Sweep City

This morning at 2:30 AM, we got back from another road sweep in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  We never really played our best this weekend, which is frustrating.  There were bright spots--a period here and there--but we couldn't ever put it together for a full 60 minutes.  Still, we won all three games, and it's a good sign that we can do that even when things aren't going our way.  The first game, we all seemed like we had cinder blocks for feet because we had driven through the night to get to Cheyenne and didn't get to our hotel until 5 in the morning.  But we ended up winning 7-1, and I had two assists--one on the power play, which was pretty satisfying because after the holiday break my coach had told me that I won't get as much power play time now...the bottom line, he says, is that there are just kids on the team who are more proficient on the power play than me, which may or may not be true, but I went out there and gave him a little bit to think about.  I shot the puck well this weekend.  Whether or not I end up getting more power play time after this weekend, I don't really care.  I know my role on this team is not to be a goal scorer, and I'll help the team in any way, even if I have to cheer on the power play guys from the bench.  Everyone wants to play on the power play, but I know that not everyone can, and it's the coach's job to put who he believes gives him the best chance to score on the ice on the man advantage.

The second night we won 7-4, and on Sunday we won 5-3.  It's really out of character for our team to give up that many goals, even though there were some fluky goals scored.  But we need to fix that next weekend and come out better defensively.  I hate giving up that many goals.  The crowd in Cheyenne was really rowdy--over-the-top rowdy even and inappropriate to our players and fans--and I think we might've let that get to us a little too much.  There was a fight in the stands the first night...I've never seen anything like it.  My mom called it the "Wild, Wild West."  But next weekend we're back on home ice in McCall, so that'll be good.

I played a solid weekend overall.  I'd like to eliminate all the little mistakes I make when reading forechecks and things like that, but I guess that's why you play, right?  If I keep learning from the mistakes I make, I'll keep developing.  I never made any major mistakes, but I can always improve my passing in the defensive zone and my ability to make plays with the puck at the point in our offensive zone.  Anyways, it was fun seeing my parents and some of my best friends from home at my game on Saturday night!  I loved it!  Here's a picture of me and my super fans after Saturday's game.

Defensive State of Mind

This weekend we outscored the other team 23-0 in three games!  Three shutouts in three games is impressive, to say the least.  Almost unheard of.  That stat alone tells you how much our team is improving defensively.  It was a great weekend, so much fun to be back in McCall.  We got great crowds for every game, and, as always, we were extremely spoiled by our billets up there.  It seems like I'm never not full in McCall, which is a good thing for those of you who know my eating habits!

My mom's first comment to me when I told her we won 12-0 today was, "Oh, I wish you had better competition."  Well, better competition would be nice, but I told her that every weekend our coaches and our team hold ourselves to a certain level of perfection, so it really doesn't matter who we play.  We're growing together and getting better as a team at the right time of year.  We just have to keep this going.  Success breeds confidence, and we're a pretty confident bunch right now.  In the past 10 games, we've given up 7 goals and had 5 shutouts.  We have some tough games coming up, and our eyes are focused on getting back to the Thorne Cup championship and nationals, while also playing our best hockey on the way there.  It's going to be fun!

Next weekend, we play 3 games in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and my family's coming to watch!  I'm excited. We're pretty busy this week, so it's going to go by fast!

Constantly Learning and Improving

I'm a humble person.  I'm usually not one to pump my own tires, but I've gotten some good compliments from my teammates in the past week, and I'm going to share with my blogosphere because I'm proud of how much I'm learning and how much I'm improving.  Last week, after a scrimmage I had a few people come up to me and tell me that they can't ever get around me.  They said, "I can get around you, but I can't get around you."  What I think that means is that I always get enough of either the puck or the body that they can't get a good scoring chance or even a shot on goal.  That tells me I've really improved.  Almost every day now, our coach tells our defensive corps how much better we've gotten since the start of the year.  We've made the drills a lot harder for the forwards; our coach is no longer saying that the forwards are outperforming us in drills.  It's the other way around.  Personally, I just feel so much more confident in my ability to take odd-man rushes and 1-on-1's than I did at the beginning of the year.  I really believe that no one can get around me, so no one does.  I've learned that defense is a mindset, and I have a pretty strong mind when I want to have one.

Another compliment I got was one that has to do with an off-ice talent I have.  One of my friends on the team told me that I "just know how to make other people happy."  That really meant a lot to me because I do try to be a good person in all facets of my life--except for on the ice this year--and it's good to hear when people notice and share what they think.  It's just another example of me learning about myself throughout this process.  In these two years of junior hockey, I've learned countless things about the kind of person I am that will only help me in the future.

After almost a month without games, we're finally going to be back in McCall for a three game series against the New Mexico Renegades this weekend.  We've had a good 2 weeks of practice, and I think we're ready to get this second half of the season started off right.

I'm so excited to play back up in McCall!  It's been too long.

