Flyers v Red Wings

Flyers v. Red Wings – Matthew’s Hat Trick

Thanksgiving weekend is tough for hockey.  A lot of kids go away and we are often left with a skeleton team.  This weekend we had 7 players.  A mixture of A and B lines.  The Red Wings had 12 players.  Ironically, this was actually advantageous to us.  It meant that some of our better players had to play against the Red Wings B line.  On the A line, the Red Wings had one very big player.  Matthew came skating to me at the beginning of the game and yelled “He’s a third grader.”  I guess compared to a first grader, he looked Goliath-like.  He scored three goals the first minute of the game.  But on the B line, most of the Red Wings could barely skate.  This gave us the opportunity to get those goals back, plus some.  At one point they had three players in the goal at the same time.  The best part of the game was that Matthew scored his first goal of the season.  In fact, he scored a hat trick.  Frankie scored five goals and Jack scored at least five.  Before thoughts about “sportsmanship” come to mind, it should be noted that coaches do a lot of things to keep the game friendly.  First, we shift better players to defense.  Then we shift them to goal.  Then we tell them to pass and not shoot.  Then we get them off the ice for a break.   Most of all, we don’t keep official score.  But, as always, the kids all seem to know the “un-official” score:  14-4.  

Englewood 4 PeeWees

Englewood 4 PeeWees 1

A couple of weeks ago we had our second exhibition game.  This was against one of the teams that we will play later this year in “League” play (that is, games that count).   I’m not sure whether this is a universal feeling, but I definitely thought that most of the kids on the other team were much bigger than our kids.  Now, I’m not accusing anyone of using Human Growth Hormones or anything, but when did it become normal for a 12 year old have a 5 o’clock shadow?   The game was physical.  Two minutes into the game Alex took the puck behind the net and stopped.  Mistake.  He got clocked by someone from the other team.  Welcome to Pee Wee hockey – checking and all.  Even though we lost, we did not play all that badly.  There were some nice passing plays that the goalie just happened to stop.   It will be interesting to see how we play against them next time.

Pee Wees 4 Flames 2

Our first exhibition game was against the Flames B team.  The Flames play in a different league so we will not see them in the regular season.  For some of the kids on the team (and for me), this was the first game where there was real checking.  Checking is controversial.  Actually, it’s not really checking that’s the problem; it’s the getting checked part that’s tough.  Alex checks Matthew all the time (mostly off the ice). He’s not used to getting checked.

Our first goal was by Nick on a penalty shot.  Penalty shots in these kids’ leagues are pretty rare.  It’s one of the few situations in hockey where there is a lot of pressure on both the shooter and the goalie.  All the action stops and the shooter and goalie are in the spotlight.

We pretty much dominated the game.  We must have had at least twice as many shots on goal.  One of Alex’s good friends on the team, Harry, also scored a goal.  Okay, I know we scored two more goals and I’m pretty sure one of them was by Ian, but I missed a lot of the action.  Even though Matthew plays hockey and understands most of the rules, it’s tough for his six-year old mind to keep his attention on his big brother on the ice.  He, along some other younger siblings of Pee Wee players, run around the rink and under the stands looking for lost pucks, change, tape, nuts, screws and anything else that isn’t bolted onto something.

The other notable aspect of the game was the number of penalties we received.  While some of the penalties were not deserved, there were two times we down two men.  It will be interesting to see whether that trend continues.  While Alex was the first person to get a penalty on his team last year, he avoided getting called for anything this time. Another trend to watch.

Hockey Day

Sundays are hockey days.  It starts with Alex’s PeeWee team in the morning, Matthew’s Junior clinic/game after that and Alex’s Varsity game in the evening.  Sometimes, Alex goalies too, which means additional games.   The hockey rink becomes our second home.  I’m thinking about getting our newspaper delivered there.  

It could be worse.  We play in a program that’s touts itself as the “less competitive” league.  This is a league that puts the kids’ fun above winning.  Yeah, yeah, winning is fun, but this league’s philosophy is that it’s better to turn out well rounded athletes that like to play hockey than rabid hockey players who want to win at all costs.  This is really more of a selection process for parents than kids.  There are a lot of other leagues in the area that are more concerned with being “competitive.”  There is even a local league that advertises on the web that it is specifically designed to help your kid play college hockey.  We lose many good players to those leagues, but that’s ok.  Natural selection doesn’t always mean “survival of the fittest.”  Sometimes it means that good kids who care more about having fun than winning just play together.