Week 23 - One Month to State Championships
This weekend, the team showed up and played some great hockey. The coaches saw things that we have been asking you to do for a while and it is finally clicking. While there are small adjustments needed and we will continue to refine over the next month as we prepare for the state championships, the team looked like a solid cohesive unit. We saw offensive cycling that we haven't seen before, which lead to sustained pressure. The forecheck was a huge part of this, but also a willingness to pass the puck around and make smart decisions. Our backcheck is getting very solid with a lot of forwards working hard to recover from turnovers and transitions.
There are 2 areas we need to really focus on between now and states. Those are breakouts and managing / defending loose pucks all over the ice. For breakouts, we need to work on generating speed without the puck. Coming low in the zone and really working to find ice and better breakout passes. For loose pucks, it is about getting more physical and winning those battles with your body.
We have a couple exhibition games this weekend. After that, the remainder of the season will be practices and rest to prepare our bodies and minds for a full-team effort at the state championships.
See you on the ice!
--
Extra: