Sphinges vs Pharoahs: 7-4

We won our game last night, but not for lack of trying. 😉 We had two superstars on our team that racked up all the points, and I think the rest of us were just sort of supporting cast in the scoring department. I got an assist in the first goal, though, woo!

I hadn’t been on the ice in two weeks, and it really seemed like it. I felt like I’d forgotten everything I’d learned in the last NCWHL practice and was instead flailing around for the puck. I inspected my stick carefully once I got home, and couldn’t find any trace of a puck-sized hole in the blade, but during the game I could have sworn it was there. 😉

One very confusing moment in the game came when I heard the other team shouting “off! off!” for offsides a split second before the puck reached me. I wound up with the puck just inside my team’s defensive blue line, so the Pharoahs couldn’t enter our defensive zone without being offsides.

It was confusing, though, because I thought they had been offsides and that I just hadn’t heard the whistle — a thought supported by the fact that no one on the ice was moving. At all. Every single player on both teams, plus the two refs, were just standing there staring at me. No one on my team was skating around trying to get open for my pass….they were just standing there. Staring.

So I thought play was over and I just hadn’t heard the whistle. Finally, someone on my team shouted “choose left or right!”, which, frankly, was a retarded thing to say, but I was able to gather from hearing it that play was still on, so I passed it.

It was probably only three or four seconds, but, damn, how confusing. I still cannot comprehend why my entire team just stood there staring at me instead of skating around at all to get out from behind the huge red wall of Pharoahs offensivemen that were lined up at the blue line waiting for the puck to cross so they could enter the zone. *scratches head*

My whole team (myself included) needs to work on communication. We either don’t talk at all, or we try to have entire discourses on the ice. It reminded me of trying to talk to Peter via the Chatterboxes on the motorcycle — at speed, you have to just say “GAS” or “FOOD” or “STOP”, because the details get lost. Similarly, on the ice, if someone skates by me and says “when you have a chance, try to drop the pass back to Aaron”….I probably heard “when you……”. No. We need to say “AARON” or “DROP” or “OPEN!”.

[Edit: I realized after reading this post-publication that it sounds like I’m whining about my teammates. Writing this down was just as much a reminder to myself to do the same thing — I think I’m one of the worst offenders at being non-communicative, or at least not-usefully-communicative. It’s one of my goals to work on for the season.]

My next hockey event is a G2 NCWHL game on Sunday, June 4, but I’m not convinced I’ll be back from Reno in time. If that’s the case, I have NCWHL practice on Friday, June 9. At least that time, I’ll have a practice prior to an Ice Oasis game after having had a long hiatus from the ice. *thumbs up*