Slap Shots & Chip Shots

Tonight we lost 6-1. I was generally happy with my play. I actually got some shots on net and almost scored on a breakout. However, we seemed to spend a lot of time in our own zone and had a hard time transitioning into  a breakout. This fact was highlighted during the second intermission when one of the veteran defensemen said something along these lines:

“I’m getting annoyed that I have no one to pass to. I’m just going to start icing the puck. Forwards need to get open for a breakout pass.”

He also mentioned some other things that sounded important and smart, but didn’t quite make sense at the time: shorter passes, hashmarks, etc. I was still a little gassed from my last shift, so I wasn’t paying full attention. I took the criticism for the constructive type that it was and, during the third period, spent my time in our zone trying to get open for my defensemen while playing my position close to the blue line.

We didn’t fare any better with our breakouts, so after the game I watched the highlights from the NHL Conference finals games and paid attention to the forwards in their defensive zone. They spent most of their time between the face off dots and the tops of the circles. When they received the puck from the defensemen for a breakout, they were usually near the hashmarks. I looked up breakout drills on Coach Nielsen’s site and the Weiss Tech Hockey site. I noticed that all the drills start with the forwards getting the puck at, or near, the hashmarks….

“Shorter passes….. Hashmarks……Aha!”

I need to get lower in my zone to help out my defensemen and to make the breakout passes shorter. I’m looking forward to putting my “Aha!” moment to the test during my next game.

Update: Found a couple of other sites to reinforce my “Aha!”.

• The Do’s and Don’ts of Hockey Breakouts – Schoolyard Puck
• Dukes Hockey Breakout Review

I started playing in my first hockey league about 3 weeks ago. I was slated to play on a team of free agents and I was hoping to play defense. As it turned out, I’m playing on a team that’s been around for a couple years and I’m playing as a winger. There’s a core group of about 5-6 players, but the rest of us are new to the team. There’s only 1 other player who is new to the sport besides me. It’s an interesting group to say the least.

Game 1

We should’ve worn “Hello, My Name Is” stickers for the first game. I didn’t meet most of my teammates until the game started. It was a fun atmosphere to make new friends as we won 5-2. Mostly thanks to a hat trick by one of our substitute players and to our goalie (I think his name is Brian) standing on his head multiple times. I had no shots on goal, no assists and I wasn’t on the ice for any goals, for or against, so I’ll take that as a small victory for my first game.

Things I learned after Game 1:

• I CAN SKATE! No really, I was concerned if I could keep up and stay up. I realized after the game that I never really gave much thought into what my feet were doing. I was very relieved.
• I need to focus more on offense. Our defensemen gave up way too many odd man rushes, but my job as a forward is to get pucks to the net, so I need to focus on that first.
• Line changes are easier than I thought. We just go out in rotation.
• I need to work more on my stickhandling.

Game 2

We lost game 2 with a score of 4-8 on Mother’s Day. To make matters even worse, our goalie brought his mom to watch the game. I felt bad for him. On the positive side, my line scored 3 of our goals and I got my first assist! Well at least I think I did. The stats aren’t up online yet to my dismay. I still haven’t registered a shot on goal.

Things I learned after Game 2:

• Being a forward and all, I should really shoot the puck at some point.
• In order to shoot the puck, I need to put myself in a position to score.
• I’m getting more confidence with the puck.
• I need to work more on my stickhandling.

Regardless of how well I play or how well the team plays, I’ve learned one VERY important thing. I flat-out LOVE hockey! This game rocks.

When learning a new sport, you’re bound to come across terminology that just confuses the hell out of you. I think I’m pretty good at figuring out sports terms, but no matter how many times I read or see the term “up and down” in golf, I still can’t figure out what it means! I’m pretty sure  it has something to do with chipping the ball onto the green.  I asked my friend, Google, who pointed me to this know-it-all named Wikipedia and here’s what I found:

Up and down

Describes the situation where a player holes the ball in two strokes starting from off the green. The first stroke, usually a “pitch”, a “bunker shot” or a “chip”, gets the ball ‘up’ onto the green, and the subsequent putt gets the ball ‘down’ into the hole. A variation is called “up and in”.

