How NOT to succeed in the shootout

If you read my post about shootout tips and it’s freaking you out, watch the video below that I picked up from Greatest Hockey Legends.  Presenting the Top Ten Worst Shootout Attempts in the NHL:

Even the pros shank it once in a while, so don’t panic if your captain calls your number.

Singh10.

We don’t just bleed orange and black…

Orange and black knee brace. Photo compliments of Heikila22.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…but we brace orange and black too.

How to succeed in the shootout!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged on this site.  People who keep up with this blog or are familiar with the circumstances and events surrounding our playoff loss last season will have some clue as to why I haven’t updated in some time.  After retracting a couple of posts,  I put myself on a self-imposed blogging timeout.

This is not to say that I’m letting a certain team off the hook as it relates to their sketchy and underhanded actions.  I may or may not address those in the future.  But, in the mean time, I am now back to writing about rec hockey and my experience with it.

I’m kicking it off with the following to offer for your perusal. Check out some tips for goalies and shooters for the shootout, from Razor With An Edge.  Here’s a couple to get you started:

GOALTENDER

• As soon as the shooter picks the puck up at center telescope out to the bottom hash mark and pause. As he comes over the blueline with his head up this will plant a visual seed in his head that he has little to shoot at and will now be thinking he has to make a move to open a hole. Advantage goalie.
• When the player approaches the top of the circle begin backing up at the same rate of speed as the attacking shooter. (Too fast and it will give him more net to shoot at, too slow and the player will be able to deke around you too easily. This is real important)

CHOSEN SHOOTER

• Show confidence while circling about, waiting for the refs whistle to go. Body language is important.
• Drop by the bench or have a quick chat with your own goalie. This can plant a seed in the goalies mind that you are targeting an area, that you know a secret.

Check out the full post, because you know, these are the secrets to my prolific shootout success!

Singh10.

UPDATE: …or compliments of Hogs01, you can forget all those tips above and just do what this kid did.

Vindication

I’m really proud of and happy for the team after last Friday’s win over the Flying Ringers.  Our team played great.  To a player, there was a definite determination to play hard against the other team at both ends of the ice and it showed.

Even after the Flying Ringers tied the game late (after they significantly cut the ice time of their less talented players in the third period to give their sandbaggers more ice time), we didn’t lose our resolve.  There was no panic and right to the end we felt we could beat them.

The game proved to be a vindication of many different things:

• We finally were able to put together consecutive wins – that too against the top team in the league.
• We defeated them after they crushed us 9-3 earlier in the season.
• After they tied it up, one of their players began showboating on the ice after he scored.  It was nice to get the win after that display.
• One of our players, who during the offseason was told he wasn’t good enough to play for the Flying Ringers, scored a goal in his first game against them.  He now has more goals himself than about half their team combined, and has more goals than the person on that team who told him he wasn’t good enough.  I couldn’t be happier for our guy!
• Another of our teammates played injured and played an excellent game, scoring a goal himself.
• Two guys got their first goals of the season.  That leaves just one left to get a goal and when he does, every player (besides our goalie) will have scored at least one goal.  That’s awesome.
• After watching the game and how the Flying Ringers play, a couple of people commented to me after the game about how they were now convinced that what I have said about that team is true.
• Despite the Flying Ringers essentially benching their less talented players so that their sandbaggers could get them the win, they ended up losing the game.

Like many other teams in our league, we continued to roll all our lines throughout the game. Equal ice time in rec hockey is an ethic that many team captains share in our league and across rec hockey.  I’m glad that not only did we stick to it, but it payed off with the win as well.

I consider equal ice time a fundamental right in rec hockey.  It is sacred.  We all pay the same fee to play, and so we all deserve equal ice time regardless of our talent or ability.  Another captain in our league commented after our game about how the cutting of ice time of lesser able players by the Flying Ringers was “unfortunate”.  However, what is most unfortunate is that the team is proud of it and use it as a legitimate strategy.  As one of their more talented players said about this strategy:

It was a great game, even without some of our ringers and we almost gotrdone regardless. It’s alway a great time to play the Hogs and even that much sweeter when we see our game plan come together…..right down to the last 31 seconds!!

I’m not surprised that they pulled that move, we’ve seen them do that before when they are losing.  What I am surprised about is that people on that team even tolerate it.  Such behaviour was the catalyst for me leaving that group of players in the first place many seasons ago (back when we was Bronze), and last Friday was just more validation that I made the right choice.

Singh10.