Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Hockey News

It's that time of year again, where the weather gets cooler (supposedly...it hasn't yet), and we head out to the ice rinks on weekends so Lucas can participate in hockey sortouts.

Well, to be honest, all that has happened already. Over the last two weekends. It's not that exciting talking about the sortouts when you're in the middle of them. The fun part is afterwards, when you find out what team you're on! And by "you," I mean Lucas.

A little background before the big reveal. The first day of sortouts is kind of like the NFL combine. It's a bunch of different drills--most of which are timed--that test the kids' skating, puckhandling, and other hockey skills. It can be fairly important since it determines what group level you'll be scrimmaging with in the second weekend. And once you're in a group (A, B, or C), it's hard to get out of it unless you play exceedingly well or shockingly bad.

Lucas has been hit or miss in past years, but I can say without any reservation that this was by far his best sortout. I was actually surprised at how well he performed, though when I really think about it, this is his 5th year so I guess it makes sense that he'd be pretty competent by now.

On the second day of the first weekend, they scrimmaged, and it can be a bit of a gong show since I think there are kids from all levels thrown together. Once again, Lucas had a great day though there were a couple of funny moments where he was stuck as a forward, and it's obvious he has little experience in that position. The highlight of that day was him taking the puck from his own zone, skating all the way to the other end with it, and taking a great shot that unfortunately went over the net.

The second week isn't scheduled until after the first one is complete so it takes into account skill levels a lot more than week 1. As soon as we entered the dressing room on the second Saturday, we could see that Lucas would be playing with higher-level players as most of the kids had played A the year before, and there were even a couple that had made it to the final cuts of the competitive team.

Lucas continued to bring the magic from the previous week as his defensive line played well and was the only one that didn't get scored on in a 4-2 loss. It went even better the next day as he was a +3 and once again didn't let in any goals. We didn't want to get his hopes up, but we let him know that he definitely fit in with the rest of the players.

So let's jump ahead to this morning. Marilu got an email from the wife of Lucas's coach last year. It turned out Lucas was on her husband's team, which was great since Lucas really liked him. I asked Marilu what team it was, but she didn't know. A little while later, after she had gone to work, I got a text saying that Lucas was on B6.

I knew that was a possibility, but I was disappointed since he seemed to do everything right during the sortouts. While he may not have stood out as a superstar, he also didn't stand out as a liability. He was just plain solid. I decided not to tell him at the bus stop in case he took the news poorly. That would be a crappy way to start the school day.

It turns out it's a good thing I didn't say anything, because a little while later, I received another text from Marilu. It turns out Tiffany (the coach's wife) had mixed up her sons' teams. Her older son, who is a year ahead of Lucas, was the one on B6. Lucas was on A3!

As an added bonus, when we looked at the roster later in the day, it turned out that Lucas is friends with or a past teammate of 7 of the 16 kids. So he'll definitely have a good time in the dressing room. In fact, his current best friend Parker is on the team as well.

So all in all, it's a very good start to the hockey season. Even if they lose every game--let's hope not--it should be a very fun time. And I'll keep you updated as it goes.

Talk again soon!

1 comment:

Grammy said...

That's the most in depth hockey blog in 5 years I think. Proud Papa. Good for Lucas! Can't wait to see him play.