I thought I would get one more blog out to all of you before the holidays. All the guys are now done with finals and are headed home for a nice break with their families. The team has been off since our last game against St. Scholastica on December 8th and return for practice on Thursday, December 27th. This is a great time for guys to recharge their batteries and to spend some time with family and friends.
We finished the first half of the season against Scholastica and lost the game 4-1. With that said we made a huge step forward in this game because we played a very solid game for 60 minutes. Things just didn’t go our way and we ended up getting the loss. We outshot them 31-17 in the game and if you were in the stands you would have seen that the game was not a 4-1 game against us. We out-played them for a lot of the game and hit at least 4 posts and missed on some great chances.
The big thing that I took from this game is that we need to learn to let our play dictate our positivity and energy and not the score of the game. We were playing a great game and we must be able to keep our composure and confidence high in those situations. On the other hand, when we aren’t playing well and winning, we can’t pretend that things are going great. I believe we know when we are playing well and when we are not. If you think about it, if you are losing a game, but playing well, the chances of coming back in that game are better if you continue to play the way you are and with the confidence that you are playing with. If you start to lose composure and get negative in those situations, bad things will happen. On the other hand, if you are up in a game, but not playing well, I believe you know that as well. In that situation if you don’t change the way you are playing and are just happy with the lead, bad things will happen the other way. The best way to have success is to let your performance dictate your confidence and not the score. Have confidence and keep going when you are playing well, and don’t be satisfied when you have the lead when you are playing poor.
We have a very good group of guys in our locker room and I have a ton of confidence in this team moving forward. Our record is not where we want it to be, but we are learning more and more about this team every day. We are going to fix some things and we are going to get this team moving in the right direction very soon.
With all that said, I go back to this break coming at a good time for us. We need to hit the reset button on the season and a lot of the guys need to put the first half of the season behind them. We need to smile and enjoy the fact that we get to play hockey, but at the same time understand that it is going to take hard work and effort to accomplish our goals. It may not always be fun, but it will be rewarding if we play the game the right way.
Have a great Holiday season and I hope you get a lot of time with your family and friends.
Go Johnnies!
