I only had a Wizards game last night because the Ordinals ended up with a bye week. The Wizards, though we lost 0-4 to the Hitmen, put up one of the best, hard skating games I’ve seen us play in a while. If we play with this intensity we’ll start posting in the win column again very soon. Last night’s game also brought the destruction of one of my sticks thanks to a wicked two-handed slash from one of the Hitmen.
The slash happened as I had a rare offensive move. I took the puck off one of the Hitmen in the neutral zone and since I had the opening so I into the the offensive zone. I was just aiming the shot when one of the Hitmen brought his stick down on mine, slicing my stick in half and sending me down to the ice because I’d already shifted my weight to make the shot and loosing the stick threw me off balance.
The Hitmen player ended up with a two-minute penalty (although I think it should’ve been four since it was a two-handed slash) and unfortunately we couldn’t convert the power play. Luckily I had another stick with me, except now I have to go drop some cash on a new stick and the ones I like to use aren’t the cheapest things. Oh well… I’m glad he managed to hit the stick and not my hand or wrist because I suspect that would not have ended well given the force that cut through the stick.
Beyond the stick issues, I felt I played pretty good last night. I was thrilled to get the offensive chance and wish I could’ve gotten the shot off. Defensively only one goal happened while I was on the ice, so that’s much better than Wizards games have been for me lately.
Ronnie’s Ice was great in the morning too. It helped me to burn off some frustration from Friday’s workday (which was a little out of whack) and was also some good drills. I scrimmaged with the kids again along with a few adults. It was fun, the slower game gives me time to think more. One of the kids is also really good and he’s fun to play D against because he’s got some good moves so reading him is a challenge. I did make a couple of end-to-end rushes and got a great goal on one of them. The goalie was blocking the near side of the net, and I saw, aimed and nailed the far side. Why can’t I get those shots in a game???
Next week the Ordinals are back in play and there’s a Wizards game too. Yay!