The Boys Are Back in Town, But We're Leaving Again Friday!

It's so nice to be back in Boise.  The road trip to Long Beach and El Paso was a lot of fun, but it was also A LOT of bus travel, and sometimes the rigid schedule of a team's itinerary on the road gets old (wake up, eat breakfast, go back to sleep, eat pregame meal, go back to sleep, go to game, play, eat postgame meal, go to sleep, do it all over again) so it's nice to be back on my own schedule.  We had the day off on Monday, and yesterday, our coaches came on the ice and played with us in a 4-on-4 scrimmage.  We had the head coach on our team, and it was a really fun day of practice.  My team won.  I scored 4 goals.  No big deal.  And today we had another laid back practice, kind of getting back in the groove of things because we weren't able to practice at all on our 10 day road trip.  It was noticeable that we hadn't practiced in a while because we were all a little slow on the ice.  Tomorrow, though, our coach said we are going to have a tough practice.  We've had a few days to sort of mentally and physically recover from the trip, and it's time to get back at it.  We're going to do a lot of battle drills and competitive drills to get us ready for our 2 game series in Ogden this weekend.

I think the long road trip really brought us together as a team, as it should when you travel with the same people for so many hours.  Before the trip, there were definitely some cliques on our team, which I think is natural for any team.  But I can honestly say that we've become a lot more unified after our big road trip.  I think those games were an important step for us.  6 games in 9 nights is hard.  But we did it, and we didn't lose a game in regulation.  Good teams have to be able to win on the road, and we did that.  We had a lot of learning experiences on the trip, like when we let a 4 goal lead slip in Long Beach and when we realized in El Paso that sometimes refs are going to "homer" us, but we played through those challenges, and took a big step together.  Now, we have to keep this good thing going.  No mental lapses this weekend in Ogden.  Ogden is a team we should beat, but those games are usually the most dangerous.  In any case, we're back on the road again on Friday.  At least it's only a 4 hour trip this time, though.  That's a cake walk compared to the 22 hour trek to El Paso.

Big win, big series, big road trip!! 10/12 points on the road, picking up at least a point in every game! That's a big road trip for us, one that could be very important for us down the road.  I've had a lot of fun, but I'm ready to get the hell back to Boise!  Still a long trip ahead of us, though.  At least 20 more hours on the bus...FEAR THE FISH.

Game - On!

Another huge game tonight. We won on Wednesday 5-3 and played pretty well. We played with a little fear, and that's always when you play the best. Our coach keeps telling us, though, that he thinks we got El Paso's B game. They're going to come out a lot harder tonight and we have to be ready. There are few chances for us as a team to make statements because the bottom line is that sometimes our quality of opponent is not the greatest in this league. That's why our coach also stresses that practice needs to be where we make steps as a team, where we really push ourselves, compete, and get better. This series is one where we can really measure ourselves as a team and make a statement in the league. It's one of the--if not the--most important series of the year for us. I'm so excited for tonight. Our coach has also kept telling us that how successful we are as college hockey players will be determined by how well we play in big games against tough opponents. Tonight's game is a big game.

Good ol' Thanksgiving dinner at McDonald's in El Paso! Everything else was closed...

Biggest Game of the Year

Tonight we play the El Paso Rhinos in what is the biggest game of the year so far.  We need to be ready to play our best because El Paso is going to be very good.  Yesterday, we had a short, hard practice.  It felt really good to get out there and blow off some steam after being stuck on a bus for a few days.  And tonight at 7:30 we play our first game of 3 here in El Paso.  It's going to be fun.  Just being here reminds me of when we came in and won the Thorne Cup last year, and I don't think the fans or the team has forgotten about that.

Finally in El Paso!

We made it to El Paso...finally!  I was so glad to get off the bus, and I went straight to the hotel exercise room to run when we got here because I just felt so lethargic and sore.  We've spent a lot of time on the bus this trip, but now we're here.  And I can see Mexico!  I couldn't think of a better place to spend Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow we get to practice and get our bus legs out even though we don't play until Wednesday night.  It's good to be back; it's brought back some memories from our Thorne Cup Championship Series last year, and we're looking to have another good showing here on the road.