Ah, I get it now! It’s just a term on how a player scores. It’s like golf’s version of an alley-oop in basketball or a one-timer in hockey. I feel better now.

I know it’s 2010, but aren’t these playoffs technically considered the 2009 Playoffs since the season started last year? I’m so confused. Anyway, this was a fun run. Hope we do it again next year, but better.

4 Best Things About The Playoffs

1. The Legendary Craig Anderson

No, not the Infamous Craig Anderson. We already know about him. I’m talking about the legend he created with his play during the series against the Sharks.

“I swear I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my life, but that was… awesome.“, Kyle Keefe started the Chris Farley quote and the crowd at the Pepsi Center finished it after Anderson’s Game 3 shutout of the Sharks. He stopped 51 shots to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the series. This was just an example of the awesome play of Anderson during this series.

2. World-Class Jackass, T. J. Galiardi

I mean that in the most flattering way possible. Now T.J. isn’t that big of a guy, listed at 6′2″, 175, but Galiardi spent all his free time in the ice getting under the skin of the Sharks players. If you’re a San Jose fan, you hate him for it. If you’re an Avalanche fan, you love him for it.

3. Defying Expectations

Hell, the Avalanche weren’t even supposed to be in the playoffs this year. They were rebuilding. It was going to take time to gel this young team and first-year coach into a competitive team. I know the “We’re just happy to be here.” attitude is usually viewed as a cop-out for those who don’t really have any belief in themselves, but this is truly how the Avalanche players and fans felt about their appearance in the playoffs.

4. It’s The Beginning of Sometime Good

The Avalanche had the 2nd youngest roster in the league. 6 rookies make their playoff debuts for the Avalanche. Us fans have a lot to look forward to from this team. The chemistry created by this team during the regular season and the playoffs will, with any luck, last a long time.

4 Worst Things About The Playoffs

1. Duchene got PWND

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan of the kid. I want to see #9 Avalanche sweaters everywhere. What he did in his first year with this team is spectacular. Unfortunately, in the playoffs he looked like a 19 year old rookie who was in over his head. He had 3 assists, a plus/minus of -2 and 9 shots during the 6 games against the Sharks. We expected a lot more from the kid, and I’m guessing he expected more from himself, too.

2. Shots, shots, shots

When you’re the eighth seed facing the first seed and you allow 40 shots per game on average, you’re not going to get very far. Craig Anderson, as damn-cool as he is, cannot steal every game. The Avalanche really need to improve on this. I just hope they can do that without messing up the great set up that got them to the playoffs this year.

3. Penalties

I busted out ye ole calculator while checking out the stats on NHL.com  and here’s what I came up with:

• The Avalanche had 29 minors and 1 major totaling 63 minutes of penalty box visitation.
• The Sharks had 22 minors and zero majors totaling 44 minutes of penalty box visitation.

That’s a 19 minute difference in penalties. On average, the Avs were in the penalty box just over 3 minutes more per game than the Sharks. All these numbers are starting to get confusing and they may start running into each other if I’m not careful, so I’ll hurry up and make some conclusions. The Avalanche took too many dumb penalties. The refs made too many bonehead calls/non-calls. Both groups need to do better next season.

4. We Lost

Only 1 team out of the 16 that make it into the playoffs gets the joy of not saying this. It doesn’t matter if we were just happy to be in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter if the Avalanche defied all expectations. Losing is never fun.

Last week I went to the driving range to make use of my cool, new golf club distance chart. I couldn’t record my distances with any confidence though, because I was constantly hitting a slice. I suppose I could modify my form so I can record stuff like “9-iron: 80 yards forward, 20 yards to the right”, but I’d rather fix my slice.

So how do I fix it? Since I can’t afford an instructor, I’m going to attempt to use the resources I already have.

