Spring Hockey

Ah, yes, spring hockey. You would think it'd be easier getting up, seeing as the sun is rising earlier than when we're leaving the rink. But, the sun is also setting later, and so we're doing things like yard work after dinner and going to bed more tired than we did in the winter. And, of course, those 10 p.m. starts for the playoff games certainly aren't helping to make it easy to get to hockey in the morning.

But here we are ... even if we're a bit sore from raking, and even if we're sleep-deprived from watching the game last night. I was out of town for two weeks, one for vacation, and another for unforeseen scheduling conflicts. So, boy, was I surprised to such a bright spring crowd this morning. It looked like a sea of jonquils! All of that bright yellow and grass green! Talk about spring hockey. Definitely spring colors, and it largely appeared to be a bunch of hockey players, so put them together and you've got your spring hockey.

I saw some new faces this morning. Welcome, boys. We're all here to learn, and it's good to see some new afficiandos of this great sport. Don't feel too intimidated; you'll be amazed at what you look like in just a few months. Commiting to clinics is the fastest way to rapidly improve both your skills and your confidence. Lyle and Scott are great (no they didn't pay me to say that) and your fellow clubbers are the salt of the earth. We had some interesting issues this morning. Kirk broke a blade on his skate. Clean in half. You'd think he would have been "out" for the rest of the day, huh? Nope, no such luck you slacker! The rink fixed Kirk up with a rental skate, and five minutes later he was back in the mix. Me, on the other hand, I felt out of the mix this morning. Not due to anyone excluding me, not at all. More due to me not really having my brain fully engaged. Like in the warm-up drill -- skate with the puck in a "S" path from one end to the other, shoot on the goalie. Should have been pretty easy. So what was the deal with losing the puck, huh? Then some one-on-ones down the ice. The way we did it this week wasn't so much for honing defensive tactics, though. Lyle wanted the puck carriers to get confidence in their deking. Stick deking and body deking. Next, some skating and passing. Pass it up to center ice, and while the center group passes the puck around within the circle, the two skaters go up and then back. Receive the pass, crash the net, and if your first shot doesn't score then your trailing partner should be looking to capitalize on the rebound. The goalies, of course, were focusing on not giving up any rebounds. And let's not forget "bowling for teammates", a.k.a. skating in circles in groups of three. This is where I really caused chaos. Sorry! I hope you're not too bruised-up!

Some parting shots? Well, I was going to say something about Jason's goalie cut jersey, making him look like a parachuter with one of those flying squirrel suits. But I've decided not to say anything after all. Same thing about Kirk's loaner skate, being in those Batman colors of black and red. But again I've decided not. Because heaven knows, Kirk might actually dust off that keyboard and hunt-and-peck another column one of these days, and then I'll be the one getting roasted online. So keep your head up and your eyes on the goal!