Leaderboard

That makes me laugh. It's great and a pain, all at the same time. Wouldn't change it for the World. Been plugging stuff into the calendar & it looks like a mess of time.

Kids start school today....the reminder that summer is technically over. Just saw my schedule this fall/winter for coaching and chauffeuring my two oldest kids around.... Holy Crap! Can't even imagine what it will look like when my little one ages in...she just turned 4 yesterday.

Here is a write up i did for an Adult Clinic last night.... Wow what a huge turnout at Lakewood last night, probably at least 30+ skaters, and two goalies, including myself. Got on the ice and did a couple laps and then stopped at my usual spot along the half boards to do my stretching. At that point pucks were on the ice and people were skating around, shooting, stick-handling and what not. I noticed the other goalie (he was newer than me) got in the net at the far end and was taking shots....no way in hell I would do that...it was semi-controlled chaos with pucks coming from every angle. Once I stretched I did another lap then the whistle blew and I asked one of the instructors to put the pegs in my goal...not sure why they don't do that at the beginning? At that point they had everyone line up on the goal line and I was greeted by the goalie (as an instructor) from Long Beach State. He asked what I wanted to get out of the clinic, so I told him a few things. First we went over some basic crease movement and puck tracking drills and angle alignment. From thre we went into some butterfly positioning and active hands. This was great because I always struggled in my head of when I should have my glove hand in the 10'o'clock position vs the 3'o'clock position. He gave me great tips on when and where to use each one, again stressing active hands with elbows snug to the trunk of my body. I really wanted to work on absorbing shots to my chest and smothering those. I have noticed that I would use my blocker in those scenarios when shots were coming at my chest. This isn't a good habit because it created unnecessary rebounds when I could have easily just smothered it. Fortunately it never cost me a goal, but there have been a few close calls. After we worked on those (he shot like 10-15 pucks at me when down in b-fly) we then worked on some post work. I asked him questions regarding VH and RVH and what he preferred, we both agreed that RVH was a better method (but it is all preference). He showed me some good pointers regarding foot/pad position along the post and how to seal it up. We worked on both glove side and stick side positioning, and transitioning from one post to the next, it was awesome! After that we just talked about rebound control and reading the opponents eyes after blocking a shot. Often times you think you have the puck covered but you don't, he was telling me a great way to tell if you don't have it covered was by looking at the opponents eyes and if they start to get big or they make a move towards you, obviously it isn't covered. That wrapped it up for my goalie instruction. At that point the skaters looked like they were done with their drills that didn't involve the goalies and were ready to get us involved. The ol' 2 on 0 was up next...the death of the goalie!!! This drill while seemingly harmless is pretty taxing on us, as it requires a lot of movement, first out to the puck carrier while keeping an eye on the off-winger, then laterally tracking a pass to him, then another pass and so on. The skaters were coming down from the far end of the ice. It basically came down to track/shuffle/lateral butterfly push and hopefully a save. This got VERY tiring as it was non-stop for what seemed like 10 minutes. After that they did a 2 on 1 from within the own zone, this wasn't quite as tiring but I would say maybe one shot got through for every 5 groups that went. That went on for about 10 minutes as well it seemed and I was beat at that point, I stopped dropping and was basically just a human cone that would rotate to cut off the angles at that point, exhausted!!! Time was running out after that and they did a scrimmage in which I didn't see any shots and lasted maybe 4-5 minutes? All in all it was rad to see so many people out including a couple of my teammates. I also noticed a few others from our league and the league above us...for whom I subbed a couple games for last season. Gear update: My skates felt much better this time around, I put my wax laces back in and they felt snug. At one point I did have a little discomfort, I could feel the forward lean of the Bauer cowlings putting pressure on my arches, that eventually went away though. This was also my second time using the Brians Smart Toe Straps, I'm kind of on the fence to be honest. Maybe it will take more usage but they honestly don't save me much time in the getting ready department, as I use a piece of sock tape around the fastening area to insure they don't come apart, I swear that velcro connection just doesn't look trustworthy. (i know people say they haven't had it come undone, but many have...so i play it safe with the tape). They do help keep the pads centered, however since I'm not used to that it feels like my pads are always kind of pointed inward at the top of the thigh rise area, and it bugs me. I might go back to traditional toe ties with 2.5" of slack...