I'm sure the format of this post will only be amusing to the product management, marketing, and PR types at my old company, none of whom are likely to be reading this, but I'm going to press on anyway.
+ I was put on a line with Diaz, with whom I felt I had chemistry from our first practice together, and it resulted in some great passes. He has a knack for being exactly where I hope he'll be.
- I was minus like 100. (OK, maybe that's an exaggeration; I think the final score was something like 8-6, and I was definitely on the bench for one power play goal).
+/- I walked onto the ice with one terrycloth skateguard still on, causing a spectacular fall on my part and much hilarity on the parts of my teammates and the referees. The funny part for me was that I saw the black skateguard covering my skate as I stuck my foot out, so I knew the fall was coming—I'd just already shifted my weight and couldn't stop it. I immediately rolled over and stuck the offending skate into the air so Watson could pull the skateguard off for me; I felt him tug and thought he'd gotten it, but apparently he was laughing too hard to get a good grip on it. When I tried to get up, of course the guard was still there, and I fell AGAIN. This time I waited on my stomach while Mifflin (who is on the IR but came to watch—and keep score) pulled it off for real. I've watched many a player come onto the ice with one skateguard on, and I can testify to how wonderfully hilarious it is, so I'm glad I was able to entertain.
+ My teammates FINALLY caught on to Adam's style of play (why it took them so long, when I've been talking about it here, in the locker room, and on the bench since I first joined the Admirals, is beyond me; I know I'm considered the worst player on the team, but I can still offer some useful scouting information, guys!) and formulated a Plan for dealing with it.
- Despite The Plan, Adam was still open most of the time.
+/- I made it my personal mission to stay on Adam whenever we were on the ice together, even if it meant getting out of position. (I did try not to foul up the D, however.) This generally translated into *not* setting at the faceoff (because Adam stands back about 5-10 feet from the hashmarks and also does not set) and never looking for a breakout pass myself when he was on the ice. I didn't care if my team had possession; if Adam was forechecking, I stayed in defensive mode—and tried to stay between him and the puck carrier. On the plus side, this dedication meant that I was around to lift Ad's stick and bump him out of the slot when our D were busy with the other two forwards. On the minus, it meant that when the puck popped out to my side on a faceoff in the neutral zone and I could have had an easy breakaway, I let it go and waited for someone else to pick it up (no one did, at first; everyone just stood around and yelled, "Lori!"). There was no way I was going to go for the puck and then have someone knock me off it and pass up to Adam, who I'd left standing up at our blueline. (I guess for me this is still somewhat of a positive, though I'm sure my teammates thought I was totally nuts, negligent, or just plain stupid.)
- I got called off the ice by Lisa (so that Rich could go on) in the final 30 seconds of the game, when we'd already pulled the goalie and had 6 men (including Jeff) on the ice, and we were down by 2. It wasn't as annoying as when Mattias SCREAMED at me to get off over the summer, but it was disappointing nonetheless. It's true that Rich did not get enough ice time during the game, but that's mostly because Lisa and Jeff killed most of our penalties, and for some reason we rested the D when my line was penalty-killing. IMHO, we should have gone with three forwards and 1 D whenever the first line was on the PK—and especially when a D was in the box.
+ Diaz scored a great goal off a pretty pass (which, sadly, didn't come from me, but given the way we'd been passing in the rest of the game, I took comfort in the knowledge that IT COULD HAVE).
- Diaz got ejected at the end of the game when Derek managed to provoke him (by harrassing him and then admittedly diving—twice—when Diaz finally lost his cool). I'm not sure what the official call was, but there was much yelling and name-calling between Diaz and Derek.
+/- One of the goals scored against us was by Kitson, who I'd never seen score before. (He probably has, and I just wasn't there to witness it.) I know it contributed to our defeat, but I couldn't help feeling happy for him.
- On my first shift, the opposing Center completely flattened me (first by running into me, and then by falling on top of me) when he turned his head to look for the puck carrier while continuing to skate forward at full speed. Serious case of whiplash resulted. I also have a very deep, very sore stick-shaped bruise on my left arm, but I'm not sure whether this came from the collision with the Center or a later check.
I've been sitting on this post for a couple days in hopes that I'd think of a positive note to end on, but nothing has occurred to me, and I'm too lazy to restructure the whole thing so that it ends with a +. Maybe the plus is that if the Galaxy is starting to play more like a team, so are we—and I think we're more equipped than ever to compete with them. A couple more tweaks and improvements, and we could definitely win.
Posted by Lori in Admirals ~ Fall/Winter 2005-2006 | January 10, 2006·03:31 PM