Week 9 - Refinements & Endurance

While we left the weekend without a win, it felt like a great learning weekend. We played a solid first part of the Saturday game but ultimately lost to a team skating harder and making less mistakes. Sunday, the team roared back and played the first FULL game all season. Going into the 3rd period in a scoreless game against a very strong team is a good spot to be in. A couple small mistakes and a few missed scoring opportunities were the only real difference in that game.

What the Sunday game tells the coaches is that we can absolutely compete with the best teams in our division. The flow of the Sunday game was significantly improved from prior games. We had moments of sustained pressure in the offensive zone, which is something we have been struggling with. As players figure out their roles and work harder at being a team, the games are just going to improve more over time.

I believe that we are starting to move into the phase of the season where we are no longer needing to work on large issues, and rather are going to start working on smaller refinements. Part of that is also endurance and physical fitness. It means that dry lands are even more important to focus on. With focused dry land, continued high intensity practices, and commitment to team play, we will accelerate past our opponents and begin to see more success.

This week, we will be focusing on refinements and endurance. The coaches are expecting better execution of the drills, more focus, and higher intensity.

Bring your AAA game!

–

NOTE: I am trying a new format for practice plans. There will be a single practice link per week. Pay attention to the “Station Number” section of each drill to see what days it will be run on.

• Practice Week 9

Extra reading:

• Deliberate Learning From Other Positions to Improve Faster
• Team Defense: Setting the edge, The force defender

• 2026 2
• 2025 16