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Ice Dragons Blog
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Monday, October 29, 2007
Our New Ref... For those of you who missed it last Saturday, here are some photos of our new referee who started last week:
Apparently he forgot his seeing-eye-dog, but luckily, the other ref was kind enough to take on that role... :-)
Unfortunately, there must have been something wrong with my camera, because some of the photos came our real crappy, but if you want them in (blurry) high-res, you can download them here.
Enjoy, and happy Halloween, Dragons! :-)
Posted @ 5:20 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments
Sunday, October 28, 2007
We enforced this one! Good game guys! We owned the Enforcers! 10:6. It was never even close. We dominated the entire game, and it seemed we could have played much harder if we had to. Yes, we slacked off at times, and yes, we got 6 goals. Maybe we should have paid more attention at times, and I myself could have played better defense. But at the end of the day, it really didn't matter all that much, since we managed to score well. (Goalie-wise, this opponent was about the opposite from last week's game). One the downside, this wasn't the nail-biter our games against the Enforcers usually are.
Kudos to the new guys! Great job. Also, thanks Raul, for helping out in goal and agreeing to be our second goalie from here on out...
We are now tied in points with the Enforcers. I am not exactly sure about the details for league rules, but I think based on goal differential (we are exactly even at 57 scored and 57 against us), we should now be in 5th place, off the last place for the first time this season. Vipers are 2 points ahead. Gunners 3. At least Vipers we should still be able to get to. They still play the North Stars and the Enforcers. I am guessing they might get 2 points out of that. We are playing the Thunders and the Gunners. I am confident we can get 4 points and then beat the Vipers on goal differential. Gunners are playing the North Stars and us. They may not be able to get any more points, and then we could pass them. Even if they tie against the North Stars, we could pass them. But they have been pretty strong this season (beating the Vipers with a strong finish today... 4 unanswered goals...). So it will take a lot of luck for us to pass them, even if we manage to win the 2 remaining games. But with the way this season has been going, having a shot at 3rd place is a nice break.
So it will be against Thunders next weekend. We lost 4:0 against them last week. What a tough loss to take. But I believe we are the stronger team. We need to probably try harder than this week, but I do not see why we couldn't step it up! Let's get them this time! Time for revenge!!! (And if you want to: There always is a Tuesday night skate that the Thunders own, but they let other people from the league partake for 13 bucks (I believe). I usually go. It would be a good chance to scope them out...).
Also, for those who weren't at the game today: We had a very "interesting" referee situation. Too bad you missed it. ;-) Ah, alright. I will be uploading some photos on this blog soon... :-D
Posted @ 1:48 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments (1)
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Effort: Great. Reward: Zero. Another tough game to lose. I thought we played really well during the entire game. That first goal they scored changed things though. We had to push harder, and thus ended up being more open defensively. As time went on, and they got some good lucky bounces that put them up further, the problem just got worse. That, paired with their goalie having an exceptional day, broke our back, although I thought overall, we were at least equal to them. (I guess this is how it must have gone for them most of the year, because they never seem to be so strong when we skate with them Tuesday nights...).
One problem we have as a team is that we get scored on too easily. We have received 51 goals so far this season. Only the Enforcers have more goals against them (52). I am not sure why that is. Zach certainly is doing a great job as a goalie, and he sure is my first choice our of all the goalies in our league. Defensively we seem to be reasonably good too. I think it is more an overall team issue, where we just end up playing too offensive minded and ultimately fall pray of a lot of rushes. I myself see that I have a lot of improvement potential, because I often don't get back quickly enough, which would be crucial as a center. (Honestly, I just end up too winded at times. I need to get in better shape!). But bottom line: We have 51 goals against us so far this season, and the Thunders only have 34 against them. That's what makes the difference. (We are actually doing OK scoring-wise. We scored 47 goals. That is second highest in the league. Of course Thunders also score well with 65 goals scored).
The good news is that we seem to have a well-balanced team. In comparison, I think the Thunders had a lot more weak links than we do. But they had the goalie who was certainly at his best yesterday (1st star of the game!). They also had Obi (who generally plays in higher leagues and even was/is a hockey instructor... he killed me on face-offs!) and their team leader whose name I always forget. Those 3 standout players basically won the game for them.
I also have come to the conclusion that I need to practice my shooting a lot. Their defense did a good job at making us shoot early (they may not have gotten the puck that much, but they always tried to stay with us and force the issue, which either forced us into mistakes or shooting from further out than we wanted...). My shots simply were too weak to score. I will use Tuesday night to start practicing my shots a lot more...
Talking about Tuesday nights: Thunders still own the ice-time starting at 10:15, and they invite other people from this league to join them for 13 bucks each. Several of us (mostly Bill and myself) have been taking them up on this, and it has always been a good practice opportunity. The more of us can come out for that, the better we will be playing as a team!
Posted @ 2:39 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments
Friday, October 19, 2007
Silence that Thunder! It's against the Thunders this week. They have been a strong team all seasons, with a record of 8 wins and only 1 loss and 1 tie. (The only team that beat them so far were the Gunners).
We on the other hand have had a crappy season and are still in last place. So on paper, these guys should just shoot us off the ice, but I think reality is a bit different. I think Ice Dragons vs. Thunders is the top game this week, and I think we have a very good shot at beating them. Some of us skate with them on Tuesday nights, and I am confident we can be the better team. Our season is in the crapper at this point, so let's at least go out and level the #1 team!!!
