Each week now, the coaches will post a Re"View" from the Bench article which will be a weekly review of the past weeks events.
Our hope is to share insight into what we see from the bench during games and what we are going to focus on for upcoming practices. We are hoping this will spur positive conversation regarding the team and our games.
Hello Everyone and welcome to the first edition of Re"View" from the Bench.
I got the privilege to receive a short clip from the Petrolia game on Dec 4th and the first thing I noticed is the game looks way different from the stands then the bench. You get a better visual of how the team is playing from up higher. The speed of the game is way different from the bench and with everything that is going on we sometimes miss parts of the game or see something from a different perspective. With this in mind here we go!
Saturday Dec 10 – Petrolia – Final Score – Petrolia 4, Stars 1
In short, not a great start to the weekend. The coaches continue to preach play with intensity, play your position, and pass the puck. There was not much of this from the Stars during the game against Petrolia. We had more energy then usual but it was misplaced. We were out of position a lot and not moving the puck well. There was a lot of “I’s” and “Me’s” out there this game and not enough “TEAM”. When this happens the results are usually pretty evident. We tried to settle the kids down on the bench but for some reason they just could not get on track. We continually reminded them to get your head up, look for a pass, hold your position, spread out. The Stars need to play a game based on positioning and teamwork to be successful. At the end of the game the coaches were much happier with the effort put forth by the kids but again preached to the kids about positioning and passing.
We ran into some penalty trouble in the second period. Penalties are one of things that truly effects the ice time some kids get. There is no intention or malice towards any kid, we are just trying to put the kids on the ice we feel are going to give us the best chance to kill the penalty. Sometimes when this happens there are kids who will miss their shifts. What adds to this situation is the fact that we then try to reset the lines and this further affects ice time. When we play 5-on-5 hockey we try to continue to give ice time in as fair a manner as we can. This will be a pattern we will try to go with for the remainder of the season. We realize that not all kids will play at their best every game so sitting a kid when they are not having a good game is not going to happen.
All in all, Saturday’s game had a few positives with the increase in effort, but not one of our best games.
Goals – Logan Gardner
Assists
- Brady Kokko
- Jordan “George” Medeiros
Sunday Dec 11 – St. Mary’s – Final Score – St. Mary’s 4 – Stars 1
Wow, what a difference one sleep can make. The effort was there, the passing was there, the positioning was much better. Only thing missing… Scoring!
The Stars came out and gave a great team effort. Being a little short on the bench meant some players had to step up their ice time. A great effort was made by the defence to pick up for the short bench and work really hard out there. Congrats to you all. We are really proud of you. The forwards did a great job all game long. Moving the puck to the head man and working hard on getting into the play was so nice to watch. The kids were performing the skills and strategies that the coaches have been preaching. We had so many chances to score but missed nets, and blocked shots by St. Mary’s kept the Stars from mounting a comeback. If the Stars continue to play this way the rest of the year we should start to pile up some wins. We need to continue to reinforce shooting the puck earlier and getting to the net for rebounds. A grinder goal counts the same amount as the fancy goal on the scoreboard. Never heard anyone say we should have won that game because our goal was the prettiest. Everyone from Parents to Coaches should be happy with how the kids played this game. They gave everything they had and were absolutely exhausted at the end of the game. As we all saw out there… St. Mary’s has #12 who had 4 unassisted goals. If we stop him, we stop them.
Goals – Logan Gardner
Assists
- Jamie Koroscil
From these games it is evident that there are still a few things that need to be worked on this week and in the future (this can be used as topics of conversation on the way to the rink):
1) when you are out front of the net you need to have your stick on the ice and be ready to receive the puck
2) go hard to the net with your stick on the ice looking for the rebound
3) be the first to the puck. Don’t sit back and wait to see what he other guy is going to do.
4) get back in the defensive zone to help get the puck out. Floating around or outside the blue line makes a lot more work for your team mates.
5) there is no I in Team… everyone has to play as a team. You win as a team, you lose as a team
6) defence need to work on deciding when to pick up their man and to force them to do something before they get in close enough to the goalie to force them to make a difficult save
7) play with intensity every shift of every game. You should be exhausted at the end of every game. That means you gave everything you had.
Final Thoughts:
Overall this weekend we had a game to remember and a game to forget. Let’s hope going forward we see more of the team that played against St. Mary’s and less of the one that played against Petrolia.
During these newsletters I will continue to send out goals and assists. We will not be updating the web site with points but if you want to keep them yourselves then have fun.
We are looking forward to having Owen back this week after his surgery. Hopefully he is fully healed and ready to go this week. We were happy to see you at the game and it meant a lot to the kids to see you there.
Weekly Schedule:
Tuesday – Practice – 5 pm – Timken Arena
Wedesday - Game – 7 pm – Belmont Arena
Thursday – Game – 6 pm – Strathroy Gemini Complex
Finally a little house keeping reminders:
1) With the winter coming, please try to have a pair of running shoes in your kid’s bag for the warm-up.
2) We are starting to find that players are starting to continually showing up late for practices and games. Reminder that everyone should be there, and ready for warm-ups 45 minutes before games, and 30 minutes before practice. There are some who are continually showing up a few minutes late to games and practices and their kids are missing the warm-ups. At this age warm-ups are not essential as most of these kids wake up stretched out but it is part of the team experience, a good routine, and the bonding time for the kids. Please try to make the effort to get there a few minutes earlier so all the kids can be part of the warm-up.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to send them off to me. If I can not answer them I will contact those who have the answers and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If email is not your thing, then you can approach me before or after practices or games and I will try to answer your questions as best as we can. Remember the 24 hour rule is still in affect so keep that in mind when approaching coaches at the rink.
Thanks Everyone… See you at the Rink!
Coach Duane