Back on the Grind!

It feels really good to be back on the ice.  I feel fresh, rejuvenated, and ready for the second half of the season.  This half of the year is going to go by really fast--the first half flew by, and this second half will go even faster--so I need to get as much as I can from every practice, every game.  The first day back this week, we had a team meeting after practice.  Our coach told us how important it is that we come to the rink excited and ready to work every day.  After 3 weeks away from the team, our first practice back was full of energy.  Everyone was whooping it up.  It's so fun when everyone brings that kind of attitude to practice because it just brings the level of practice up and makes everyone work harder.  If there's one thing I've learned in Idaho it's that it is fun to work to exhaustion.  That's how you get better.  Our coach also reiterated what our goals are as a team.  We want to win the Thorne Cup and go back to nationals, but on the way there, our coach told us, we want to become a machine.  He said there's one team in the NHL right now that just beats the piss out of everyone they play because they play with such intensity:  the Boston Bruins.  They beat everyone they face and it's not necessarily because of the skill they have on the team, although any NHL team is obviously skilled; it's more of a mindset they bring to the rink.  They just know they're better than who they're playing.

We want to be the Boston Bruins of the WSHL and Tier III.  We want to be a machine because it's fun to play like that.  We've had one game so far this year where we've really played to our potential, and it was against Seattle at the showcase.  We destroyed them, and we have to make it our goal to try to play every game from here on out like that.  I want to see this team reach its potential, but we all have to continue working hard and gelling together as a team to reach our goals, and, like our coach always says, then more people will have individual success.

I'm still having a lot of fun this year.  I missed the guys over break.  We have some great kids on our team, and our chemistry is awesome.  One of my good friends on the team and I were talking about it today.  It's just a lot of fun to hang out in our locker room and mess around with the guys.  We have some beauties on the team, and we just keep coming closer and closer.

Right now, I'm about to head out to a team movie night, but I will try to post more in the upcoming days.  I'm just so busy, and I LOVE it!

Well-Prepared

My roommate just recently talked to a friend from last year's team, who is now playing in his first year of collegiate hockey at the Division III level.  He said he's playing on a line with two players:  one who played in the NAHL and one who played in the USHL.  Those are the two junior leagues above us, a Tier 2 league and a Tier 1 league respectively.  It's pretty impressive that a kid from Tier 3 hockey can go in there and compete with and hang with those "better" kids.  That's a credit to the kind of preparation we get from our coaches.  I don't think there is a Tier 3 program in the country that prepares players for the next level as well as our coaches prepare us here.  And it might be taboo to say this, but I think we are prepared better than a lot of Tier 2 teams too.  We get coached.  And that's why I'm here.  I want to become better.  What my roommate told me is not only a credit to how well-prepared for the next level I will be after this year, but it's also a reminder of the kind of competition I'll be up against.  I'm excited for the challenge.  This year and next.  But I'm going to stay focused on this year for now.  

There are kids on our team who could easily be playing in the NAHL right now, and I think there are even a few who could be in the USHL if they had decided to move away from home earlier to be a hockey player.  Our assistant coach has told me before how hard it is to recruit to this level because no one wants to come play Tier 3 because it's Tier 3; its name alone has a negative connotation and you have to pay to play, but I've said it before:  I think our team is a team that's Tier 3 in name only.  We're run like a Tier 2 team in every other respect, and we're probably run a lot more professionally than most Tier 2 teams even.  So I guess what I'm getting at here is that I'm not really all that surprised that a kid from our team last year is holding his own with kids that have always been considered "better" than him.  Pretty soon I'm going to be that Tier 3 player who's holding his own because I'm confident in how well prepared I'll be after 1 1/2 years here in Idaho. 

For Better or For Worse

I recently heard on a Monday Night Football broadcast that the Kansas City Chiefs have a banner on their practice field that says, "You get better, or you get worse.  You don't stay the same."  I think that's a great motivating statement because it's such an intimidating statement.  Nobody wants to be the one getting worse.  This second half of the season, it will be easy for me to check out because I'm already committed to a school, but I have to remember I still have a lot of goals I want to reach, and my desire to be the best is going to drive me to continue to get better and continue to push myself.

I just got back into Boise after about 2 weeks traveling through Italy with my family--I haven't been on the ice--so, understandably, the past few weeks, I might have gotten a little worse.  But, at the same time, I took a well-needed break and had some family time that I absolutely needed to refresh myself for this second half.  Everyone needs a little break every now and then or they'll burn out.  Now, though, it's time for me to get back on the horse and continue to push myself to get better every day and reach for my goals.  I'm going to go hard during this week I have before our practices start up again (we start on Monday the 9th) and make sure I start out the second half on the right foot and in the right mental state.

By the way, I'm still on Italy time, and I can't sleep, so that's why I'm up blogging at 4:30 in the morning.  I know, I'm crazy.