A hockey dad's story

The “dead” of winter

2009-02-20T06:20:00.001-08:00

This is a difficult part of the season- It’s the “dead” of winter and really cold outside, the boys are playing school hockey as well as “rep” hockey, the scheduler is paying us back for the tournaments that we have played by giving us busy schedules and the cream seems to be rising to the top of the standings.

Hockey Player’s team played one of the better teams last night and lost 3-1. It was a disappointing effort. The other team was the one that HP’s team played in their first game of the regular season and lost in the last 10 seconds on great solo effort by one of their kids. We came away from the game feeling that we could beat that team and in subsequent games against them we still felt the same: This team is beatable!

But last night there was such a big disparity in the way that the two teams played that it was really pretty blatant. The other team played a much more spirited game, they were on our players hard all over the ice. Our team ended up the game with only 8 shots on net and, other then the 1 that got past their goalie, none of them were what you would call “Quality chances”.

I had this feeling that Hockey Player’s team so far has mirrored the Leafs this season- A good start with lots of effort and hard work that maybe covered up the deficiencies in skills, which was fine against the bottom teams, but now we are playing the better teams, who have been honing their play over the course of the season, and the gap is becoming large.

And this gets to the question of, “What do we do next year?”

I would really like to be able to skip the whole try-out process in April- HP has pretty much been asked back. But it will depend on how many, and which, changes the coaches want to make for next year. There are some players that probably haven’t developed quite the way that the coaches might have projected that they might, but they are only 11 years old.

Hockey Player says that he would like to play AA. But I don’t think that he is there, yet. He may be some day but he isn’t right now.

I was talking with one of HP’s coaches recently and he was commenting on how some of the kids who played select/house league last year might be having a hard time this year because of the busier schedule and how they haven’t been contributing consistently.

The boys play another game tonight and I hope that there is a better effort then they showed last night.

6 point weekend

2009-02-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

A 6 point weekend for Hockey Player.

HP’s team played their first two games after the break this weekend and won both of them. There was a lot of rust that needed to be ground off but there was also some good play.

Though identical 5-2 scores in both games they were very different games.

The first game wasn’t pretty. HP’s team was trailing 2-0 at the start of the 3rd after having played 2 extremely mediocre periods where too many people were trying to do it all by themselves.

The team they were playing are below them in the standings, and HP’s team have won all of the previous games they have played but it was looking like that trend was about to be reversed. Fortunately the boys played one good period and scored 5 goals to turn a tight game into a bit of blow out.

The second game was also against a team that is below them in the standings but one they had not managed to beat yet this season. They started horribly with the other team scoring 51 seconds into the game on the first shot on net. And it wasn’t a difficult shot either!

But again, the boys slowly got their act in gear and played well enough to win.

HP finished the weekend with 6 points, 2 goals and 4 assists, which now gives him 20 points and that surpasses his total for last year and there are still a number of games to go.

The rest of the month is going to be a busy hockey month. HP’s team plays a total of 10 league games, including the two from this past weekend, and at least 3 tournament games this month. Not to mention school hockey, which starts this week too!

Slaying the zombie

2009-01-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

HP has played his old team for the last time this season.

In most cases it would be like having played any of the other teams in the league for the last time but with the “old team” there is something more. It was such an unpleasant experience last year, not just for HP but for the whole family as well, that whenever the two teams play it is kind of like the opportunity to stab that vampire in the heart, to slay that zombie one more time and put to rest the bad memories from last year.

But it was the “old team” that scored first and it had me wondering if this was going to turn out badly for the good guys. But slowly HP’s team took control of the game and by the end it wasn’t much of a contest- just another drubbing for the poor kids that had signed up for the “old team”. The final score was 6-1. In four games, HP’s team has won all four and outscored them 26-3.

HP ended up with 1 goal and an assist and played a feisty, physical game. There was one play where he made a check on one of the players on the other team right in front of their bench. HP did get his elbows up and I suppose that it could have been called a penalty but it would have been a marginal one at best but I saw that the coach for the “old team” went ballistic and starting gesturing wildly that it should have been a penalty. But there was no call and the player for the “old team” picked himself up off the ice and the play went on.

