Game Day - Rockers (4) d Wheelers (1)

On Saturday night the Rockers defeated us in the last game before a mid season break.  They did it reasonably comfortably, leading 3-0 at half time and running out winners 4-1.  I had a bit of an audience with me for a change, with my missus, sister, brother in law and four nephews along for the ride.  Nancy filmed my shifts for me, I use the resultant youtube product later in this post when I analyse the game more closely.  But, before I do that, a few prefatory remarks.

We knew from last week that we wouldn't have our arch sniper with us and would have to rely on a reserve player.  It was, however, still a bit of a surprise to learn upon arrival before the game that Matt the goalie would be a skater for us tonight and we would have the Bumper's goalie between the pipes for us.  I didn't have a problem with either of these substitutions but was a bit curious.  Turns out it was a compromise type of solution to a confluence of difficulties.

Firstly, the practice regarding reserves has changed recently for Div II.  Now a reserve must ideally come from another team in Div II, not from a Div I team as previously (or must be a lower rated Div II player).  We were apparently slated to have one of our alumni Dylans playing for us, but he went and got himself suspended again for fighting in his Div I game earlier in the evening.  Around the same time our Matt the Goalie (who plays in a Div I team as a skater) banged up his knee in a way that meant that he wasn't able to be goalie in his Wheelers team, though he could still skate.

So, the compromise was that Matt the Goalie could skate with us as a reserve, but not win the game for us by doing so, and Natalie from the Bumpers could defend our net (Nat is the greatly improving goalie from the Bumpers, who played in a tight loss to the Shufflers in the game before ours).  I was happy with Nat in the net, knew our job was to try and keep the Rockers from getting shots in on her.  I wasn't concerned by the ethical dilemma that Matt the Goalie cum Skater was posed by being a reserve in his own team, it was only as the game drew on that I saw the difficulties that came from this situation.

In retrospect, though, there's probably not a better solution than the one that was attempted.  Which is sometimes as good as you're going to get in these types of things.  It was still fun and that's what matters most.

First Half

Nancy filmed my shifts from the first half.  I mashed it up into the following:

1st Half

The first thing to note is that I was only on the floor for seven minutes, less than half the period.  I felt this a pity because I was the quickest skater on our team.  The problem wasn't me going off but, instead, the others not doing so.  I seem to have gotten into the habit of short shifting and changing on the fly.  If I am to keep doing this, however, the team I am with should be be doing so also.  A five person bench means that a player should be out there for nine minutes, give or take.  Not seven.

My second shift was a nightmare, with the Rockers scoring twice.  The first, I was aware I'd buggered up in the offensive zone (my shot which was in effect a pass to their best defender at about 1:50 on the video) and could immediately see how the resultant breakout was going to end up.  For the second goal (about 3:10), it was only when I looked at the video that I realised how my ineffective defence of the post as the attacker came around behind the goal was a necessary precondition to their scoring.  I need to sharpen my defensive game as well as my critical faculties when deciding whether to pass/shoot the puck or not.

Their third goal isn't captured on the film (as I watched it from the bench) but it involved a strong if wayward shot from behind the centreline and a fluke deflection off a player half way to goal which caused the puck to wobble in flight and dip into the goal past a screen of at least one other player (I can't even recall if deflected off of one of theirs or one of ours, it was that fluky).

There's a lot more I could write about from the first half with reference to the video, but I'll limit myself to an incident that occurred shortly before half time (around 6:20 on the video) where I chased puck into offensive corner, went down on the floor in my effort to capture and defend the puck, took a moment to reorganise my grip on my stick so as to allow me to legally pass the puck to Marrilyn for a good shot at goal.  As I got to my feet it looked to me like the puck had (just) crossed the line hard up against the near post, to be squeezed back by the goalie a split second later.  The referee (who was right near me) didn't immediately blow his whistle so I pointed at the puck (which was by this time partially on the line).  The whistle still didn't blow.  C'est la vie, I said to myself.  I think everyone else thought the puck hadn't crossed the line.  I might be wrong.  But this, combined with some other great saves of their goalie, only goes to show how contingent the end result can be on a mistimed blink of a referee's eye.

