Thunder Talk: Febuary 2nd

Yesterdays game against the Westley's in Arborfield had the outcome we were looking for, and for that it served it's purpose. However, playing an understaffed, under talented team like them wasn't necessarily what the doctor ordered following our loss to the Royals on Friday. Our problem on Friday was that we didn't come prepared to play a full 60 minutes of Thunder Hockey. In a lot of ways we had it very easy over the 4 games before the Royals. In all cases we took on teams that either weren't capable of playing a full game with us or, in the case of the Storm, gave us way too many opportunities to beat them. In retrospect, these four games did not prepare us to play our game vs the Royals because we did not have to be disciplined against those other teams. Now, I'm not talking discipline as in taking stupid penalties, we very rarely play an undisciplined game that regard. I'm talking about having the discipline to execute the game plan as a team, every time with no shortcuts or next times. When you play games like yesterday, it's very easy to get lazy because you know you will most likely be able to recover from any mistakes you make. But when you get lazy, you begin to play the game on your heals. And when you play on your heals, instead of on your toes, you begin to make more and more mistakes... reaching for pucks instead of skating through them... poke checking instead of taking the body... hesitating and getting caught instead of committing and making a play.... playing passive instead of playing aggressive. These are things that contributed to our terrible 1st period on Friday and unfortunately they were not things that we had to change on Sunday to beat the Westleys.They are things that we will need to change if we are to beat Fort Knox tomorrow.

Tyler Bouey will be seeing the Doc today to make sure everything is ok with his head. Tyler slid into the end boards and hit his head mid way through the 3rd period yesterday. We sent him off for the rest of the game as a precaution as he rang his bell on the play. We will see how he is feeling tonight at practice.

Watch tomorrow for Kenny Trenton weekly report on the NorthEast Hockey Scene.

Keep Your Stick On The Ice
Coach Kingwell