After the game, as I was walking down to the dressing room and the old team’s coach was walking back to his room and it was one of those unfortunate and uncomfortable being in the same place at the same time things. I was talking with someone as we went in and I was quite happy to ignore him but as he goes by he says in a very gruff tone, “I don’t appreciate elbows to the face!” This was an obvious reference to HP’s check during the game.

I was taken aback by this and without a good comeback I simply said, “Don’t talk to me.” The meaning being that if he has a problem with what happened on the ice then he should direct his ire towards the refs and not me.

I guess he was without a good comeback also because all he could say was, “He’s your kid!”

I found out after the game from HP’s coach that as the “old team” coach was walking past HP’s coaches he hurled a load of invectives their way. Among other things, he accused HP’s team of “targeting” his players, of HP’s players making fun of his players etc.

HP’s coach also told me that the “old team” coach also said, “Tell that a**hole to keep his elbows down!” “That a**hole” being Hockey Player. But I have thought about this for quite a bit since it happened and I am now convinced that what old team’s coach meant was that I was the a**hole and I was supposed to tell my son that he needed to keep his elbows down.

I mentioned this to HP’s mother as we were getting in car to go home and she just laughed and said, “He sounds like a sore looser.”

Stupid Grin

2009-01-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I still can’t get this stupid grin off of my face! It is Monday morning and I am still basking in the glow of the game Sunday night. Hockey Player’s team played one of the perennially strong teams and not only did they win, they won big by a score of 5-1.

This was only the second meeting of the season between the two teams, "Perennially Strong" won the first one 5-1 and our boys played horribly that game, but Sunday night it was our team that came out on top by an identical 5-1 score.

HP skated hard and added to his scoring total with a goal and an assist, which gives him 12 points for the year (8 G, 4 A). His goal was actually the game-winning goal!

The boys played well. They passed the puck much better then they have in a long time and they skated hard and it looked like they wanted to win that game.

A practice tonight and then it is another kick at his old team- stats padding all round!!

As I was watching the game I noticed the name on the back of one of the kids on the other team and remembered two brothers that I used to play hockey with who had the same name. It is not a common name and I wondered if the player “belonged” to one of those two brothers. I walked up and down past the parents on the other team and spotted someone who looked like what I thought that this guy would look like, 20+ years later.

I went up to him after the game and asked if he was one of the brothers, the one I thought that he looked most like, and it turned out that he was the other. I introduced myself and I am not sure if he really remembered me, or even playing on that team, but we chatted briefly.

Halfway point

2008-12-10T11:50:00.001-08:00

The regular season is now half over. Hockey player’s team has now played 18 games and are the owners of a 7-11-0 won, loss record. They are currently in 8th place, 3 points back of the 7th place team with a game in hand. And one of the games that HP’s team plays this weekend is against the 7th place team!

The season so far has gone, by and large, pretty well. The team is competitive in all of their games and they even beat one of the better teams 4-2!

Hockey Player is having a good season. I have said to him many times that he is going to learn a lot more this year then he did all of last year. He is considered to be one of the better players on the team and seems to be well liked by his teammates.

His points total this year is 7 goals and 3 assists for 10 points.

They played in a tournament over the weekend and did well. They went 2-1 during the pool portion of the tournament but ended up loosing 2-1 in overtime in the quarterfinals. Hockey Player scored twice in the four games and was named player of the game in one of them.

It looks like his Christmas present is going to be one last kick at his old team. Stats padding for all of the kids on the team!

Hunting for the elusive W

2008-09-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

It is always nice to get that first win out of the way.

It is even better when it comes against the old team that you really didn’t like, and were more then happy to leave, and Hockey Player scores his first goal of the season.

I was really quite nervous before the game. To make it worse I didn’t get HP to the rink in time for the team warm up because of a screw up on my part about when the game was supposed to start.

But as I sat there I was worrying that maybe the old team had gotten a bunch of really good players? And maybe, just maybe the coach has suddenly gained a new understanding of how to teach hockey to a group of young players.

Naw!

HP’s team was on them right from the drop of the puck. I don’t think that the old team even got a shot on net in the entire first period. The final shot total was 41-9 in favour of HP’s team.

