Youth Hockey Player Blogs About his Passion – Ice Hockey
I am so excited about my upcoming season with my Jr. Coyotes Team. We had a preseason camp during the month of May and our official season begins in August. In the meantime, I am playing Squirt House, occasionally taking private lessons and catching a power skating class. To me, it is all about the ice time, that is where I love to be.
Our team looked good during preseason; and can only get better under the direction of our Coaches. Go Coyotes!
Even in the heat … I continue to practice! I wake up, grab my bucket of Fly Pucks, my Hockey Net (NHL Franklin Roll A Goal) and go to work on my shot. Stopping occasionally to perfect a move or two! My goal is to hit my target (the water bottles my dad hung) with at least 100 shots per session. I keep a log of how many pucks I shoot a day, so I know how many I have done in a month. I have noticed that my shot is getting stronger and I am able to take it top shelf since I have been practicing. When practicing off ice, Murph prefers the Fly Puck!
I have gone to some awesome NHL games. Last season when the Philadelphia Flyers came to Florida, I was lucky enough to have tickets on the glass behind the Flyers bench. Close enough to see Danny Briere in action, it was so awesome! I also was sitting next to some crazy Flyers fans, although I had on my Jr. Panthers jersey … I am still a BIG Flyers fan (being born in Philly and all). It is games like this that make hockey players like myself dream big!
Listen to the NHL San Jose Sharks Skating & Skills Coach Graeme Townshend explain the importance of working on skating skills when you are young. Graeme says “skating is to hockey as putting is to golf”. Tiger Woods spends time perfecting his putt; hockey players need to take time perfecting the art of skating!
In a nutshell; this Coach sums up the importance of not neglecting your skating skills! I attend a couple of power skating sessions a week. I can tell you from my experience that power skating class, in addition to your regular team practices, really does pay off.
This morning I checked Sportability. Sportability is the web site that my house league uses to record game and player stats. Check it out! I broke into the top ten in points and finished the season at 7th in scoring. Pretty Cool!
Tonight during the first period of my game against the Admirals; my Dad came over to the bench and told me that Olli Jokinen was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes. Then he said to me “how about three goals tonight?” I am not sure if it was the excitement of hearing Jokinen was coming to Phoenix or that my Dad challenged me to score three goals; because, before I knew it … I had the three goals. My first hat trick for the Saints.
I just moved back from Florida and by far Olli Jokinen and Ville Peltonen were my favorite Florida Panthers players. Believe it or not, I even went to school with both their daughters. One day last year, while I was home from school sick; my mom said she had a surprise for me before heading to the doctors. She took me to the Ice Rink to watch the Panthers practice. It was just the two of us sitting against the glass and Olli shot the puck all the way around the boards, it wrapped the glass and went up and over the netting and into my lap. WOW! I grabbed the puck and was so excited, I looked up at Olli and he gave me a wave. I think he wanted to thank me for being a fan and coming to watch him practice! I was really bummed about leaving Florida, but now that some of Florida has come to Phoenix I am very excited! It has been a “win ~ win ~ win” kind of night. The Saints won the game, I had a hat trick and Olli Jokinen is coming to Phoenix!
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