Defense is a Test of Character

Today, I sat out of practice because my knee has been bothering me.  I think it will be good for it to have a few days off, and hopefully it will feel better with this rest.  I'm still going to go get it checked out next week just to make sure, but nothing's going to hold me out of this weekend.  This weekend is our biggest test to date, one of the most important series of the year, and I'm playing.

During practice, our coaches stressed defensive zone coverage in drills.  We did some of my favorite drills, so it was a bummer that I was sitting out, but I still listened in to everything the coaches had to say.  After the paint drill--a drill that emphasizes low defensive zone coverage in the corners--our coach said, "I can tell a lot about your character from the way you play defense.  Defense isn't fun.  Everyone wants to go score goals.  But you need to have just as much emphasis on your defensive game as your offensive game if you want to move onto the next level."  On this team, I know my role.  As our team owner tells me, "I'm not paid to go out and score goals."  In reality, I'm not paid at all!  But I'm "paid" to go out there and stop the other team from scoring goals.  And I like to think I've developed into one of the best defenders on our team. It's not easy playing defense, making plays that don't get on the score sheet--that  always makes it more fun when I do make my way onto the score sheet, which is happening more and more often--but doing those unselfish things, like blocking shots, finishing every check, and playing relentless team defense is what wins games.

We have to get better defensively as a team, and we will get better.  We don't really have a choice because our coaches will literally drill certain drills into our heads until we are better defensively if it comes down to it.  I'm confident in our team, though.  We have some young kids who are really improving and working hard to earn their spots on this team.  And that's great.  Competition is always a good thing.  The players with little character can't hide when our team is constantly battling in practice, like our coach preaches.  He says, "Some weeks the best competition you're going to get is here in practice, so we have to embrace the small battles we have between players.  Use them to get better.  Don't get mad at each other."