Each week, I’ll try a new resource and let you know how it works. Here are the resources I’m going to use:

• Wii Fit Plus: It has a golf simulator and I seem to hit a fake ball on the Wii the same way I hit a real ball on the range.
• Golf Magazine: I subscribe to Golf magazine. Every issue has tons of tips and tutorials to use.
• Golf.com: This site has a great Instruction section with videos, tutorials and tips.
• Google: There’s a lot of resources out there that aren’t neatly packaged. Let’s see what the internet has for us.

I just finished up my first round of hockey classes. It was a 6 week class provided at the Edge Ice Arena. I realized when I finished the class that I could keep up with most of the others in my class. So If I can keep up with them, I could actually play an organized game of hockey, right? Well, there’s only one way to find out.

I’m now a member of the Free Agents team. The team is exactly as it sounds. It’s full of first time players or players who don’t have a team. Our first game is Sunday, May 2. I’m excited and nervous. I want to have fun playing, but I’m also pretty competitive.

I don’t know my teammates. I don’t know what position I’ll play (I’m hoping defenseman.) I don’t even know what color sweater I’ll be wearing! And last I heard, we still need a couple players.

So if you live on the southwest side of Denver or just enjoy traveling to my side of town, and you want to play hockey this summer, check out the Edge Adult Hockey League site and contact Jesse Badder at jesseb@fhprd.org

(If you want to read my first post about my “playoff beard”, check out my personal site [http://scottpantall.com/2010/04/14/its-playoff-beard-time/].)

I’m sure no one else can even tell there’s hair on my face, but I don’t care. My stubble is happy! The reasons for my happy stubble are….

• The Avalanche won!! They outshot the Sharks. The series is at 1-0.
• The Sharks got booed by their own fans. I want to see them do it again.
• The cool kids over at Mile High Hockey promoted my Regular Season Review post. Thanks guys!
• I missed most of the game since I had a hockey class, but I got to hear Marc Moser’s call on the game winning goal on the way home. I wish I would’ve written down what he said. It was some over-the-top thing about Galiardi getting his face reconstructed after a first period high stick. Moser rocks! We need to start a “Best Moser Quote of the Game” contest.
• The Altitude post-game show featured a slap-happy Kyle Keefe and Mark Rycroft. This included Rycroft’s goofy-ass smile as he attempted to run back and forth between desks during camera changes. This had my wife and I laughing our asses off!
• The Avalanche are probably one of the most relaxed teams in the playoffs going into Game 2 tonight.

Side note about the “beard”: It doesn’t matter how bad I look attempting to grow a beard. There is no way I’ll take Patrick Kane’s idea of growing a mullet instead.

Click on the image below or go to https://www.beardathon.com/avalanche/pledge.aspx and enter my name (Scott Pantall) to make a pledge:

If you are also growing a beard for the Beard-A-Thon, let me know and I will pledge $10 to your beard, no matter how sad it is.

GO AVALANCHE!!!

This has been an all around fun season to be an Avalanche fan. It’s been especially fun for me. I found a great community of Avalanche fans via Milehighhockey.com. I only missed about 5 games all season and I got to go to 3 games (most I’ve done in 1 season) at the Pepsi Center.

5 Best Thing About the Regular Season

1. New coach. New players. New goalie. A new hope!

The beginning of the season, we had no idea what was going to happen! We all just knew we didn’t want a repeat of last season. All we knew was our hopes were on the shoulders of a first-time NHL coach, a bunch of young players, and a goalie who was mostly known for checking out ice-girls in Florida.

Now, at the end of the regular season, we’re looking at a Jack Adams contender in Sacco and a Calder finalist in Matt Duchene. The Avalanche rookies have amassed a total of 166 points. And Craig Anderson is legitimately being compared to Patrick Roy.

