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!