The mighty have fallen

Kieran's Hockey team the Painters is quickly becoming a powerhouse in the Swansea Hockey league Atom division.

It was about -8 deg C for the Sat night game and about the same for the Sun morning game.

It was West Toronto Paint & Wallpaper vs. Falafel World.
I didn't bring my camera as skin exposure was sure to result in frostbite in about 60s.  It didn't feel quite that bad but cold started to seep in mid-way through the game.  And I was more interested in staying warm than taking out my phone to take a photo.

Kieran has improved a lot from his first year in organized hockey last season.  I'm no longer skating up and down the side of the rink shouting instructions.  He's doing great.  Plus he told me that he doesn't listen to me from the sidelines anyways.  Which is probably a smart decision.  I try not to provide conflicting instructions to what the coaches want but instead try to let the kids know if there's an opponent sitting in front of our goalie, or  reiterate the dump into the corners and chase strategy.  Or cheer on the goalies on a great save or provide support when they let one in.

This year is about positioning.  It's a noticeable difference from the Minor Atom division he was in last year.  On top of that the shifts are now on the fly which can be quite difficult to manage.

They have Kieran playing forward mostly.  Usually a winger.  And he plants himself right in front of the opposing team's net.  In the night game he narrowly missed a goal in the first period.   He did score in the second period but it was overturned because the net became dislodged, but Kieran said it was in before that happened.  But I told him, we'll count that as your first goal.

The next morning was a game against the top team in the league - Sailun Tires. I was thinking it was going to be another loss, but the league rebalanced the teams.  And Kieran scored a legit goal this time.  They beat the mighty Sailun Tires team for the first time 7-3.

I'm now enjoying the game, watching the kids playing a positional type game really well, and being fortunate enough to participate in the practices by assisting the coaches, which is a blast.

The first 3 games of the season were really tough.  Two lopsided losses to the Tires team. That team was stacked! And a loss to Snappers.  But they managed to win the last game in Dec before the xmas break vs the Roundhouse Rangers which was a good way to head into the break.. There was re-balancing of teams just today.  Now the Painters / Wallpaperers are on a 3 game winning streak. They've gone from one of the lower placed teams to a contender with the trade.

It's better this way, teams that are very strong tend to have players that play in other leagues and only pass to players that are as good.  So the weaker players never get a chance to really participate. Kids on those teams have said that they never get the puck. It's no fun when you don't play as a team.  And this is meant to be a fun league.  Skill levels can vary.  And that's ok.  It really gives players of all levels some exposure to this great game from the Great White North.