Off-ice blur

This season is going by fast – a lot faster than I have been able to wrap my head around.

We’re already approaching Week 8 of the regular season, and including the two preseason games we’re two full months into Summer 2009. It doesn’t feel that way to me; in my mind we’re still barely out of the preseason. Actually, come to think of it, I can barely distinguish when last season ended and this one began. 

It’s been such a blur that I didn’t even realize that the roster freeze passed this week. Not that we had any plans to add any additional players to our roster – I went into this season with a larger than normal roster to make sure we would have enough – but it’s still a key date in the schedule and I totally missed it.  My oversight raises a red flag for me.

Many will say I’ve been too distracted by other issues and they are probably right.    I’ve acknowledged this to myself and have tried to refocus on just playing hockey, but I still feel a little burnt out.  Until relatively recently, I would take any opportunity I could to skate in a drop-in or sticktime (or when they were held, a skills clinic) in addition to playing once a week, but I don’t feel that drive anymore.  Indeed, outside of game night I’m not doing much hockeywise.  I think some of my teammates have noticed.  About two weeks ago, one of my teammates sent me a very supportive e-mail and that has given me some things to think about.

As it stands today, we sit with a 3-4 record which puts us in seventh place in our ten team league.  I think we’re better than our record and as a whole it seems we’re still looking for an identity this season.  Maybe we’re having too much fun off the ice to worry as much about what’s going on on the ice?  It’s my job to get us playing to our potential and that’s my focus for the rest of the season. 

Singh10.

Monday Musings: Untripodlike Conduct

It’s funny how things work sometimes.

During the day before our game against Norcal Crossover A last Friday, I was contemplating putting up a post about being in the midst of another long goal-less streak. While not as bad as my nine-month one, as of last week I hadn’t scored a goal in about three months. Coincidentally, the last goal I scored was last season against the very same Norcal Crossover A.

I didn’t get around to writing that post before the game and it turns out I wouldn’t have to as I ended up scoring a goal on Friday night. In some strange conspiracy of fate and circumstance, I somehow found myself with the puck on a breakaway during the game, and that normally doesn’t happen to me.  Most of the time, I’m checked before I can take two strides, or I freak out and throw the puck away. But on this play, I picked up the puck around center ice and I still had the puck when I got to the slot.  I decided to try and make a move on the goalie instead of taking a shot. After a little deke, the puck made its way through the goalie’s five-hole and the next I saw of it was in the back of the net.  My slump was over.

On to the next goal-less slump!

Personally, it was nice to score the goal but what really makes me feel good is that with my goal we now have twelve out of sixteen skaters on the Hogs who have registered at least one goal this season (excluding our goalie of course). I’m hoping we can make that 16-for-16 by the end of the summer.  I’ve gone through a season where I didn’t score a single goal and while not everything you do on the ice can be counted in goals, it’s still an empty feeling when you have a goose egg in that category.  When you score, it’s not so much about stats as it is knowing that you’ve contributed to the team effort on the ice.  This is why everyone on our team gets a chance when we do shootouts.  And besides, scoring goals makes for good stories to friends and family.

Some players from another team who shall remain nameless (mostly because I think I’ve run out of names to call them) have been coming out to watch our games for the past few weeks, and they were there again on Friday to see my breakaway.  One of those players cheered when I scored, which was very nice of him.  I definitely appreciate the support.

However, I heard that his captain – who was also there watching our game - made him stop cheering. I’m not sure if the silencing of that player by his own captain (not all nations permit freedom of speech) was related to that captain’s dislike for me or if it was out of concern for Skatetown’s boards and glass (they must be more fragile than I thought).  Something tells me that if the person who scored was someone other than me, there might not have been the same concern about kicking the boards or pounding the glass.  Regardless, that a team would go to the extent of censoring their own players who cheer for me is rather flattering.

I have already “stirred up the hornet’s nest” enough with that team this season and apparently they’re still fuming. When the story of the censoring was conveyed to me, I was advised that it might not be a good idea to write about it on the blog.   So, let’s just pretend that I didn’t write about it.

Singh10.

Can’t see the hockey for the hockey

It has been an interesting few weeks for me.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an admittedly biting game summary after our game against the Flying Wizards on our main team website (here).  The tone in that write up was not like the typical game summaries that I usually write after a game.   It was heated but the facts I wrote were undisputable, and weeks later despite all the abuse and heat I received from that team (over the internet or behind my back, of course) only one person on that team ever tried to clear the air.  However, what I wrote still remains unchallenged.

I’m not bothered by the name calling.  I’ve been called worse things by better people.  I don’t take back what I wrote , and for all the people who got on my case about what I’ve written there have been others who agree with much of what I’ve said.  My only regret about writing that summary is that I did it on the team website rather than on this blog.  It’s a contrived distinction perhaps, but in my mind this blog is for my personal opinions and the team website is supposed to be more about the team.  I should have spared my team that sort of vitriol.

Notwithstanding where I wrote what I did, there is a reason why I wrote what I did.

After last season and going into this one, I have become increasingly irritated by teams who attempt to skirt or outright break the rules for the all-sacred win.   I have had a hard time accepting the fact that there are rules that are not always followed nor enforced (in which case I say do away with them), and that those teams that fly around or break the rules face little consequence.  When I have called these teams out, it’s because instead of just complaining, I am actually trying to do something about keeping the league honest as a whole. Maybe it would be different if I wasn’t a captain and I didn’t feel the need to make sure things were being done fairly, or maybe not.  I probably take a “league” view much more than many captains and I think I’ve become too distracted by this.

From where I sit, there is a lack of will to make sure teams are behaving as they should, which subverts all the assurances and promises we were given when there was a turnover in our league’s administration in the middle of last season.  Perhaps this season is one of transition and things will get better, but even so I don’t see why existing rules shouldn’t be followed or enforced.  As of right now, it seems as though Silver B has taken a step backward rather than forward. 

There has been little in return for letting myself get carried away with this stuff, and it is ruining my enjoyment of the game.   I’m not sure it’s making any kind of tangible difference.  At the end of the day, it’s Skatetown’s responsibility to ensure they are enforcing their own rules and if they don’t, it’s their own reputation and the quality of their own program that is on the line.  For me to put my effort and reputation on that same line, thinking that it might help improve our league, seems to be a futile exercise.  Besides, who am I besides just another player (a bronze league tripod egomaniac, as some would assert) in our league?

I will probably scale back in this sense and try to focus on hockey.  I don’t think I’ll stop calling things out – once a whiner always a whiner – but there are probably better ways to go about it.  I have more important things to worry about (such as my own team) and better places to direct my energies from which I can extract greater rewards.

Singh10.

NHL rule changes

New rule changes at the NHL?

NHL Tries To Woo Fans By Increasing Scoring With Bigger Nets, 3-Point Line