I thought that HP played a strong game. He was excited about playing his old team and skated hard right from the start of the game and made a number of smart plays. His game sense is improving. When he scored his goal, banging in a rebound, he gave an arm pump to celebrate. I could tell that he was excited to have scored that one.

Friends, whose son had played with HP for the last 4 years, called last night after the game wanting to know how the big rematch had gone. They were all glad to hear that the “good guys” had won. We talked for quite a while and we both ended up gushing about how happy we were with out current situations compared to last year.

It is like having been in a bad relationship and now you have gotten out of it, and have found someone else and you are very, very happy with the new situation. I am not exaggerating!

The boys have a practice tonight and then nothing until games next Saturday and Sunday.

Another "good effort"

2008-09-26T11:53:00.001-07:00

Another game, another good effort and another loss. The coaches, while happy with the effort level generally, are starting to hint that bottoms are going to be stuck to the bench if the game plan is not adhered to with a little bit more enthusiasm.

The team got off to another slow start, the second time in 2 games, and it really puts the boys behind the eight ball. Throw out the first period from the last two games and we had a pair of ties instead of a pair of losses.

Hockey Player has a 2-hour practice tomorrow afternoon, a game against one of his former teams on Sunday and another practice on Monday.

Good efforts

2008-09-21T17:26:00.001-07:00

I suppose at some point the boys will think that a "good effort" is not enough and won’t be happy with anything less then a win but for now everyone, parents, coaches and players, seem to be happy with the "good efforts" even if we do get those wins.

Hockey Player’s team played their first 2 games this past weekend and at face value they lost both games but they played 2 of the better teams from last year and they played both of them hard. One game went down to the last 10 seconds and the other was, except for the first period, an even game.

There is much to be hopeful about in this young season.

A practice tomorrow and then our next game is on Thursday- against another of the top teams.

Little Hockey Player

2008-09-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Now the real wrinkle in the family schedule comes when I start coaching my other son’s team. Right now, I am “just a parent” on Hockey Player’s team, and really, I am quite happy to be “just a parent”. Mind you I do find myself “coaching” in my head during the games that I have watched, getting’ antsy when someone tries to shoot the puck up the middle of the ice instead of around the boards, for instance, but I do know my role on this team.

I heard someone say it beautifully as to what the role of the parent is; “Your job is to drive the player to the rink and get them there on time!”

Little Hockey Player wants to play select hockey this season. He did play select 2 years ago but didn’t make the team last year. I volunteered to coach the team for this coming season and as you know; “Coaches kid always makes the team!” The association will have its first “open skate” this weekend where anyone and everyone that is of the right age can come out and skate for an hour. I declined to run the skate myself and have hired Outside Guy, former NCAA player, to come out and do it for me. I know him quite well and have used him in the past and I think that he is very good with kids of this age; he’ll make it fun. I have asked Outside Guy to “use” Hockey Player during the hour to demonstrate and help set up the drills etc.

The drill for Little Hockey Player, once his season gets going, is that he will have 1 select game a week, 1 select practice a week and 1 house league game a week. The house league game and select practice both happen Saturday mornings so that makes the schedule easier to follow and only “ruins” one day. The games could be scheduled any time during the week, except Saturday, and could be at any number of arenas around the city- that is a whole post unto itself!

Tournament redux

2008-09-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

One tournament in the books and now the regular season beckons.

I wasn’t 100% accurate with my pre-tournament predictions, in that we didn’t win a game, but all of the games that we did lose, and we lost 2, were within the 4 goals or less prediction.

The first game we lost 3-1 and we didn’t get beaten by a more skilled group of individuals but rather we got beaten by a group of individuals that played as a team. I remember watching them in the warm ups and thinking that, from a skill stand point, they looked just like our kids.

But they had obviously played together last year, or the majority of the team had anyway, and it showed in the way they played on the ice. They played a better positional game and moved the puck much better than Hockey Player’s team.

We actually had Hockey Player sit out the second game because of concerns at school. He missed the last half hour of class to play in the first game and he would have had to miss a whole hour to play in the second game, and my wife and I thought that was too much for him to miss. We wanted to send the message that school has to come before hockey.

