So, let me tell you about this tournament - won one, lost one, tied one. The tie was really a loss.. the goalie on the other team decided to pull himself with 10 seconds left, we got a wide open net goal. 2nd game. MOre on this. Important.
Basic layout - 6 teams, 18 minute games (2 nine minute periods, probably perfect for others, I could have done three periods easily). 8 players per team, a perfect number. i think 5 goalies, maybe 4 total, so what they did was keep the goalies in one net each and then have the teams switch sides to shoot on both goalies for one period.. it was the only fair way to do it. Schoolyard style pickup teams, and the team that won obviously played together for a long time.. nobody wanted their players , and I didn't wanna go on their team 'cause I'm thinking "these are all newbs just playing with each other 'cause they know each other." We played them the 2nd game.
First game, not much happened. I got 3 nice shots, two were to the top/middle right, a guy was in front screening. Too bad I went just wide boht times.. there was a third shot, ah it was a 2 on 1 and I decided the shot was better than the pass. Hit the right side of the goalie and he stopped it somehow. Other than that, not much. I think at one point I took a 3 minute shift instead of a 2 minute, and that makes a huge difference. Much longer to recover.
2nd game, we're getting owned. The whole game. During the 2nd period, I finally got the puck and was going up the RW side. 2 D in front, one guy coming up center from my left so I quickly passed it to him and was gonna charge the net when I realized he wasnt' on my team. so I yelled "WHAT THE FUCK! WHERE"S THE FUCKING OFFENSE?! IF YOU"RE NOT GONNA FUCKING PLAY< DONT EVEN FUCKING get on" , lost my voice at the end. I was too pissed to even play, so I went to the bench and I yelled "IF YOU"RE NOT GONNA FUCKING PLAY< DONT EVEN FUCKING GO OUT". I don't know what the deal was.. the best player on the team said something like "We gotta play harder, but you gotta look, too." Yeah, I probably should have looked more closely at the guy, but it's kinda hard when everybody's wearing differnet colors.. and why the hell am I on the offensive attack against 3 guys? one of the guys who helps run the place was on my team, i apologized for using foul language.. he said "it's cool, I like to see the passion". The only other times I talked were during the game, telling teammates where I were and what to do. This is huge in the 3rd game. The reason we were losing so bad is because nobody else was playing with heart except the good guy, not like he can do everything alone, and we had this older guy on the team.. late 40s probably, slow as *#@(), played D the whole time.. I mean, I'm not the fastest guy skating backwards, but this guy was like 10x slower than me. Gave up a few breakaways and stuff. We should have lost by a good bit. This one guy costs us everything on defense.
ANyway, so the 3rd game, I pass it 3 times , beautifully, to teammates for breakaways.. they were all 2 on 1's, and the teammates were ahead of the Dman, so I passed it perfectly to them.. first pass, guy lost control before the shot. 2nd pass, it was a bit in front, but if he would have skated it would have been a perfect short side goal. 3rd pass was to another player, he shot it into the goalie. I coulda had 3 assists. I'm definitely the playmaker.. the other team probably learned to expect me to pass.. although I definitely shot when I felt that it was the better choice.. I think maybe got one shot that game. We were only losing 2-1, not sure how, every time they got the puck htey held on to it for a while, frustration to the max. I remember distinctly taking a 3 minute shift in the 2nd half. it worked out 'cause I still only played 4.5 minutes, half the time of the period. Dont remember taking any shots, though I'm sure I did. My forecheck was shutdown in this game.. i poked the puck away a few times, the last time I did it was on the other team's best player with 15 seconds left. Effectively rendered their attack futile. Won that game 3-2 i think.
4th game, first playoff game. We're down 2-0, the other team was shooting on the crap goalie first, so I knew we had to chance to come back in the 2nd half. This goalie tandem was easy to figure out.. if the winning team at half shot on the good goalie, game was over. The crap goalie would stand no chance. I actually scored on the best goalie there.. O guy on my team is behind the net battling for the puck for at least 10 seconds.. I'm yelling "Darren! Darren!" Good thing I did, 'cause he no look passed it to me on RW bottom of the faceoff circle (closest to net). I look down, get the puck, and shoot it to the right side of the net.. I never even saw it go in, the goalie was in the way and a Dman got in the way.. Never put my arms up or anything, but I was glad to score. Down 2-1, the other team quickly capitalizes on a breakaway.. I had to cover a lot for that old guy on defense which makes offense practically impossible unless I would pass it to somebody else, who knows, maybe i could deke people but I always look for the pass 'cause it opens up the D. I kept yelling at the guy, "HIT IT" or "PASS IT".. End of the first period, our 2nd line was in the O zone for at least a minute, they were completley owning but couldnt' score.
2nd half, our Dmen wouldn't pass it and tried to do everything alone.. gave up 2 breakaways, 2 more goals, lost 5-2. Our night was over. I yelled "BREAKAWAY" at one point when the good guy got the puck and I slipped behind the 2 Dmen.. pass went behind me and when I went to save the puck, i accidentally kicked it too far. I also gave him a beauty pass over 2 Dmen's sticks, he had to tap it out of the air to bring it down, coudln't get the shot to go in, though.
One guy is all it takes.. it's all about D.. offense is easy when you have people that know wtf they're doing and can pass accurately.
Some skills I gotta work on: Skating backwards faster. Skate forward faster (though not much, I'm just as fast as most, a few guys are definitely faster). Looking up when stickhandling. That's about it. Maybe deking, but I rarely try because passing opens up things more. and plus I know my passing will go where I want it to go. I know I can deke really well if I want, but I'd rather keep the offense going for sure. My skating is much improved, I was doing all kinds of things, never fell from skating. I fell once 'cause I got tripped by a stick but no penalty, as always. Guy wrapped his stick around me and into my skate.. wasn't much I could do. Oh, there was one time this big guy was board playing really hard against someone on my team who was relatively small. At one point, he pushed him really hard into the boards and he fell halfway down, in the NHL that woulda been a boarding/roughing call.. the ref didnt' call it until finally after 10 or 15 seconds of rough boardplay from the big guy. They actually did call 4 penalties I think in all of the games that I saw.. 4 penalty shots, one was by this huge guy, probably weighed 270-290 lbs, he dekes backhand and goes top shelf over the best goalie there, everybody was amazed. I have all the skills I need for offense, just gotta find a team that knows how to play now. Too bad you're not here, we'd own it up.
Started around 715, ended at 12:15 or so, I stuck around to watch the final 3 games. The final involved 2 talented teams, final score was 2-1. Shoulda been tied, the team that won got a half-court goal 'cause the good goalie wasn't paying attention. good stuff to watch.
Read below for the ice hockey stick time details, boooooom.
On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 7:38 PM, <info@centericearena.com> wrote:
Ryan,
We do not have Open Pick Up hockey. Our sticktime schedule is Mon-Fri
12-3pm. The cost is $7 for admission and $3 for skate rental.
Thanks
Matt
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering if Center Ice Arena has any pick up hockey games
> scheduled.
>
>
> Also, what is the stick time schedule?
>
> Thanks, have a great holiday season!
>
> Ryan
>
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