Game 1

I stepped out on the ice with a lot of nervous energy. Playing rugby, I’m used to that feeling of butterflies before kick-off, but this was a whole lot different. It was more intense. I guess it was because the only hockey experience I've ever had was on the Xbox.. or watching on ESPN. 

The freshly cut ice got the better of me and I looked like Bambi taking its first steps. I had to compose myself with some slow laps and deep breaths. We started taking shots at our goaltender, but I decided to collect the loose pucks from around him as I doubted my ability to get a decent shot at him.. and I was right. 
When I finally decided to participate in the warm-up drill and take a shot, I was glove side of the keeper in the face-off circle and tried to whip one at him but it went directly to my teammate on the other side of the ice. Pretty much a perfect pass. 

The next warm up drill was the horseshoe drill where, again, I slid to the back of the queue. I started getting my voice and started calling for the distribution of the pucks and offering words of encouragement. I sent a pass to a receiver skating out (which was similar in quality to my previous pass/shot) then skated off to the blue line to receive my pass. I surprised myself and handled the puck nicely on the turn and skated towards the net to take the shot. I looked at the net, hoped for the best and whipped one at the goalie. It zoomed right by him, top right. It felt good, and all of a sudden a whole lot of pressure was lifted from my shoulders.

When we finally started playing I felt comfortable. I knew what my basic role was whilst on the wing, and who to look for when we were changing lines, but a spanner was thrown into the works when another team member arrived - which in turn - screwing up the wing pairings. My whole system in my head was screwed. We basically had to rotate the wingers, which in hindsight, is quite simple. HA!

My first time I was out there I got myself between a pass, I patrolled my zone and kept on my man and got back to the bench to some nice pats on the back when we changed lines. 

As the game went on, admittedly, the minor details of the game caught me out a number of times such as my positioning during our penalty kill, having my stick on the ice for the face off and calling for the puck whilst I was in an offside position. The offside one was due not being able to see which side of the line my team mate was on, and I blame the poor line markings for that! HA! I tried to scramble towards back towards the neutral zone to get back onside, but - as luck would have it - I tripped over and ended up on all-4's crawling towards the blue line in a comical fashion, much to the entertainment of my team.

Overall I was extremely satisfied with my first performance. A personal achievement. Even though we went down 3-2 in the last minute of the game, I still enjoyed every minute of it and am now determined to get better - and the best part is that I know I CAN!


Until next time.