The game on Saturday night in Long Beach ended up being a disaster.  It was pretty embarrassing.  We were up 4-0 in the first period and ended up losing 6-5 in a shootout.  No one was very happy about it, but it definitely exposed some of our team's weaknesses and some of our players' weaknesses, which will be good in the long run.  The next day we came out and absolutely dominated.  We won 7-2 and played much better throughout the whole game, proving that our loss on Saturday night was definitely a fluke.

Last night we won 4-0.  We played really well defensively, considering we were on the bus for 20 hours the past 2 days.  But we got those bus legs out, and I think we're going to play even better tonight.  Our coach singled the defense out and told us we've made some big improvements in moving the puck and making the right decisions under pressure, which is heartening because we've been working on that stuff a lot lately.  I'm excited for tonight!

Gearin' Up

10 day road trip starts tomorrow!  It's going to be a blast!  Except for the part where we try to sleep on the bus.  But other than that, the road trips are always really fun.  I'm excited.  We play 6 games in 9 nights, so it's going to be an exhausting one, and I already stocked up on my Emergen-C and Cheez-It's for the bus.  On the bright side, though, we get to spend Thanksgiving in El Paso!...And we're going to an Anaheim Ducks vs. Detroit Red Wings game after our series against Long Beach on the way to El Paso.  It's going to be really fun, and I'm excited to see how our team plays.  Here we go!

It's Official

First of all, shout out to my older brother, who is studying abroad in Copenhagen (lucky!) right now.  He turns 22 today!  Love you Charlie!  Follow his adventures at teddysexcellentadventure.blogspot.com!  I guess us Tedstrom's are just hip bloggers...Dad, Mom...time to start blogging?

Anyway, today, I've officially decided on going Early Decision to St. Olaf College to play Division III hockey and maybe soccer.  November 15th is the deadline, and I went for it for a lot of reasons.  I loved the school when I went there this summer, and it is in a location where my family will be able to come and see me very easily.  I've decided I would rather go to school in the Midwest than go out East because my family and friends will be able to come watch me and because I've always been able to see myself living in a Midwestern city like Minneapolis after college.  Of all the small Division III hockey schools in the Midwest, I think it is the best academically, and that's very important to me.  So pending my admission to the college, that is where I will be going next year.  I'm very excited, and, obviously, getting this decision out of the way is a load off my shoulders.  My roommate said to me the other day, "How nice is it to already know where you're going to school?"  I said, "Very nice," with a sort of wry smile on my face.  Now, my parents still want me to apply to some reach schools that I might not be able to play hockey at, just to see, and I think that's a good idea.

Of course I'm really excited for school.  College is something I've been looking forward to since a very young age when my parents started telling me their college stories.  But now that I have that decision out of my way, I can really focus on continuing to get better at the hockey side of things.  I can keep getting better every day if I don't let myself get complacent.  I've been talking to some of my friends and family a lot lately, and the consensus is that I have to be better at living in the present.  I'm doing something that a lot of kids would love to be doing, and I'm so lucky to be doing it.  I need to realize that and approach every day with a tenacity and desire to improve.  For some reason, I'm one of those people who wants to worry about something, and, unfortunately, when I'm not playing hockey or working or doing something, my mind starts to wander, and I feel sorry for myself that I'm not going to school or that I'm missing out by not going to school.  Nonsense!  I'm living the dream.  My dream.  And if I were in school right now, I would probably want to be doing what I'm doing right now, or wondering what it would be like to be doing what I'm doing.  So, I'm going to stop having those thoughts altogether.  They are the kind of thoughts that get me nowhere.  This year is going to go by fast enough; I don't need to hurry through it or miss out on any chance to get better by thinking about the future or the past.  That's just stupid.

At the beginning of the season, I did approach every day with a tenacity to improve, and I drove myself with a desire to be a leader on the team.  In the past week or so, I've started telling my parents that I think this junior hockey experience has become a little monotonous:  long road trips, work, hockey, eat, gym, sleep, do it all over again.  That's my life.  But I have to relish it because it'll be over soon enough, and I'll be out in the real world, wanting to be back here.  I think these kinds of thoughts are natural for someone going through their second or third season of junior hockey.  I know my roommate has some of the same feelings because we've talked about it.  I'm going to revisit my goals for the season, though, and really focus on getting better daily.  I'm not going to let my mind get the best of me anymore.  No matter how monotonous the season gets, I'm not going to complain anymore because this is my dream.  And I'm living it.

