Sunday, December 09, 2007
Champions 2007!

We did it! We won the 2007 fall season. Congratulations everyone!

The final game was a pretty good game. It had just about everything. 9 goals (we won 6:3), a penalty shot, quite a few penalties on both sides (although we spent a lot more time in the box than they did), a fight in the end that even the refs seemed to get involved in, and the Thunders being escorted off the ice, while we were celebrating. Awesome! :-) We had a good number of people in the audience, and they got their moneys worth! :-D

What was great about this game was that just like in last week's game, we came up with a plan, and stuck to it. We had all agreed that we needed to play relatively physical, and we did. We also agreed that we had to shut their fast game and their fast passes down, and we did. I also don't think we really gout caught out with the defense to far up even once. On top of that, we knew they didn't have their regular goalie and that we needed to shoot as much as possible, and we did that too. All in all, a well deserved victory!

Monday, December 03, 2007
We Are Through!

We did it! We made it to the finals. This was a great game. It had just about everything, from goals to penalties, and Brent even gave us a little fighting action at the very end. It was like a real hockey game! :-)

I really liked that we totally stuck to our plan as well. We had intended to put as many goals on shot as possible, even if they were weak shots, because we knew their goalie isn't very good. And we did exactly that, and after a while, enough shots went in. We also planned to simply exhaust them by playing a fast game with fast changing lines, and we managed to do that too. Towards the end, their game completely fell apart. Awesome! Especially after Roberto scored that 3 on 5 shorthanded goal, you could almost feel how they just gave up.

So we are now on to the finals against the Thunders. They are a good team. They have played well all season, and are probably the favorites. But we have also played very well in the second half of the season, once we got the team established. We won 6 of our last 9 games (3 straight wins). We only lost against the Thunders (twice) and that one game against the North Stars 2 1/2 months ago we lost because of a bad ref decision that counted a goal after the play was whistled dead. And even the games against the Thunders we lost, we played really well and were probably the better team, except for their goalie who won both games for them. But here's the kicker: Their goalie is out injured, and they have a backup goalie. He isn't bad either, but he seems to be easier to get by. (Raul says the key to beat him is to move the puck far from left to right and get him with fast play on those angles).

So I think we need a plan for this game and stick to it the same way we stuck to our plan against the Enforcers, and we have a real competition on our hands. For one, the Thunders are a fast team that moves fast as a team rather than just individuals. Especially with people like Obi. But they are weak when it comes to physical play. So I think that is what we have to do. Bump into them a little more than usual, anywhere on the ice and also at the boards. That really seems to throw them off. Keep your hands down and don't overdo it though, because we do not want to get into penalty trouble. We also want to move the puck. From wing to wing, and also to the points on occasion. Put the puck on goal hard once other players are in position to put the rebound away. Oh, and we must not get caught out by cherry-pickers. That seems to have been a problem in our recent games against them, because they move very fast when they have the chance.

What else can we do to be more competitive? Here's an idea: Tuesday night, Thunders practice and they make it a drop-in for other teams in the league. I usually go there, and so does Bill. It would be cool if as many of us as possible could make it this Tuesday at 10:15pm. This would make for an interesting practice, since the two finalist teams would face off against each other in a scrimmage. Also, there usually is about a 20 minute practice where we could just try some standard moved and passing and such, which would allow us to practice some passing in front of the goal as we will have to do it to beat their goalie. So if you can make it, that would be awesome. (I believe they charge $13 to $15 or so for the drop-in).

And here is another idea: Why not produce some home ice advantage for us? If you have anyone who ever considered checking out one of your games, this would be the one! I have some coworkers of mine who have come along before, and they enjoyed it - or at least claimed they did :-). Bring your spouses and friends and coworkers, and make them scream and yell and wave Ice Dragon's flags! :-)

Oh, and grow your playoff beards. I forgot and shaved off mine before the game last weekend, and I played badly. So I will grow mine from now on!!! :-D