World Ice decided to do a draft to even the teams, thankfully, which made this season possible.
In the pros when a team plays really great and leads to the cup, such as this season’s LA Kings, the players frequently say it was a magical year for the team. I can definitely understand their sentiment now, as being on the Skating Dead was such a great experience thanks to the unbelievable team play everyone together. Never before have I been so confident about a team, and especially impressed by the great passing and in-sync thoughts everyone had.
I’ve played many a season with a team that doesn’t click, and this was the polar opposite. It’s seasons like this where you can really appreciate and clearly see the difference between why everything goes right, and everything goes wrong. Guys call out their own plays, have confidence in their teammates ability to handle the puck, balance their ice team efficiently, and always come to the rink with a good attitude.
Although we didn’t win all our games, we always had great efforts. It really began to shine as the season went on, and we solidified our lines. Our first line primarily of Will, Brad, and Mike were as swift and smooth as the French Connection. Guy LaFleur would be impressed with those types of drop passes and give-and-go’s. Contrasting this was our second line of Ray, Adam, and Rubin. It was all dump-and-chase here, with Adam providing the big speed to dig it out, and Ray and Rubin with the positioning to tap it in.
Typically our D was short staffed, but like most players, they play better when they play more. Nothing can quite capture that than Josh, who was ironman on D. Josh played pretty much the entire game. Several times it was Kevin and I would constantly be switching off to get a breather, but Josh stayed in there. It was impressive, and needed since typically our lungs were dead on the bench. Kevin as per usual was the customary D man with a big body, long stick, and huge effort. As for me, I think I got better with my speed and positioning, but I’m not Chris Pronger.
Like most teams, we had a bit of a revolving door with our goalie situation. This was primarily because Andy’s work schedule changed half-way through the season. He played great for us though, and I think we would have still won it with him in net. Regardless, we were lucky enough to get Earnie as our new starting goalie. After seeing him play really well at Harvey in roller, and I knew if he could play there, then he would definitely dominate on ice assuming he became comfortable. I would say it took maybe 3 or so games for him to get into the groove of the new surface, but once he did was it akin to riding a hot goalie. Combine this with the slick offense we had, and we had a team that was practically unbeatable (I think we actually went unbeaten near the end).
Thanks to everyone for playing, and to Sam for donating the championship cup.
 |
| World Ice Arena Spring 2012 Champions |
No comments:
Post a Comment