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.

Talent vs. Dedication

Here’s an interesting quote that’s not entirely applicable to rec hockey, but I think there are some learnings:

“Coaches have a tendency to stay too long with people with ‘potential.’ Try to avoid those players and go with a proven attitude. Players who live on ‘potential’ are coach-killers. As soon as you find out who the coach-killers are on your team, the better off you are. Go with the guys who have less talent, but more dedication, more singleness of purpose.”

- Don Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history on “players with talent.”

Singh10.

A little motivation for tonight

The HogCam!

We have a ton of game pictures for our team, but one thing I always thought would be cool is to have game videos so that we can go back and look at some of our finer and not-so-finer moments from our games.  Instead of just telling people stories of the plays we made or the goals we scored, it would be nice to have videos to show friends and family who are not able to come to our games.

I recently bought a small handheld HD video camera called the Flip Mino HD. It’s about the size of a cell phone, records 4 GB of HD-quality video and plugs directly into a computer via USB. It records 60 minutes of HD video on a 2.5 hour battery.

We’ve taken two game videos so far. The small size of the camera makes it easy to carry around and use. Since ice rink lighting is challenging (due to fluorescent lights), the video comes out a little dark, but I think it’s pretty decent:

Many thanks to Heikila22 who recorded these games from our bench.

The only issue I’ve had is that after I download the video to my computer, I have to collapse the 45+ minute recording into a 10 minute highlight reel to upload on to YouTube. This takes is a bit of time consuming work and I’m not sure I’ll be able to sustain doing that every week. I will do it as often as I can though because it’s fun to watch (at least for me) and anything that I can do to improve the hockey experience for my teammates, I want to do.

I might be one of the few who likes the videos though. The reality shock of watching ourselves on video was a little overwhelming for some of our players. One teammate wanted me to destroy the camera, and another player threatened to quit the team.

On the next movie, I’ll put up a warning.

Singh10.