It’s easy to look at last night’s loss and dismiss it because there were so many penalties.  And while the calls, many of them questionable, did definitely disrupt the flow of the game, the fact is that the Blackhawks had more penalties than we did.

So what happened?  How did we lose 7-2 to a team that had just come off an 8-2 loss an hour and a half earlier?

A lot of it is obviously due to the fact that more than half of our bench (8 of 15) are  from other teams or subs, which created some chaos during changes (no one knew who to change for or when, and there was very little communication on or off the ice).  These are things that should naturally improve over the next three games (hopefully.)

Another major issue we had was being a little too patient, both with and without the puck.

A lot of the times we got the puck on our stick, we took one or two seconds to stick-handle and think about our next move, and then simply fired it at their feet or right to their sticks.  Most of our passes and shots were blocked because of this.  We’ve got to keep our heads up when passing and not be afraid to use the boards when we don’t have a clear option.  A lot of this is chemistry, but most of it is simply focus.

Away from the puck, same thing - we gave them time and space to make their move rather than attacking them.  We knew they would be tired going in, but we still hesitated, and it cost us.  The point was made on the bench near the end of the game (by Dan, I think), “Closest man to the puck, attack it.”

Two games tonight - First at 5:45 pm against the Shoot Em In The Face, and then at 8:45 pm against the Saints.

See you then!

I’m writing this from the locker room as we just finished our first game of the tourney against the Blackhawks; a “penalty” filled game that ended in a 7-2 loss for us.

There are a number of reasons for the loss against what should have been a tired team, playing their second game of the night, I’ll try to do another post tonight.

Almost forgot to link to the Silver & Goals page at Pointstreak.

As most of you know, we have the Silver & Goals Christmas Classic tournament on Dec. 26-28.  Four games guaranteed, with the possibility of a fifth if we make it to the Finals (all in three days!!)

I’ve never played in one of these before, but it sounds like it will be a blast, assuming I can survive it.  The schedule is pretty tight, especially the final three games — Here’s how it looks:

(All games will take place at Dr. Pepper Starcenter Plano.)

Friday - 12/26 - 9:30 pm - vs. Frisco Blackhawks

Saturday - 12/27 - 5:45 pm - vs. Plano Shoot Em In The Face (yes, that is apparently the name of their team)

Saturday - 12/27 - 8:45 pm - vs. Frisco Saints

Sunday - 12/28 - 10:00 am - vs. Duncanville Lucky Strikes

And if we make it to the finals, we play the fifth game on Sunday.

Saturday night will definitely be a challenge, especially given that this tourney uses 15 minute periods vs. our usual 11 (that’s 12 extra minutes per game, for the mathematically challenged).  Fortunately, it looks like we have a full 15 (plus goalie) player roster, so we can roll three lines (even though we had to borrow some players from the evil Fury! )

I’m going to try to post a few tips and such over the next couple of days that can hopefully help us out this weekend, but for now, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Over two months, actually.. That’s how long since my last blog post.

Lots to cover here, first the hockey.

We’re well in to the 2008 Winter season, almost finished actually. A big welcome to the new Monkeys on the roster, Jon Elliot, Grant “PIM” Howell, Jon-Michael Garza, and Jeff  Thompson.  I’ll update the roster in the sidebar ASAP.

With Saturday’s 3-1 win over the Blackhawks, we currently sit at 4-4-0 — .500 hockey.  We’re a bit off of last season’s performance, possibly due to the turnover and having a much smaller bench in most games this season, but it looks like we’re starting to gel a bit now.

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The ankle is still only about 80-90%, but I can still play on it without being bothered too much.  I just can’t do certain things  (cross-overs, stopping to the right, etc.)  It should hopefully get stronger as it continues to heal.

I’m having a better year statistically with a goal and two assists in 7 games (Pointstreak is giving me two goals, but one of those was Dan’s that I got the assist on), but I’m not reading much in to them.  It took me a good three or four games to shake off the rust after the time-off, and I still don’t feel as good on the ice as I did last season, stats notwithstanding.

More to come!

A new session is underway, and though no roster or schedule has been posted to Pointstreak yet — I’ll update the roster links and such when that’s done — it sounds like our first game will be October 25th.

The ankle injury was a bad one, indeed.  It was a severe sprain, and it looks like I rolled my ankle outwards, which is apparently pretty difficult to do.

Per Robert’s request, I’ll refrain from posting any more leg pics (the first one was not of my thigh, it was completely below my knee!!), but I will tell you that it is finally starting to heal.  I can walk (limp) now without the aid of a boot or crutches, and the swelling is starting to go away… almost two weeks later.

The torture that is PT seems to be helping a bit, and my goal is to be back on the ice for our first game, but we’ll see how that goes.  Either way, I’ll be there.

Last night’s win was significant for a few reasons:

• We didn’t have our top scorer (Roach) or either of the two kids (Ryan and Jonathan) in the line-up
• We started with ten skaters, and went down one after I left the game
• We came back from 2-0 with those nine skaters

Awesome! 

Here’s our final record, which was good enough for fourth (two points back of first):

GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	GF	GA
10	6	2	2	14	27	21

Those two overtime losses could’ve easily gone our way, as we outplayed the opposition in both games, but that’s hockey.

Our team records page on Poinstreak - Among the highlights:

• Most PIM in a game: Patrick (12)
• Longest Pointstreak: Jonathan (6)

All in all, it was a great season for the team — I had a great time playing with this group, and look forward to many more successful seasons with the Tundra Monkeys (once I can walk again).

The comeback first.

Wow.

Down 2-0 half-way through the game, the Monkeys comeback to beat the Blue Jackets 3-2 in the sole “playoff” game of the July - September session.

Some shots from the game:

Pete got us on the board first, and then assisted on the game tying goal for two points.  The game winner was an awesome blast from the point by Brian Hauburg that I had to watch from the stands because of this: 

I remember innocently skating into the path of a Blue Jacket to allow Pete to play the puck against the boards, I remember getting bumped as said Blue Jacket was trying to get around me, and then I remember feeling my ankle smash against the boards and then ending up twisted under my weight. 

I don’t remember a whole lot about being helped off the ice except for the banging of sticks against the boards when I was apparently upright.  That part was cool.

After some rest, some icing, and some elevation (the R.I.C.E method, just without the compression), I still can’t put weight on it, so we’ll see how long it’ll be before I can skate again.

The new session starts October 4th with a practice — I’ll update the roster in the sidebar and post the schedule as soon as I get it.

We face the Blue Jackets in the playoffs this Saturday at 7:30pm — Also, registration money for the next session starting 10/4 is also due this week.

See you all then!

From our best game of the session to the worst only a week later.  Yeah, we were a few players down with 9 skaters, but we were all over the place after the first two minutes, so that’s hardly the cause. 

We seemed to always be out of position and chasing the entire game, present company included.  It was a simply a bad night for us, and completely out of character for a team that has played solid hockey all season long.

Funny enough, we went from a nice hold on 2nd place all the way down to 5th place with the loss - I’m not sure where that leaves us as far as the playoffs next week is concerned, but I’ll post something when I find out.

Time to go find an ice pack.