Posted @ 8:12 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Very Dominating Victory! Good game, Dragons!
Last night's game was another strong showing, and (unlike in last week's game) this time we got the deserved victory! 13:0 baby! Wow. Makes you feel bad for the other team. But after a strong first period (4:0), we were on a roll. We passed the puck well. We outskated the other team completely (we even controlled Tom pretty well, who is their strongest player). Except for the last 10 minutes (when we really didn't need to anymore), we kept the game fast. We were in front of the goal (which was something we didn't do well in the last game). We won almost every direct fight for the puck. Very well done!
BTW: Have a look at the goal differential. We now scored 47 goals, and we got 47 goals. Even with 13 goals last night, we just managed to get even. I guess we messed up some games earlier this year... ;-). On the other hand, there are only two teams who scored more than they received: Thunders and North Stars.
Next week is going to be a bit tougher. We are facing off against the Thunders, who have been by far the strongest team this season. But I think they are very beatable for us. I often skate in their Tuesday night practice, and I don't see why they should be stronger than we are. But we will have to bring our best hockey...
Talking about Tuesday nights: Thunders bought the ice time Tuesday night's starting at 10:15pm (it usually goes till 11:30 and beyond, although some people start to drop out early). They also invite other people from our league to play for $13. It is actually very cool, because it gives us an opportunity to practice for about 30 minutes, and then we play a scrimmage against players that are about equally as strong as we are. So it is a great opportunity to improve. I encourage all Dragons to come to this as often as possible.
Posted @ 11:11 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments
Friday, October 12, 2007
Another Chance to Move Up! OK, so it didn't work out last week, but we have another chance to move off last place this week. We are currently 2 points behind the Enforcers, so we can tie them in points if we win against the Vipers. This should be doable it we get our act together.
Of course, this also assumes that the Enforcers can't beat the North Stars, but the North Stars have been decent this season (they are in 2nd place), so I think we can hope the Enforcers will be stuck with the points they have for now (fingers crossed!)
I think a realistic scenario for this week's games is that neither the Enforcers, nor the Vipers or Gunners will scored any more points (although especially the Gunners have been pretty good this season). But if it works out like that, then we can tie the Enforcers and be 2 points behind Vipers and 3 behind the Gunners. We can possibly still pass both teams with 4 more games to go in the regular season (after this weekend's game). Especially since we are still playing all these teams head-to-head. So bottom line: I think 3rd place in the regular season is possible, but we gotta play some good games and manage to square them away.
So let's go and kick some Viper butt, Dragons!
Posted @ 11:43 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Another Tough Loss Against the North Stars Great game. Sucky outcome. We played well, and were clearly the better team (with more shots on goal and more puck possession), but we came up short again. North Stars won 5:4.
We fell behind early, after a very unlucky deflection off someone's shoulder. There is nothing Zach could have done there. We came back and even took the lead, but ultimately, we got too many goals. Another unlucky deflection. Nothing to hold for Zach there either. At the end of the day, their best player (and I will leave it up to others to decide whether he should be in this league or in the Sunday league instead) scored 4 goals on us, because, as he told me in the bar afterwards, "some Dragon players pissed him off last season, so he decided not to hold back". Interesting.
We scored 4 goals. Not bad, but obviously not enough. We just didn't have luck on our side either. Twice the puck landed on the goal line but wouldn't go in.
Our big chance to win this game was to simply put the puck on goal and hope for either direct goals or rebounds. There was a good chance for that, since their goalie didn't seem to be too solid. However, there was one thing we constantly didn't do well at this game: We never had players in front of the goal, ready to receive a pass or to put a rebound on net. This is something we can really improve on. We did get a bit better towards the end of the game, but still. Granted, they did a good job at aggressively protecting the space in front of the goal, but we cannot be intimidated by that. (Plus, they got a few penalties for overdoing it, which was good for us...).
Several of the goals we received were based on us not covering the points very well. This is something to always keep in mind. Mostly, the problem was with their one player, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not being able to cover him. So this is just something we should keep in mind.
So I guess this season isn't going to turn into a great Dragons season anymore. But hey, they are still a few games to go, and I think if we keep playing well, we got everything to play for in the playoffs!
Posted @ 1:44 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments
Friday, October 05, 2007
Can We Move Off Last Place? This weekend, we are up against the North Stars (9:30pm). They are playing pretty decent this season, and they are in second place 3 points behind Thunders. They also just had a strong win against the Vipers (5:0). However, if we beat them (and I do not see why we shouldn't have a good shot at that), we could tie the 5th place Enforcers in points, and thanks to a better goal differential, we could move up into 5th place, and get off the dreaded last place.
Of course, this also requires that the Gunners beat the Enforcers. These two teams are going head-to-head for 4th place. Whoever wins this game gets it. I am confident that the Gunners can win though! And it sure would be nice to pass our archenemy, the Enforcers. ;-)
Anyway: Let's try to put in a good performance and hope for the best. There are still several games left this season, and we could even move up as high as 3rd place. (Everything beyond that is a bit unrealistic at this point... but hey!... we can always hope for the playoffs!).
As long as we have enough players skating this weekend, we should have a good shot at pulling this off!
Posted @ 12:58 AM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com) - Comments (1)
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