Gotta Find an Identity

Our team is really struggling to find an identity right now.  We play so inconsistently, and it's very frustrating.  From shift to shift, period to period, we can be a different team.  That's not a good thing because the toughest stretch of our schedule is still to come and because it's just not fun to play that way.  It's not fun to trade chances with a team that you should dominate.  But I guess maybe that is the reason we are so inconsistent:  the teams we've played so far haven't been been great, so we've played down to their level.  We need to find an identity for ourselves and fast.  We can't expect to just turn a switch to the "On" position when we go down to Fresno and El Paso in a few weeks to play two of the best teams in our league.  In practice, we need to better prepare ourselves for the weekend, and in games, we need to bear down and commit to winning as a team every night.  One bad play can break the chain and change the momentum of a game.  We need to have confidence in each other and run the systems our coaches put into place because they work, believe it or not.  I've seen them in action when our team was playing at its best at the end of last season.

This weekend in McCall, we won both our games 7-4 and 6-2.  In the first game, I scored a goal, but unfortunately, during my first shift, I also hurt my knee.  The doctor told me I bruised or tore my meniscus...I'm hoping it's the first choice, but I just have to ice it and see what it feels like in the next few days...It's frustrating giving up so many goals in our games because that's something I'm not accustomed to as a member of the Idaho Junior Steelheads.  Last year, we rarely gave up more than 20 shots a game.  We need to get back to playing that gritty team defense that this team is known for.  The bad news is:  as a team we have A LOT to work on.  The good news is:  the season is still very young.  We have A LOT of time to get better and start playing some IJS hockey.