My back had been acting up again, so I skipped out on last week’s game. So this week, I was dying to get back on the ice. Short on defensemen, I volunteered to play D this week. I’m not sure if I was doing my team any favors by playing D though. Also, having not played for two weeks, the rust definitely showed. My first shift started off rocky as I fumbled around with the puck the first few times I touched it.
I finished the day with no points, no shots on goal, and a -2 (with 3 goals against while I was out on the ice). The only positive thing I did all night was blocking a slap shot, for which I’ve got a nice bruise to show off. When playing D, I’m still having trouble changing my mindset to defense first, and it cost us. On one occasion, I gambled and pinched, but unfortunately it was the wrong decision and resulted in a breakaway goal. That’s one of the tough things about playing D; your mistakes are magnified since they can be very, very costly.
We scored with 3 seconds left in the game to make the score 4-2; otherwise the game wasn’t really as close as the score would indicate. On the other hand, the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way. A few times there were scrambles in front of the opposition’s net with excellent scoring chances that we just couldn’t quite capitalize. There was even on shot that glanced off the post.