I feel like this past week was in a word: frustrating
Look guys, we made many mistakes. Countless actually. We gave them many scoring chances. And then we let them capitalize on those chances. And if they couldn't score for themselves I did my best to help.
The Turtle Named Alliance.
As bad as we all played, we had the chance to win. We should have won.
Think about what we had:
A lead with 1 minute to go.
A lead with 1 minute to go and we had developing 3 on 1 with our best forwards with ball control.
A lead with 1 minute to go, a developing 3 on 1 with our best forwards with control of the ball, while also shooting at an empty net.
And we didn't score. Choke.
It happens (to us only?). I get that. The loss is not on that play. The loss is on the 29 minutes before that.
I bring up that play because it epitomizes what we are. I think if that exact same play happened, but we were already up 2 or 3 goals, we'd score the worthless point. We needed the point so we collapsed. We needed the defensive stop and we crumbled. The team that wanted it more won.
And frankly, that's just sad.
So it leads me to a poll question this week.
"Crap teams will always be crap teams until they decide not to be crap teams"
14 comments:
Good recap nick.
We are just a mediocre team, I totally feel it's a physical problem. Every team makes plenty of mistakes, that's hockey. But we don't have enough guys making great plays.
Ron picking a corner with a slap shot is a great play, or when griff does one of his "shifts" it's great but we all don't make those plays enough.
We need more than generic good defense from nick, more than quality two way play from Johnny, and for people who love stats me and Brett need to produce more. Even darrin needs to be better, we can't win with goalies being a wash.
So everyone change your votes to physical problems!
Can something be generic and good?
But Jared, do the mistakes happen because we "cant" physically make the pass or take the shot? I think you guys have the physical ability to score on a 3 on 1. I have seen myself intercept a pass a million times without it exploding off my stick. The issue is our mental decision making. If our positioning was just a little bit different we would have gotten the results we wanted.
My biggest issue is our ability to always panic. We crap our pants like its nobody's business. We get that lead with a minute to go and we start playing hot potatoe. Its a joke. We stop thinking. No one whats the ball near them. No one. Its throw the ball around with no intent but "hope" it gets iced. We stop trying to make plays. Thats a mental issue, imo.
The other issue is how long does it take to decide what you want to do with the ball? Ugh. To much fancy crap. Get the ball and move it toward the net. We are not physically talented enough for you to be a stick handling defenseman at the redline. Move the ball up!
its a problem of never learning how to play hockey the right way. We've played in Saugus for so many years playing the most undisciplined form of hockey on the face of the Earth.
We don't know any better. Even when we do play a decent game, you can see the "old personality" poking through.
The reason Jared and JB are our best players is because they've played with Derek
The reason why we can't be an elite team comes down to coaching. Knowing where everyone is supposed to be, where to go without the ball, playing in a system, etc. If we were to ever play at an elite level that's what it would take.
However, it is what it is: we are just a group of guys playing hockey. Due to meetings, service, family, etc we don't have the time to invest. So that is going to hold us back from being truly good. And when you play once a week and don't get to work on shooting or finishing skills that too becomes a problem.
However, none of that explains why we can't beat these teams. Most of the time our biggest issue offensively is that we can't pass. And I am not talking about threading the needle through two defensemen. I am talking about simple passes where guys are wide open. Too many times the pass is nowhere near the guy and it kills the play. We've been playing too long now for us not to make those passes on a consistent basis.
As for this past game? We played stupid and lazy. Way too many times guys were left wide open. There were countless times that either the center wasn't back, or the forward that should have been covering for him wasn't there. And not just on a rush. They would keep it in our zone without the third guy hustling back. We don't have a large margin for error - if we are not going to play solid defense we have no shot
Yeah. Nice work nick with the recap.
I feel like Jared is right about physically we aren't doing what we need to. The guys we play have as many holes in their game as we do. We have some really skilled players. We need to use what we have to our advantage. I want to say shoot more but I feel like we out shoot teams every week. We all know the game of hockey but we can't do what they do so let's not try. I feel like we go in a little cocky thinking we are going to win because we see talented guys around us. I know I do that at times. But most times hustle will beat talent. So let's play our best and not panic out there. Trust what you can do and don try doing to much. A guy beats you go griff on him and track him down from behind like your Bradley and he stole your m&m's! Help your teammates if they get caught! Don't scramble and chase! Compose yourself! Let's go out there and win you you turtles! I wish I knew what noise a turtle made then we'de have new chant like the mighty ducks. We can even have a set play. The crawling turtle. Go turtles!!!!!
i think we have the design for our new jerseys for Montreal this year.
The turtle from Robin Hood the cartoon. Darrin should love it.
brett, that is the turtle from robin hood. Toby?
anyways...John some valid points but i hate excuses like we dont play enough. The teams we play also have lives outside of hockey. They dont eat, breathe and sleep the sport.
Most teams that we play are just as undisciplined as us. Like JB said, we have to use that as an advantage.
Nick, it's a minor point about not playing enough, and I'm only using that in my own case. We don't have a chance to do much except take a handful of warmup shots on Darrin. So in a game you might have a chance for a breakaway, or shot in the slot, but if you haven't taken one for a month you aren't going to be as sharp if you had been.
The other points were the main reason we lose imo...lazy / undisciplined play, and a fundamental lack of passing ability.
we've been playing for years together on a regular basis on Sundays. Amount of playing has nothing to do with it. We should all know how to shoot. There's no such thing as rust in street hockey playing vs other teams with less talented players than us. We don't forget how to run if we haven't run in a week or two. We're starting to sound like the red sox with all these excuses
Yeah Brett, that makes a lot of sense. Guys in sports never work on shooting drills or take batting practice because they have done it before. That's logical reasoning.
And as I said, that's not why we lose. It's more the inability to make simple hockey plays.
wow...Johnny just got snippy....hehehe.
We aren't professionals so stop equating it to that. Plus we play every week, thats our practice. Everygame is a practice and something tolearn from. Like Jared said everyone else goes through the same stuff we do and they don't have coaches and they don't play every day just like us. They r in the same exact boat as we are. So Stop blaming it on rust and just make the play work like we've done a thousand times before
Actually, I'd wager to say that most of the teams we've played either do play more often, or have been playing competitively far longer.
But again, that has nothing to do with us making stupid decisions with the puck in the closing minutes, blowing defensive assignments, or not being able to make simple passes. Those are the reasons for losing.
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