Second Half

Firstly, here's the video:

Second Half

Again, I'll only draw out a few incidents from the film in this post (which is quite long already).  The first of these occurs just after 1.00, when a Rocker shot at goal from mid rink results in a centre circle face off.  The video commentator thinks at the time it's a goal.  It isn't.  It rebounded up off the goalie (?) into the netting high above, bouncing back towards the shooter before landing on the floor.  I think a few of the players were wondering what had happened also!

The second bit of film to look at is that between 6:20 to 7:00 (during my second shift) when Nat made two great saves on the crease.  The fact that she made the second came mainly down to me losing the faceoff in the Defensive zone (resulting from her first save in the sequence).  Needless to say, I am NOT blaming our goalie for our loss and this little snippet shows why.

My goal is the third highlight to check out, the final evolution of the play commencing at about 8:20.  Nancy had accidentally discovered the zoom facility during the half minute before this, so there's close ups of various things before she focused in again on the play and fortuitously recorded the goal in hi res!  The thing I recall most about the shot is that I knew I wanted to make one as I came around behind the goal, was shut out by a defender from a wrap around, was aware this goalie had already stopped a number of shots from similar position, that he was less alert as I made as though to come around the front of the goal in the slot while I was actually priming myself for a back hand snap.  Which I did, resulting in the puck (just) squeezing under his dropping pad for our only goal.  I gave a double punch to celebrate, feeling a little vindicated by our goal.  It was 3-1, and we suddenly thought a win achievable with about five minutes left.  Silly us, because they scored shortly afterwards to reinstate their three goal lead.

The short final shift of less than a minute was instructive in itself.  Perceived wisdom is that we shouldn't have bothered with a final change at that point while the clock wound down, but we grabbed our chance when the whistle went (that's why we raced to the face off circle).  In the forty or so seconds that followed we managed to win the face off, get a shot on goal and, with our final play, have Matt pass from the corner diagonally across the slot for a one timer attempt by me.  I missed the puck by a very narrow margin (it could have been a classic Wheelers goal if I'd connected!).  The point is, one can create havoc even in the final minute of a game if the will is there.  Catching Matt's eye after the final whistle, I saw that he had the same sense about events.  That was a nice way to end, considering we're not that used to losing.

In Conclusion (my game)

I played a total of about sixteen minutes, making up for my seven minute first half with a nine minute second.  Probably the first game we've had where I didn't carry extra minutes.  So, not only were we missing Alex and fielding an injured Matt the Goalie cum Skater (playing in an overly restrained fashion due not being sure what was 'sporting' for him to do as a 'reserve' skater), but we underplayed our fastest and most agile skater.  Sigh.  We'll have to work on this a bit.

I had six face offs, winning four of them.  When I was on the floor, they won a total of ten faceoffs and we won 8.

I had 8 shots on goal (including 3 that were blocked) for my single point out of a total of 12 that we made while I was playing.  They had 14 shots in the same periods, scoring twice.  I was a directly relevant factor in both of their goals.

My worst habits (if we forgive my good habit of coming off on short shift rotation basis in a team that doesn't yet do this) was my poor pass selection, lack of consistent protection of the puck from being stolen, and generally chasing the puck rather than using my head more.

As a team we probably played our worst game for a while.  Key to our failure was that we just didn't connect, either communicatively (not a lot of talk) or actively (passes were failing).  Positionally, we tended to only have two going in on the rush so that when the puck bounced around or passed in front of their goal, their was no-one there for us.  This is partly due the limitations that Matt the Goalie cum Skater had, but it was also symptomatic of a more generalised malaise.  It's all there on the film if you look.  Despite that, I played quite a reasonable game and aren't too dissatisfied from a personal perspective.

GP8 G7 A6 Pts 13 +11 5/2/1