Leaderboard

I managed a successful 14U girls jamboree this weekend. We had six teams, and everyone had a blast. Zero parent, player, ref, or coach issues. Our 14U girls team beat their rivals Missoula in pool play. First time this season after 5 other pairings--resulting in 4 close losses and one tie. Missoula won the big trophy. Awesome fast, fun, intense game. 3 of our visiting teams are very new; they got to play each other and had a lot of fun. It was a great time, but also a relief to now have it completed. Went out for beers with my fellow managers on Saturday night and round-tabled ideas to keep building girls hockey in Montana.

Couple of the young one this past weekend, went 3-1, but didn't advance. (Edit for - for some reason these were deleted from my PB account?)

So this morning went much better than Wednesday or Thursday, although Thursday's whole experience (being screamed at, being hit a couple times, etc.) has apparently undone a lot of good therapy since I was shaking-nervous and nearly cried after letting in a third goal. In my defense, it's been a very long week overall. Wednesday was a good, clean butt-kicking (playing against guys who are several levels above me in terms of skill), but Thursday was a nightmare. Today started out pretty rocky but my teammates persist in reassuring me (depending on the day this can be like drilling through bedrock with a super-soaker, so props to them) and I was feeling much better as the game went on, and played much better as well.

It's becoming more and more evident just how important equipment is to hockey performance. My Makos were getting dull so I had them sharpened and ordered a pair of Reebok 16K skates. The difference between that setup and dull skates with department store socks was night and day. All, thanks for the advice on my shooting. I implemented that advice during today's session, and (at risk of sounding boastful) the shots were humming into the net.

I can finally say I've created the perfect fitting skate for myself. C width MX3s with Speed Plates and Powerfoot toe inserts. Steel is 10' with a +2 pitch. It's like wearing a pair of Jordan's (albeit instant response) on the ice. Threw my X100's in the pic because I acquired them around the same time for a grand total of $650 :)

Well that was unpleasant. The [local ambulance company] skate is civil for about 5-10 minutes, then devolves into goonery. And also, lots of me getting screamed at for not being very good. Many of the individual players are quite good, but unlike the guys I skated with yesterday (B-level) and unlike the Russians (C-ish), they do not play well as a group. Also, neither the Scary B Level Guys nor the Russians scream at me. Which, just for the record, does not really help me improve. (actually, it makes me play worse in the moment.) I mean not just the getting screamed at as goonery, but dingbats fighting with each other and knocking sticks out of players' hands and tripping and all kinds of dumb things in that vein.

In the first video, I think you're kind of slicing it a bit too much. Like you're catching it mid-toe instead of heel-mid and not turning your wrists over to point the puck in the direction you want it to go. It got a little better with the regular pucks toward the end. Also, you're transferring your weight to the back leg then twisting instead of transferring from the back leg to the front leg. Think of it like putting all your weight on the bag leg and driving all that momentum through to the front leg and pointing the toe of the blade where you want it to go as you follow through. I was doing the basics of shooting with my JV kids the other day, most would transfer the weight back, but not forward or they wouldn't follow through with the stick. I'm definitely jealous of the amount of ice time you're getting to work on the basics of hockey. There's so much I wish I could work on. Keep up the great work!

Hey guys, Russ here from Sparx Hockey. I just saw this thread and wanted to thank you all for the great support and feedback. As a thanks, I'd like to offer a limited $50 off coupon towards a new Sparx sharpener good through this weekend for any mod squad members that use the promo code MSH-SPARX If you have any other questions or thoughts on the product we'd love to hear from you so feel free to leave a message here and I'll do my best to respond or shoot us an email at help@sparxhockey.com Thanks again and good luck this season!

Went to my third drop in ever today. I was the only goalie playing 2v2 half ice against a couple of juniors players, a varsity women's player, and a guy about my age who isn't showy but definitely not his first time strapping on the skates. So basically, it was 2 on 1, 2 on 0, and breakaway practice all day aka normal drop in. I didn't see a shot further out than the hashes. Luckily, I'm very much an "it is what it is" kind of guy and still got a lot of good work in. My shuffles and t-pushes are getting crisper, and I can do the emergency b-fly slide going to my left. To my right, I am doing this very weird thing where I get a good t-push and then kind of drag my left leg (like I'm doing some weird Laura Stamm drill) with my body and right pad square to the puck. I think it's because I only like doing half b-fly with my left leg down. I got a lot better at reading the overall play and coming back into my crease a bit when I saw the backside pass was open. I'm also finally learning to stay upright and keep good gap control on breakaways. The first 5-6 times, the best guy out there just got me to drop with really good shot fakes and then just brought it back around me for an easy goal. I was too far away from him, although still aggressively above the crease. Once I started standing my ground, I stuffed him several times. I did get a bit frustrated at the end after I let in some relatively easy 5-hole goals due to exhaustion, but overall, it was still a positive experience. It was also rough knowing you're really cutting down the angle only to face shooters who can put it exactly where they want when not under pressure. I had several pucks put into tiny gaps (4 inches max between skate and post from bottom of circle, getting roofed from 2 feet away *while standing!* etc) From looking around the forums, about 90% of goalies seem to hate drop in due to the lack of defense / wannabe superstars but luckily in my area even the really good guys are pretty chill. They certainly don't play down to my level put they don't take clappers at my head or start chirping after I let in 5 goals in as many minutes. On a gear related note - those new yellow Superfeet are awesome. I got pretty bad arch pain the last few sessions just from standing upright so much but had zero today. I think I'm going to put them in my player's skates tonight.

Wheels are back Mako 2 + LS Edge + LS3 BlackEdge coated