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Hefe4711 · 03-19-2020, 08:07 PM

Training Camp has begun. It is not exactly what I expected. In school, and on my traveling teams, there was a lot more horsing around. In the beginning, I thought it was some of the same. We hung out in the locker room getting ready listening to music and everyone chatting. All of the players were very nice and would come up to me and check on me, but I was very much in my own world. I was in my corner, trying to get ready for the first training camp practice without messing anything up. Last thing I wanted to happen was to have one of my pads fall off while in goal. That wouldn't be the best first impression to make.

For the first couple of minutes on the ice, we were messing around. It brought me back to my high school days. Playing with pucks, tennis balls, garbage cans were just some of the things that we had to do tricks and practice with. Then, there was a loud whistle and everything stopped. The toys went away and everyone went to one side of the rink. I just went along, not exactly sure of what was going on. Elizabeth Doyle (@Evok), took me under her wing and brought me over to the side. She and I began to stretch out as I watched people move and adjust the ice so that we could get ready for the real practice to begin. They broke the rink down into four sections, each one with a different skill that they wanted to work on. While I was looking on, Elizabeth let me know that she and I would be staying in one section of the rink since we will be in net while the guys work on there two on one skills. Four guys will be practicing against each other, but one guy will be in the offensive zone for each team so it is always two on one. Elizabeth and I will be working on talking to the defender and keeping our net empty.

This was new to me. I was used to the entire team practicing together as we did our skills and not do things differently. That led to a lot more time sitting around while this looks like it will keep everyone moving along. After a while, Elizabeth tapped me on my pads with her stick because I was staring off in the distance. She saw that I wasn't paying attention and was getting me back on track. I quickly gathered my glove and blocker and went over to our station as the practice commenced.

It was very different and very difficult. The area of the rink was about one fourth the normal size. Everything was much faster with a lot less room. The guys passes were crisper and faster than what I have experienced before. I definitely could tell this was going to be a much different experience. It was a whirlwind of passes and shots, dekes and backhands, feints and slick moves. Every fifteen minutes, the whistle would blow and all the players, except Elizabeth and I, would skate to the next station. We would stay and take more and more shots.

It seemed like it was going on forever, though in reality, it was only about one hour. The whistle blew finally and everyone stopped and skated over to the bench to get water and relax for a couple of minutes. The staff came out and removed all the extra training equipment from the ice so that they could set up for an end of practice scrimmage.

The scrimmage, I was told would last 20 minutes. Since it was the first practice and everyone was getting back into the swing of things, there wasn't much defense or checking. From my perspective, it looked like an All-Star game as the teams flowed on open ice not having much resistance against them. After a missed shot or save, the puck would continue to move and it was going up and down the ice. It seemed that the action was more on my end than on the other. With about five minutes to go, everyone stopped playing and they went to my blue line.

All of a sudden, one of the trainers comes out with a bucket of pucks and pours them out onto the ice. As I am standing in the goal, everyone gets a puck and it looks like I am going to be on the other end of the shooting gallery. Then, it starts. Player after player come down and just pelt me with slapshot after slapshot. I get pelted trying to keep every puck out of the net, I am not completely successful. Though it seems the guys are shooting more at me than trying to actually score. Once they were done, the guys came over and hit me on the pads with there sticks.

As we get back into the locker room, I am tired from my first professional practice, but I am ready to see what the next day entails.

(850 words)

Snoopdogg · 03-19-2020, 08:27 PM

Nice write up. Black and blue??

Hefe4711 · 03-19-2020, 09:14 PM

03-19-2020, 08:27 PMSnoopdogg Wrote: Nice write up. Black and blue??

Let's just say me and the trainer needed some extra time for the ice packs.

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