2 October 2001
As I've been saying in my blog lately, I hurt my knee on Saturday night. Sadly, I wasn't even playing hockey at the time. I'm just a giant, perhaps too-tall klutz (I didn't see a bench at knee level, and managed to ram my kneecap straight into the corner of the seat). Anyway, I'm starting to get nervous that I won't be able to skate properly (or at all) in L.A. this weekend.

The good news is that I'm walking almost normally (on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the most I could manage was an extremely painful hobble/hop to the bathroom). The bad news is that I can't pivot to the left—a motion I'm sure I use on the ice all the time. Well, I've got three more days; maybe it will improve a little each day.

In Spitfire news, we had an awesome second practice last Friday. We had the late slot on the North rink at Logitech Ice (née the Ice Centre) in San Jose, and when our hour was up, they didn't kick us off. We ended up skating from 10:45pm til almost 1am. The second hour was really great, because I finally relaxed and didn't worry that I only had an hour to learn and understand everything we were doing.

I asked a ton of questions (after a while I think everyone expected me to; at one point Ron asked, "now, is anyone confused... besides you?") because I really wanted to understand WHY we were doing everything. I wanted to be prepared if something went wrong, or if the technique we were being shown didn't work for me. (As "butt on boards" didn't—I had to have my stick against the boards so I could take the pass on my forehand.) If you know WHY you're doing something, you can adapt.

We worked on breakouts again, setting up our triangles, penalty kills, shooting drills, power plays, and more. It was hard work—by the time we stopped, I was totally soaked (dripping, really) and thoroughly exhausted—but I really felt like I was getting it by the end. Such a thrill. Afterward I grilled Ron and Trevor about different situations that come up on Mondays and Wednesdays, too. One thing I learned: I should never be out at the red line when my team is trying to break out. If the defenseman curls back around with the puck, I should curl back too and come out with the other forwards.

I'm really looking forward to playing in the tournament now; I hope we do well (and that I can skate!).

my feet are moving, for once