RBM2: Cal Labovitch talks about the Detroit Falcons and their PO chances
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Mutedfaith
Head Office singing solo you can't hear him
924 words, RMB2.
Everybody always calls Christmas ‘ the most wonderful time of the year’ , but it really isn’t for me. For me, the most wonderful time of the year is absolutely the postseason in the SMJHL. I prefer the smell of hockey gloves, used tape and sharpened skates over Christmas trees, the only present I’m interested in is the four star cup and I definitely don’t need mistletoe to help me get busy with the puck bunnies. Despite starting out strong in the first games of this season, we quickly saw ourselves dropping down the table and getting dangerously close to last place. I know everyone predicted us to be last this season. Even our own GM’s said we were in a transition year and we needed to rebuild. We saw Kenny Creller leave the team to join Carolina for a shot at the cup, and me and the other rookies got a lot of ice-time during the regular season. I’m happy we were able to get a hot streak in our last few games and hand over the red lantern to the Vancouver Whalers. Not that it changes much for our chances in the playoffs, but it’s always nice to beat the odds (and the Kelowna Knights, thrice in a row). Last season we got to skip round 1 because of our position in the regular season and stranded in round 3 after losing four games in a row against the Colorado Raptors. This season, we’ll be playing in round 1 first. If we can keep up the hard work, keep our own net clean and score some goals ourselves we should be able to advance to round 2, but it’ll be tough to get any further than that. However, it’s the playoffs. And as everyone knows, postseason changes things for teams. Players can get nervous, or more focused. Mistakes can cost you games, or win them for you (if it’s the other team making the mistakes). You don’t have to be the best team in the league, just the better one on that particular gameday. We need to be prepared, ready and work hard. Stick to the game plan set out by our GM’s, and follow our routines. Consistent preparation leads to consistent performance. We need to come out of our dressing rooms and onto the ice as a team, play our games as a team and execute our patterns and plans. We need to look at the little things, and do them right. We need to win puck battles, land our tape-to-tape passes and hit those five-holes. We must move the puck like we always do, and take the shots we get. We’re not going to adopt some fancy new strategies, and me and my teammates know we’re not going to win this if we get too individual or narrow the focus. We’re going to keep it simple, rely on what we know and what we practiced. The real fancy play might look good, but it just doesn’t work for us. We don’t want to push ourselves too much and risk turnovers or loss of possession. In the playoffs, one mistake is sometimes all an opponent needs to beat us. We have to be the team ready to capitalize on the opponent making the mistakes instead. We’ve got the top goal scorer of the regular season and two of the best rookies in the league on this team, if we can get going we can cause an upset. We’re ready to deal with added travelling, the pressure of hostile crowds at our away games and the possibility of defeat. If we lose game one, we will come back stronger for game two. Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. The moral: It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running. If we play with passion and intensity, come out swinging and take the fight to the other team we have shot. Ad it all starts as soon as we get out of the dressing room for our warm-up. We have to be ready mentally and physically by the time the referee drops that first puck on the center ice face-off dot. Our pre-game routine is structured, organized and planned. Building ourselves up to compete, growing the confidence in ourselves, our teammates and our staff and adopting an expect-to-win mindset. We have to keep running, move our feet. Regular season is over, nothing is the same in the playoffs. We’ve trained for this, practiced all season, we’re prepared and ready. We will play our game, try to get the other team to slip up and make a mistake, we’ll take it one game at a time and try to stay alive for as long as we can. The chemistry is there, team comradery is at a high and we’re all ready to go out and play our game. Nobody expects us to hold that cup at the end of the postseason, or even make it past round two, but as long as we’re in it we’re going to work hard to win it.
notorioustig
IIHF Federation Head Toast's Idiot of the Year 2021
Mutedfaith
Head Office singing solo you can't hear him |
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