Tonight we lost 3-2 in a shootout. It's a tough way to lose, but we still clinched home ice for playoffs with the point we got. I'll post more about the game tomorrow.

That Was Fun

Last night I had my best game of the year by far. I was making smart passes, hitting, beating people behind our net, shooting the puck well; I just felt really confident, and I don't remember making any mistakes. It felt awesome to finally play the way I know I can play. I had an all around good game. I probably had 5 or 6, maybe more, good shots, I played a big part in setting up our second goal of the game, the game-winner, I got stitched up in the second period, and I was knocking people around. I want to keep that going tonight. It felt so good to play the way I want to finally, and it was just a really fun game to play in. Tonight, we can clinch home ice advantage for the playoffs with a win.

After the game, the coaches called me to the front of the bus, just to tell me how well they thought I played last night and how confident I looked on the ice. They want me to keep playing that way, and I want to keep playing that way. I know I can now, and that's just a big confident boost for me going down the stretch.

I played my best game of the year by far tonight. I'm pretty pumped. Coach just told me he didn't think I made any mistakes and just played a really good, solid game. We won 3-1.

It sounds weird to say this because before tonight we had won 12 straight games but tonight we lost 6-5. We did not come close to playing our best hockey, especially as a defensive unit. Our decision making was poor, and it showed on the scoreboard. Anytime a team puts up 6 on you, no one on defense plays well. I think we beat ourselves tonight. We gave away grade A chances that we usually don't and Fresno took advantage. After all this talk about being more consistent, I don't think I was very consistent tonight. I was +2 on the night and never got scored on, but I made some mistakes that could've ended up with the puck in our net.

I think I had a strong 1st period, a bad 2nd period with a few good plays here and there, and a pretty good 3rd period with one bad mistake. Overall, I think I played well tonight, but to be honest, no one plays well when you lose a critical game like that. Our effort was there, but our brains were not. We need to think better and make smarter decisions. I was pretty careful with the puck tonight: I shot when I could and got the puck to the forwards for the most part, but I also had a few plays where I need to think better, where I would pass a puck off the boards when it should be a direct pass or when I missed an easy ten foot pass in the neutral zone. I just made a few mistakes that didn't cost us, but could've cost us, and I'd like to eliminate those.

The times that I did shoot, I needed to get the puck off the ice. I think I did well to get the puck to the net, but when I'm shooting I need to think about getting the puck off the ice so it's harder for the goalie to stop. It may sound like I'm overanalyzing every aspect of the game, every play, but that's how I'm learning. This coach demands perfection. You do things his way or not at all. He analyzes every play, always looks for things you do wrong so he can teach you to be better, and it's helping me to look at my play on the ice more and learn. It's helping me learn how to think and play at the same time.

Tomorrow is a new game. We need to come out firing on all cylinders tomorrow. No excuses. We need to come out and show we are the better team. We need to have a better effort even though we worked pretty hard tonight, but we also need to have a smarter effort. These next two games are huge. Tomorrow we just need to come out and do the things we need to do to win a hockey game. I need to focus on the things I need to focus on and keep things simple and have fun. Tomorrow we have another hockey game to play, and I have a feeling we are going to play better as a team.