Monday 26 January 2009

Test

A few weeks back my team (The Cougars) had our first test of our fitness with a bleep test. Oh the joy of skating back and forth to a bleep. I kind of messed up my part of the test by going OTT with the first level and by the time I reached level five, my legs were screaming for mercy and calling me all sort of names that I wont publish here. I ended up finishing at Level 6.1, which is quite far off where I would’ve expected to be, but like any good athlete, I’ll blame it on the mistake I made at the start and on equipment. I’m still trying to find a good excuse from kit related field and so far I’m leaning towards “my stick was too heavy”.

The teams for the up and coming season were announced recently and there weren’t that many changes to the roster there. The only one I could see was Telford dropping out and being replaced by Peterborough. I still have fond memories from Peterborough, where the ice was so bumpy I think I lost all my fillings. Either way, it should be a good 16 games of hockey for the summer. My hopes are that we will play 18 games though, which would mean we made it to the playoffs and the medal round at the end of the season. I think everyone on the team were disappointed with the last season and missing out on the play-offs, but I hope we at least came out with some positives from it and the guys will be motivated to go at it again for the season.

The first test of our level will be this Saturday with Gosport playing a friendly against us. I personally have nothing but good memories from playing against Gosport. In three games against the team I have scored 3+2 points and taken several elbows to the head and been at the receiving end of some cheap shots. Personal points aside, I want to make sure that my performance will help the team win and if it means scoring a couple of goals, then that’ll be what I will do.

We have played one game since the end of the cup against Swindon and I’d say the team has come a long way since that defeat. I think the chemistry has gotten better and our big guns are still producing in scrimmages and so forth. The only thing I wish for Saturday is a solid, fast line and that we play simple and direct hockey without trying to be too fancy.

Time will tell and I shall be writing an update after the game.

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