OK, finally, some more video from Monday night's scrimmage. Here's a play I'm particularly proud of, followed by a great example of how *not* to pass, followed by some more fruitful forechecking. I'll break it down after the clip.
I'm #19, with the red, yellow, and black-striped socks;
Beaner is in the plain white jersey with the taped #1 on her back;
and Meghan's wearing Steph's #73 home jersey
On the plus side, check me out intercepting that dump-in and then actually continuing to skate with the puck! Meghan also had a great shot on goal, and I had what seemed to the average bystander like a sweet backhand pass to Beaner. Let's take a closer look at that, however:
me passing blindly, as usual
Beaner saving the day by hustling to the puck
And now a slowed-down clip of what happened next: namely, Beaner putting on a clinic on the proper way to deke and backhand-pass.
Notice how she looks up to see where Meghan is right before the deke, and then looks again as she's passing? That's what I should be doing. (By the way, this is the nice shot of Meghan's that I was referring to. Way to go, Meghan!) It'd also be nice to be able to deke as well (and, heck, to SKATE as well) as Beaner, but I think that might take a few more years of practice... or some power skating clinics. She's been playing hockey since she was 9, in case you were curious; I have no idea how old she is now, but I'd guess she's been playing for at least 10 years.
One more thing I wanted to break down, because it's something I'm proud of, even though it might look stupid at first glance.
See how I'm skating to the boards to prevent my opponent from clearing the puck?
(Never mind that I probably should have been skating to GET the puck instead.)
And see how my opponent grabs the puck and quickly changes direction,
just as I'm setting up for the intercept up the boards?
And see how she seems to have faked me out completely?
But ah, wait just a second! As my opponent is forced to clear
the puck around the boards in the opposite direction...
suddenly that almost-intercept along the boards doesn't seem so stupid after all.
Let's hear it for forechecking!
Posted by Lori in Freeze ~ Fall/Winter 2006 | December 20, 2006·12:06 PM