Goals, goals, goals

I'm currently on a three-scrimmage goal-scoring streak at Sabby's clinic. For someone who didn't grow up playing hockey, and for someone who still doesn't really think too highly of his own hockey skills, this is a big deal. It remains to be seen just how it would translate to a real hockey game, but I'll save all that for another time.

Three weeks ago, it was the first time I scored since a two-goal output one random scrimmage time when I made a cameo appearance at the clinic for my spring break. We unfortunately got scored on, and when play restarted, I took the puck up out of our zone along the boards and skated past a guy who admittedly was a bit half-hearted probably because he had to let us leave the zone after they scored against us. I skated and chipped the puck past him and continued carrying it across the opponent's blue line.

Here's where it gets a little dicey and luck-ish: one of our teammates was headed off the ice, and was going out through the door in our offensive zone. I tried to carry the puck further into their zone but lost it into said teammate's skates. The defenseman who would otherwise have corralled the puck and cleared the zone got tripped up by the deflection off his skate. I pressured the puck carrier and got it back before firing a shot from the circle just under the goalie's glove. End-to-end, score.

Two weeks ago, I completely forgot exactly how the play led up to this, but I think we skated into the zone three-on-two before the puck carrier pulled up at the half-wall and I was driving far post. The puck went back to the point at the corner of the zone when I noticed someone was on me but there was open space in the slot. I skated back and got open, got a great feed from that defenseman at the corner point and took a stride toward the net before taking a shot. Now I originally wanted to fire the puck above the pad, under the blocker of the goalie, but I fanned on the shot partially so that it ended up staying along the ice and went five-hole instead. The goalie was definitely preparing for a shot competently executed instead of a flubbed up shot-pass along the ice.

Last week was a total fluke. Total. Fluke. Off the scrimmage opening faceoff, I was on right wing and went to the boards off a won faceoff. Our defenseman fed me the puck and I controlled it (woohoo!) and skated up ice with it. I was expecting the opposing defenseman to close-in on me, which he kind of did. He did a little sweep check as I crossed the blue line, but I maintained possession. Scrimmages here are generally non-body-checking, but this guy has hip-checked a person before, so I made sure to keep my head up. He was still giving me space and wasn't trying to take the puck away, so I just took the space and drove wide. I knew I was too far in to try to cut to the net, so I instead looked for someone driving far post for a pass through the crease. I saw semblances of a teammate driving (I say "semblances" because I couldn't actually see much besides someone's leg socks because a defender was in the way), so I decided to throw the puck in front. When I did, I tried to airmail the puck so it would avoid defenders' sticks and skates. What ended up happening is my attempted saucer pass deflected off the knee of a defender's shin pad and straight to the back of the net. Goal, maybe 10 seconds in. Funnily enough, that was the goal I celebrated the loudest.

Scoring goals is fun. I know this won't happen every single time, but I'll ride this hot streak as long as I can. As much as I bemoan my own puckhandling capabilities, that may actually be my best hockey skill right now: passing needs work, reading plays needs (LOTS OF) work, decision-making needs (SO MUCH) work, even my shot needs work. I've been pretty good about not getting the puck turned over when I carry the puck through the neutral zone. Hopefully the scoring streak continues tomorrow.