The second game was one that I thought they might win but ended in a 2-2 tie. The funny part was, because the other game in their pool ended in a tie, they actually had a chance to advance to the play off round if they could win their 3rd game.

My wife took HP to the 3rd game and she said something that I have felt for quite a while; that this year won’t be a repeat of the debacle that was last year because the kids all try hard. The score was 5-2, with the 5th goal being scored into an empty net. HP got an assist on one of the goals.

The season starts this weekend and the first two games are against two of the top teams from last season. Nothing like jumping into the deep end with both feet and all of that!

Possibilities

2008-09-09T09:21:00.001-07:00

We had our last practice before the tournament and I was struck by the difference between the team that Hockey Player is on this year and the horror show of which he was part last year.

Well there are lots of differences- for instance, watching the practice last night I think that it is always nice to see the kids moving, and moving with some enthusiasm and sense of purpose, instead of standing around having someone talking at them or dragging their back ends through a bunch of disconnected drills. But the one thing that got me, on the eve of the team playing some meaningful games, was the sense of optimism amongst the parents about the season.

Now, who knows how long that will last? We will loose more then we win this year, I think that much is certain, and the bright and cheery sense of optimism could easily be replaced with some nasty grumbling and cynicism over a prolonged loosing streak. But right now there is a sense that there are a lot of possibilities ahead for the boys.

Tournament predictions

2008-09-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

A practice tomorrow night and then Thursday we are into our first tournament of the season and a chance to see the team in action for real.

There is a lot of excitement and anticipation on the part of the parents and coaches about how the boys are going to do, not just in the tournament but also in the season in general. The tournament will take care of itself and is really only a stepping-stone into the season and league play. Whether or not they know how to run an effective penalty kill, for instance, is less important then seeing how, or if, they compete and the process of them playing together and becoming a team.

There is excitement from the kids because they should get their game jerseys at the practice tomorrow night and then they can start to look, I.E. feel, like a real team.

A buddy of mine, who has a son on, and he is the manager of, another team in the same division as Hockey Player’s team, which also happens to be in the same tournament, said to me that expects to have most of the parents on his team in a state of shock by the end of the tournament. He said that 75% of the kids from his team came from select/ house league programs last year and might be in for a rude awakening playing at a level higher then they played last year.

We have maybe half of our team from select/hl programs, and the difference in skill level shows, but the kids work hard and they are willing to compete.

My prediction for the tournament is that the team goes 1-2, with no loss by more then 4 goals.

The Dawn of a new season

2008-08-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

The dawn of a new hockey season is upon us. Hockey Player’s team plays a tournament the weekend of Sept 11-14, guaranteed 3 games, and then the regular season starts on Sept 20th and the team will play 4 league games by the end of the month.

I really feel that Hockey Player is going to have a better experience this year then he did last year. Well, I think that, after having watched a few practices, that he has learned more already this year then he did all of last year.

Hockey player has been penciled in as centre, which is great because that is the position that he thinks, is the one to play! But I have told him that this not like the team that he was with last year and that he will only get to play that position if he does a good job and works hard.

One of the things that his coaches have pointed out to him is his fitness and, specifically, how he needs to get more fit. This is going to the hard part, pushing him to do some running to get where he needs to be. But it will be up to him.

Summer 3 on 3

2008-06-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I did say that I was going to try and not draw too many conclusions for the upcoming season based on what happens in summer 3 on 3 hockey but of course, I made them anyway.

The first thing that I noticed was that this is going to be a different team then last year. The boys, by and large, really seem to want to play and try hard. This was not always the case last year.

They seem to have a pretty good head for the game and do look to make a pass as opposed to trying to be the superstar and do it all by themselves. In the first game that I watched I thought that the boys might have been guilty of over passing the puck!

Some of the basic skills are rough but hopefully they can be taught these things and everyone can have a satisfying season.

Hockey and the dog days.

2008-06-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

We have already had our first taste of hot and muggy, humid weather and hockey is still in the air.

The new team has decided to play 3 on 3 for the summer as a way of allowing the kids to get to know each other and to "keep them skating".

