It's Been a Blur!

This year is already starting to go by fast! I can't believe it's already almost halfway through September. This short week has kind of thrown me off, too. It doesn't seem like it should be Friday tomorrow. But anyways, the practices are going well. We have a very skilled team. The level in practices has dropped off a little bit as we've started to get into systems work, but that's understandable. We play to a system. It's a proven system and everything we do works. From our breakout, to our forecheck, to our backcheck, to our defensive zone coverage, everything is drilled into our heads until it becomes second nature. And the new kids on the team are just learning, so it might take a little while for them to feel more comfortable doing systems drills. But we have our first game this Sunday in Boise against the Southern Oregon Spartans, a team from the NORPAC, another Tier III Junior A league based in the northwest. It should be interesting to see what kind of players we have. I mean, it's hard to really tell what kind of players you have in practice. A lot of times, underlying characteristics of a person come out in a game. I'm excited to see who shows up and who doesn't, and I'm excited to prove myself too! It should be interesting to see how we mesh as a team, and our coaches have made it clear that they expect us to play very well in our first game this weekend. I've been a little hesitant in practice these past two weeks. Not super hesitant, just a little bit. My coach told me he wants me to work on being a tougher player to play against, and it's something I've focused on, but I need to be better. I need to be a leader on the team in the physical play because I can be. And when people are playing the body in practice, it brings up the level of play. I'm really going to focus on being more physical in the next few weeks; my coaches have told me they need me to play tougher because we lost the toughest defenseman in the league this year, who was my D partner last year. There's a big hole left in our defensive unit, and they need someone to fill it. I know I can be more physical, but I really need to focus on it because that's not how I play naturally. I do like how I play when I play physically, though. I tend to play more confidently and aggressively. I've been doing OK in practice, but I know I can be better.