2. Sakic’s Retirement

“What’s retirement?”, my 6 year old daughter asked on opening night. After I explained what it was she said, “I wish Joe Sakic would keep playing.” Yeah, me too kid. Turns out his timely goals and humble attitude live on with the Avalanche in our young players. This may or may not have anything to do with the creepy Sakic locker shrine in the Pepsi Center.

3. Bernie, The New Mascot

Despite what I may have said towards the beginning of the season, Bernie is a pretty damn cool mascot. My daughter came with us to the 3 games at the Pepsi Center and she instantly fell in love with the mutt. He does a decent job at trying to get the crowd going. Well, what crowd there was.

4. First Avalanche Hat Trick Since December 9, 2007

If it wasn’t a big deal to score 3 goals in one game, it wouldn’t have it’s own special name. On March 6, 2010 Chris Stewart scored his third goal of the night on a penalty shot against the St. Louis Blues breaking a long hat trick drought by the Avalanche.

5. Budaj, The Coach With All The Pads

Craig Anderson started 71 games in goal for the Avalanche. That’s a lot. It’s a record, actually. That meant Budaj spent a lot of time on the bench. He was more than just a talented door closer. He was often seen giving advice to Avalanche players before shootouts, leading to great results (such as a playoff berth!). I could easily see him taking up permanent residence on the bench one day…as a coach.

5 Worst Things About the Regular Season

1. Attendance Woes

On average, the Pepsi Center was at about 77% capacity for Avalanche games. This fact was harped on a couple times by Denver Post writer Adrian Dater and was not well received by some. Considering the Avalanche hold the NHL record for the longest consecutive attendance sell outs with 487, this was something to talk about.

2. Blueberry Jerseys

The Avalanche unveiled their new 3rd jerseys to an ambivalent reaction by fans. The Avs went 4-7-1 in their “Blueberry” jerseys, which did not help the jersey’s cause. I”m not too thrilled with them, but I’d rather they stick around for a while. I don’t want the Avs to turn into the Islanders with jersey redesigns every year.

3. 3rd Period Woes and the Invention of the 2nd 2nd

The goal differential for the Avalanche goes as follows…

• First Period: +9
• Second Period: +21
• Third Period: -19

This is something the Avalanche need to work on for the playoffs and for next season. This is not NCAA basketball. There are more than 2 periods.

4. Defense?

The Avalanche finished 25th overall in Shots Against/Game. Allowing 32.1 shots on average. The only other playoff team in the bottom third of league in shots against are the Buffalo Buffaslugs. The Avs cannot expect Anderson to stand on his head for ever.

5. Liles Drama

In Colorado we have plenty of options if we want drama between professional coaches and players. The Broncos have basically taken the “Battle Like It’s Reality TV” title. There’s no reason for the Avalanche to attempt to copy them. Whatever happened between John Michael-Liles and Joe Sacco needs to never happen again.

I’m all for promoting women’s hockey and since I don’t really have the means to donate, I hope to find a reader or two who can.

From the LetsGoDU Hockey Blog:

The University of Denver’s Women’s Club ice hockey team is trying to raise $3,000 to expand their program and move towards becoming members of the ACHA within two years. With a world class hockey program like DU, its only natural that we should now build our women’s club team to build interest in the sport.

DU Sophomore Larisa Clark is heading up the fundraising effort on behalf of the women’s team. The team is participating in a skate-a-thon to raise money in a few weeks.

LetsGoDU has donated $300 to this great cause and we are looking for business and individuals who can assist us in raising the other 90%. If you would like to donate money, equipment or assist in this project email DG (email: dggoddard@aol.com). If you know of a business that might want to get involved or have friends that might donate drop us a line.

You can check out the original post here.

Fourth Annual Red Vest Golf Tournament

Event Type: Golf Tournament
Date and time: June 11, 7:30 a.m.
Location: Green Valley Ranch – http://www.gvrgolf.com/golf/proto/gvrgolf/
Reasons to Go: Support DU sports
Cost: $2500 for a foursome (includes pre-tournament cocktail party the night before)
Website: http://www.duredvest.com/