Unfortunately, Hockey Player has not been able to participate in any of the games because he has been too busy playing lacrosse. But the scheduled tournament this weekend has been cancelled so he will be available to play. I will try and not to read too much into this summer hockey as an omen of the season to come.

King for a Season

2008-05-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Now I have chance to update the blog on what happened to Hockey Player.

We did go the AA tryout and Hockey Player wasn’t a step or two behind the other players, he was a good 4 or 5 steps behind. All of the kids there could really skate and they could all shoot the puck. Needless to say, he wasn’t asked back.

He tried out for, and made, a minor peewee A team. It is a first year team but I got a really good feeling about the guys who were going to be running the team and that it wasn’t going to be a repeat of last years fiasco.

The team held its tryouts over two days. On the first day there were over 30 kids on the ice and there was the inevitable discrepancy of talent. Some of the kids were quite good and some were weak. I was beginning to think that it was going to be a repeat of last season, where the necessity of filling a roster takes priority over keeping a sufficient level of talent on the team.

But this also assumes that there is a shortage of talent out there and you have to take whatever comes along and one of the things that had struck me from the tryouts that I had attended was the strong turnout that these teams were able to drum up. There is definitely no shortage of good hockey players available.

The second day of tryouts brought out another 30 kids, some of whom were asked back from the day before, and some who were showing up for the first time, and the level of talent was much improved over what it was the day before. So much so that I was actually worried about whether Hockey Player was even going to make the team-even though he had kind of been offered a spot before the tryouts began.

They did ask HP to join the team and the differences between last year and this new team were already apparent from even before he signed his card. The signing was taking place in an empty dressing room and there was the team’s GM and his wife doing all of the administrative type stuff. While HP was waiting to sign, the GM’s wife was having him try on jerseys, with his shoulder pads on, to make sure that it would fit properly and that they would look good when they stepped on the ice for their first game. It was a nice touch.

The team wants to play 3 on 3 during the summer to keep the boys skating and help them to get to know each other better.

Home stretch

2008-04-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

We are in the home stretch.

AA tryouts start this weekend and I am going to be taking Hockeyplayer to one "just for the skate". I don't think that he is ready for AA, he may be someday, but I don't think he is right now. I would like him to see how things are done, the way the players work, the level of their skills etc. The tryout we are going to was a 500 team last year and the coach said that they were going to have openings on both forward and defense.

A are next weekend and I am trying to keep all of our options open. There are really only 2 teams that I think he might sign with, Up and Coming team and Brand New Start Up team. Up and Coming's tryouts start on Thursday so I can get an idea of where Hockey Player fits, or doesn't fit, in their plans.

Stay tuned.

Crazy Season

2008-04-03T08:36:00.001-07:00

The crazy machine is in full gear. It must be try out season.

Actually the tryouts don’t begin until later this month but I know for a fact that several teams are already chosen for next year and some are even practicing. So much for the rules! Now I know that the teams will try to get around the rules by having, say, a parent run a skate instead of a coach, or a team that still has ice time available, will invite a couple of kids for a skate. All of this is against the GTHL rules but it does happen.

Hockey Player is going to a camp tomorrow because he doesn’t have school and then he has a full day camp on a Saturday; A “Pre Tryout Camp”.
I start to sound like a gambling addict with the camps and skates before tryouts; “Just one more. That’s what he needs. Just one more skate to keep him sharp and impress the coaches.”

Try out angst

2008-04-01T08:25:00.001-07:00

The silly season is coming hard and fast. The season of sleepless nights, phone calls to coaches, and the anxiety about where Hockey Player is going to be lacing up his skates next season.

Last season I was quite nervous, as he was making the jump from Select to GTHL for the first time when the try out season came. This year, with a years experience under his belt, and having led his team in goals scored, and coaches who remember seeing him play, I feel quite a bit more confident about his chances of being on a better squad then the start up team that he just finished with.

But it is a great big lottery when it comes to trying out for a new team because there are so many forces at play, so many internal dynamics involved that we, as outsiders to the team, will never really know until you have lived with the team for a season.

I am trying to keep hockey player skating right up to the try outs and hoping for the best.