It's completely white here in Park City...finally feels like hockey season!

My Day: Brightened

Today I received an email from my billet family up in McCall that says how happy they are to have me in their extended family.  They were just sending me an email to tell me they think I'm a great young kid and they're proud to have me as their part-time billet brother/son.  After a few short weekends up in McCall, this family has graciously welcomed me into their home and family, and it's awesome.  It's these kinds of relationships forged throughout a junior hockey season that really make everything worthwhile.  I've met some incredible people on this journey, some that I will never forget and will probably keep in touch with for the rest of my life.  Sometimes, though, during this long, grueling season--where there seems to be no break in the action--it's hard to stay positive and things like that keep me going.

Chasing my dream of playing college hockey is sometimes a very lonely ordeal.  I look at facebook pictures of friends at school, at football games, and see how much fun they're having; I realize that I'm sacrificing a normal college life for this dream.  Believe it or not, lacing up the skates isn't always fun (it is a vast majority of the time) but it's also a lot of hard work.  Things like that little email, though, really validate the fact that I'm doing this for a reason and that I am making a difference in my life and in other's lives even though I'm taking a very different path than most of my friends.  I'm sort of at a crossroads right now where I so badly want to be in college, playing hockey and learning new things, but I also need to realize that I can still benefit greatly from the rest of this season.  I still have a lot to learn about myself as a hockey player and person this season before I get to college.  But it's always nice to hear things like that from people out of the blue, and it just really brightened my day.

We have 9 away games in a row now before our next games up in McCall.  Next week, we go on a 9-day road trip, where we play 6 games in 9 nights.  It's going to be a tough stretch for us, one that really tests our young team.  It's going to be fun to see how we handle the hostile road environments of Long Beach and El Paso, though.  

Clean Sweep

We completed a three game sweep of the Cheyenne Stampede this weekend in McCall.  It was a close series for the most part.  The Stampede really kept things close in the first two games.  No matter how much offense we created, they hung around and kept things interesting.  But we won the first night 4-0 (first shutout of the year,) and the second night 3-1, and on Sunday afternoon we won 10-2.  It was a fun weekend.  I love being up in McCall because it reminds me so much of being back in Colorado, and it's just a great atmosphere up there.  You can tell the town really livens up when the Junior Steelheads come to town.  We had our Pink in the Rink event this weekend, so we wore pink laces, taped our sticks with pink tape, and wore pink armbands that were auctioned off with proceeds going to benefit breast cancer.  There were great crowds for every game, and I had a lot of fun!

I played pretty solid in all the games, but I still have things I need to work on.  I need to work on making better decisions when under pressure.  Quite often, I just throw the puck away when I get pressured, and I could make a simple board pass to our forwards.  Throwing the puck out of the zone is never a bad play, but my coach wants me to work on making better plays and seeing the ice better.  I also need to work on my execution on the power play.  I didn't have a very good weekend on the power play and neither did our team as a whole, but I need to focus on making smarter decisions with the puck on the blue line in the next week.  We need to execute our power play a lot better because we're going to end up playing teams with good penalty kills later on in the season, so it will be important for us to capitalize when we have the man advantage.  Offensively, I had a bad weekend (0 points) but I didn't need to put up points.  Our forwards handled that.  And, more importantly, I wasn't on the ice for any of their goals all weekend.  I think I might've been jinxed by the game program, which featured me and said I had a "hot stick" with 12 points in 10 games, but I don't really care about points.  As long as I make a difference with my play and help our team win, I'm happy.  And I think I did that this weekend.  I'm just being hard on myself, like I've learned to be from my coaches.  I can only get better by knowing the things I need to work on.

On Tuesday I went to the doctor about the knee that's been bothering me.  They took some X-rays and everything looked good.  Turns out I just sprained my MCL...it's not really a serious injury; it's just a nagging injury that can take a while to heal.  I'm excited for our three games in McCall this weekend against the Cheyenne Stampede!  They are in first place in our division right now after our two losses to Fresno, so we're looking to regain our position atop the division and bounce back after a tough weekend last weekend.  But it's not going to be easy.  We're going to have to be ready!