Week 15 - Defending through the Transition
Hope everyone had a fun weekend. We got to play our 2 rival / peer teams. While these games didn't mean anything other than association bragging rights, they still allowed us to build on what we were doing in practice. It also allowed the coaches to see where we still need work. The team passed the puck well and played well as a team.
The big focus is still on defending through the neutral zone and holding better coverage once the opponent has established the zone and started cycling. Each player should understand their role and what their responsibilities are. It is okay to adjust and support, but we cannot sacrifice the high scoring areas. We also need to be much more active when defending. Active sticks and a physical presence prevents a lot of the goals that are scored against us.
Worth noting, we out-passed the A1 team in numbers. They were a bit more accurate, but we definitely are doing a good job of playing our team game and moving the puck. We need to get those passes a bit harder and more on target. Against the B team, it wasn't even close. We set a new team record for the season for both pass attempts and completions with a solid 75% accuracy.
Saturday, A1 finished with 46 on-target passes out of 61 attempts for 75.4% accuracy. We finished with 77 on-target passes out of 110 attempts for 70% accuracy. Sunday, B finished with 33 on-target passes out of 61 attempts for a 54.1% accuracy. We finished with 109 on-target passes out of 145 attempts for a 75.2% accuracy. For perspective, we started the season in tiering with only 148 completed passes total over 4 entire games and a 56.3% accuracy. Our last tournament, we had 450 completed passes over 5 games with an accuracy of 71%. So, we are definitely improving.
See everyone on the ice!
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