7 May 2001
Had a great game last Thursday. Only had one assist (after the four-assist game, anything less is going to seem like a disappointment :), but Derek and Mark were on fire. Derek had a Hat Trick, and Mark had two goals and one assist. Even Dan (our newest teammate) and Kevin (also relatively new) got in on the action. There's only one assist on the scoresheet for Kevin, but I know for a fact he had two: early on he passed to Tamiq at the point, Tamiq took a shot, and Mark tipped it in. (Tamiq's assist isn't on the sheet either, but I'm scoring it that way here on the site.) Kevin's other (scored) assist was on a pass to Dan, who shot it in for his first point as a Camel.

 

The bad news is that we've lost Jeff for the rest of the season (he took a contracting job in Chicago). He was one of the fast defenders, so now we have only three real D and an abundance of wings. Adam had played defense for us the previous week, so I asked him to fill Jeff's spot this week, but shin splints hampered his ability to get back. Since we had three full forward lines, I offered to switch with him so he could get more rest.

I'm no defender by nature, but after the women's pickup on Sunday (during which I played many shifts on D) and the sprinting and backwards skating drills, I felt like I could at least hold my own. I had trouble remembering to get back a couple times, and I accidentally tripped a guy once (my stick got caught in his skate when I tried to tangle him up, and when it yanked forward I held on tighter rather than letting go), but when the puck was dumped into our end, I'd put the jets on to go fish it out. I actually had fun for the first time ever on defense. If Alex will have me, I may take Jeff's spot for the rest of the season.

Sunday pickup was pretty sparse this week, perhaps because (a) it wasn't free, (b) it was only an hour and fifteen minutes rather than two and a half hours, (c) it conflicted with a NCWHL game in Belmont, or (d) all of the above. Four of us showed up, so John dressed too and we played 3-on-2 for awhile (me & John on the same side). When it became obvious that I was faster than the other three women and could score pretty easily, John encouraged me to try to lift the puck. I said that when I'd asked Rob how to do that, he'd told me that my timing was a bit off—I was flicking my stick over a little too late.

John suggested we stop and work on shooting for awhile (which was fine by me—when I get confident that I'm fast, I take advantage of it and tend to get asthmatic). We practiced wrist shots and snap shots mostly, and I definitely improved after a bit. My left arm hurt for the first time in a long while, too, and I took that as I sign that I was doing something right. We also did a few passing and stickhandling drills before calling it a night; I felt like I got my money's worth, since my gear was soaked and I was throroughly tired.

I wasn't as useful on the ice in tonight's game against the Toasters, but I had a few proud moments of physical play. (I imagined in my head the Toasters' bench all talking about what a rough player I was. ;) I also worked on keeping my head up and getting into position. I had two scoring chances, but was foiled with stick checks on both of them. I wasn't on the ice for either of our goals, so no chance for an assist, either. :( Oh well. It wasn't a bad game, just not one for the annals.

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