Saturday March 6th wrapped up a great winter session. Good work everybody!!!
The goalies who achieved the most were the ones who really concentrated on getting better each week. Every goalie that I shoot on Saturday mornings has loads of talent and potential. Sometimes to reach your maximum potential you have to take hard look at yourself in the mirror. Ask yourself: What is it that you need to work on? What are your weaknesses? Is your left side stronger than your right side? These are things hockey players of all positions have to ask themselves in order to really optimize their potential. Andrew and Dan help you all out with identifying what you need to work on every week, but there are some things that only you can understand about your game. No matter how good you are, there is always something to work on-Joe Sakic constantly worked on his right over left leg crossovers throughout his career because he always felt they were a little weaker than his other side! The players who can recognize what they need to work on, are the ones who improve the most. I write all this because this winter I really noticed the goalies who were able to improve based on what they understand about their own game. When we all reconvene in the spring, I’m going to ask every goalie I see one part of their game that they think that they need to work on. Think hard about this guys.
Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m going to talk about this past Saturday. In the first session Emil and Jaret stood out. You two really challenged the shooters to pick the corners with your great positional play. Emil, your depth in the net was excellent this week, way to go! (Do I need to mention that this a great example of a goalie who identified a weaknesses and made a slight adjustment to his game to drastically improve overall?)
In the 10:15 session Cole Ceci was amazing. I was shooting VERY hard on him and he wasn’t intimidated. Cole brought this session to another level, I would say he only let in about 5% of all shots. Sebastian-you also had a strong session, great job. I thought overall, this group had the best hour.
At 11:15am Leif and Jordan really built on the last time they were both in at Andrew Mercer Hockey Development. In these two I saw a lot of confidence which resulted in some aggressive but smart play. Although Leif and Jordan were near perfect, I have to give my goalie of the week (11:15am) award to Mitchell “Bones” Newman. Mitchell is starting to really be able to implement his size into great play. Earlier I wrote that it’s important to recognize your weaknesses, well It’s every bit as important to recognize your strengths. Mitchell knows he’s a big goalie and he knows he technically very sound. He used these strengths to stop virtually every first shot. If you’re big and technically sound why give the shooter more shots then you have to? Make the other team/shooter play into your strengths. Mitchell gets this!!!
SO, when I see you all next not only am I going to ask you about a part of your game you need to work on, but I’ll also ask you for one of your greatest strengths. I look forward to seeing you all soon.
-Nick
