The Tigers played strong last night and beat the Rockets 4-1 (giving us a 2-1 record against the Rockets for the season). It was a particular triumph for me because I scored one from the blueline while playing defense. I’ve been working on that shot for a while and have picked up some assists from up there, but until last night I’d never scored.
The puck came up to me from one of the Rockets defensemen clearing in front of the net. I had to skate a bit to my right to pick it up and keep it from going out of the offensive zone. When I got it I took aim and shot it back, manging to put it just where I wanted it: right between the goalies skate and the post. And that was the third goal of the game for the Tigers. I’m hoping this is a sign that I’m finally getting a better shot from the blueline and this is the beginning of a trend.
It was a good night for me overall. I had a couple rushes up the ice that were pretty strong. The glitch in the night was right at the end of the game. I was rushing for a puck in our defensive zone against a Rockets player and we ended up crashing into each other and the boards. It was ruled by one of the refs that it was a check, so I ended up in the box with a four minute penalty (which doubled my penalty count for the season). It didn’t seem like a check to me… but I also wasn’t about to argue the point.
We had another coached scrimmage after the game last night too, which was just as great as the last one. Thankfully we had enough defensemen this time out, so I don’t feel as destroyed today as I did after the last one. These whistle-stop scrimmages are great for getting everyone on the same page. I’m going to try to get one together for the Ordinals before the new season starts, perhaps in conjunction with the Wizards.
I’m about a month away from starting a new hockey skills clinic. Chelsea Piers is opening a new training facility called Bluestreak. I’m going to take the hockey program. If you check out the description (and check out the skating treadmill too), it sounds like over the course of six weeks I’ll either come out a much better player, or I’ll simply be reduced to a pile of mush from all the training. As the program starts, I’ll keep updates here on how it is going.
