Game Day - Knights (3) d Kings (2)

On September 24 we opened our 15/16 season with a one goal win against the Kings.  It was the late game, started 9:45pm.  I'd had a fairly big day beforehand, it being my birthday and all, but made it with time to spare. 

We had 12 skaters (of whom 5 were rookies in their first game), Tommy was in the goals and Justine was calling shots.  We started with 3 Defencemen and 3 forward lines, with Cam and Foxy taking on centre roles.

Jonesy - Bayden - Richard

Stewart - Cam - Griff

Kerri - Foxy - Ashley

Mike / Bacon / Me

Tommy

The Kings had been thumped 9-1 in their first game against the Preds while we had had the bye.  Some of our newcomers thought this practically guaranteed a win, us older hands remembered making similar misjudgements in past and that the Kings had beat us bad last year.  They had at least a couple excellent players, and had borrowed last season's leading goalie to cover their net while they looked for a permanent tender.

These warning signs were proven founded when the Kings scored off an early D zone face off caused by an icing I'd made in clearing the zone.  The shot was from their outside wing, who was my man.  Even if I'd been moving quicker, however, the shot would have been set up and off before I got there.  What didn't help also was that one of our players managed to get a slight deflection on the puck as it went past him.  This was probably sufficient to send the puck through the narrow gap I could see between Tommy's pads (I watched it good into the back of the net).  Such is life.

We equalised not much later and went into the first break 1-1.

The second period was tight.  We picked up two goals to be leading 3-1.

Third period and the pressure stayed on.  They pulled back a late goal but we were able to see the game out with a cheer as we recorded our first win of the year.

It was really good to be back on the ice as a Knight.  I held up much better than I thought I would to the demands of being one of only three defencemen.  I pulled at least my time on ice, including on the Power Play, making for about 40 minutes.  Those are huge minutes in anyone's book, but I felt my body held up well.  There were a few positional things I had to get hold of, but Bacon guided me through the worst of them.

I managed a couple shots from the blue line, and a third that could be classified as a shot if you didn't know I was just hammering it in there.  I was generally able to keep the puck in the O zone, didn't panic when I had it, was able to compete on the boards most of the time.  I used my feet on something like four occasions, all productive.  Once when I went over I used my prone body to shield the puck from my opponent so my centre could pick it up and continue the attack.  The only time I went deep into the offensive zone was on the Power Play (ie. when I should have).  I even did something that in past I have not been good at, use my stick to tap an airborne puck down to the ice so that I could release it on a controlled pass towards the net.

I was on for both of their goals and none of ours, but aren't too worried about that.  On the first I was in a useless position as it turned out on the D Zone faceoff, not a decision of mine.  On the second, I was last line defence and had a couple chances to clear the puck on its journey in.  My skills weren't up to it but at least I was in the right position.

Finally, my sister and her family (husband and four boys) were down for the week from Melbourne and had come along for the game.  Added to my grandkids from Adelaide, wife and daughter in law I had a quite a cheersquad.  Especially in the later part of the game when they started chanting my name.  Everyone should have the feeling of having a cheersquad rooting them on, it's fantastic!

GP 1 G 0 A 0 Pts 0 -2 1/0/0
Ice 38