Down down into a burnin' ring of fire

2008-03-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Just the old Johnny Cash song, Hockey Player's team is going down! We are the only team without a win in the "Tournament of Loosers". You might almost say that we are the #1 looser in the Tournament of Loosers.

Oh well. Just a couple of more games and then a practice or two and then try outs.

I have been making calls on behalf of Hockey Player and finding that a surprising number of the other teams and coaches remember him and are interested in him playing for their team next season. I am going to be calling a couple of them to come out to one of the team's last couple of practices and they can watch there.

I love the irony of coaches from other teams coming to our practices to watch Hockey Player so he can play somewhere else next year!

Ups and Downs

2008-03-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

It’s kind of funny how the world seems to be brighter, or not, depending on how well hockey player does.

For instance, last night he was at shooting practice, something that we have only just started doing, and he was looking really good. He is developing a really nice swing. And this is on top of him being on a 3 game goal-scoring streak. So it is now with a sense of “we’re getting somewhere” that we were driving home last night and it was a good feeling.

An example of when the world is not bright was on the weekend in our first“Clancy” game.

The team came out very flat against a team from the other division, who incidentally finished with the identical record as we did, and lost 3-1. They were a very beatable team and we should have won. Hockey player got the goal for our team and could have had two others- one was a breakaway where he shot at the goalie and another on a one timer that he didn’t get good “wood” on.

I came away from that game really down, feeling like I had been misled, teased, thinking that we should have had a better result.

The second Clancy game was a better effort. It was a physical game played at a fast tempo, everything that you would want in a play-off game. Unfortunately, we lost 3-2. We, the team, have too many weak links in our chain for them not to just be so blatantly glaring. But it is an old story- we have too many kids on the team that really don’t belong playing at this level.

Hockey player scored the first goal on a nice bit of hustle to get to a rebound. He got rocked a couple of times but got right back up. He will take a hit to make a play but he won’t, or is very reluctant to, initiate contact.

King Clancy

2008-02-27T07:10:00.001-08:00

We are headed to the “Clancy”. AKA; The Tournament of Losers.

The King Clancy tournament is open to non play-off "A" teams from the GTHL, SHA and MHL. It gives the kids something to play for at the end of the season but it also gives them a chance to keep skating as we approach try out season.

It will be interesting to play against teams from the other leagues and see how we stack up against them.

The End

2008-02-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

`The regular season is now officially over. We played our last game and played well but lost to “Up and coming” team 1-0. “UAC” team is headed to the playoffs and have beaten all of the top teams over the course of the season so it there is some potential for upsets.

But getting back to our game, the team played well but once again it is obvious that the team, while we have a number of good players, is missing the real skill players, the one that can score and score reliably, that the good teams have.

Hockey player is, I think, the leading scorer on the team, which I think illustrates the problem with the team. Hockey player is a good player, and I think that someday, if he continues playing, he could become quite good, but he shouldn’t be the leading scorer. On a good team Hockey player is a 2nd, maybe 3rd line, player. It’s like playing Pavel Kubina as a top 4 defenseman. On a good team, you need someone who is better then Hockey player.

My first post

2008-02-21T09:37:00.000-08:00

Well here it is not even the end of February and the current season is almost over. It seems hard to believe that it is coming to an end.

My son is playing GTHL; A, for the first time and it has been an instructive experience for all of us to say the least.

The team, last in their division, has definitely improved over the course of the season, and probably should have won a couple of more games then they did over the course of the season if the talent level on the team was more consistent and if a couple of bounces had gone our way. But the last game of the regular season is just around the corner and, obviously, we are not making the play-offs.

It is not too soon to be thinking about tryouts for next season. There are several teams that I would like to see hockey player play for next year. Right now I have a preference for the community based teams, the ones that have their own house league and Select programs, rather then the private ones that seem to be devoid of the sense of community that I think is so important to minor hockey.

High on my list of requirements for a team for next year would be one that wins more then it looses. This getting’ blown out almost every game, because there are too many kids on the team that have no business playing at this level, really stinks. I have to give hockey player all kinds of credit for not letting any of the crap that goes on around the team bother him or affect the way that he plays.