Felicia Hardy, last preparations for Season 96

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Felicia Hardy, Rookie All Star team nominee, US born 6’8” 250lbs beast of a stay-at-home defender had a breakout rookie season in VHL’s Season 95.  Their production in the offensive zone was better than they expected as they put up 65 points (second amongst rookies) in 72 regular season games and 13 points in 14 playoff games.  Defensively, they held their ground with 138 hits and 139 shots blocked during the regular season and 42 hits and 31 shots blocked during the playoffs.  The only place they may have lacked is on plus/minus but that could also be attributed to anchoring the second line with a rookie goalie starting for the HC Davos Dynamo. Season 95 was a learning experience for sure, one that Felicia took seriously, and one that they plan on building upon for Season 96.  

 

Now with a full year of experience under their belt Felicia Hardy feels that the bulk of the preparation for the VHL has been completed.  The focus from now on is to fine tune their play in both ends of the ice, and to maintain their fitness for the rest of their career.  During one interview with Felicia Hardy, they noted that “training has changed for me, it is no longer about building core skills and abilities.  It is now about fine tuning, learning to adapt to individual players, individual situations.  It is now about being consistent with and without the puck and taking advantage of every minute of ice time I get.” 

 

With Season 96 fast approaching Felicia Hardy can be found at the arena most days, working out with weights and on a variety of cardio machines or on the ice.  They spend significant amount of time alone on the ice each day working on a variety of skills.  Hardy is known for being intense during the team skates and practices and on more than one occasion has used her size a little more aggressively than they should.  However, talking with the coaching staff they don’t seem to mind Hardy’s intensity.  The defensive coach made comment during one skate, “we don’t want the players to pull back on hits during practices, the other teams aren’t going to do it during a game, and we don’t want our players doing it either.  This is the game; you need to be always prepared for what is coming at you, if you are not, you will be injured and potentially severely.  The best way to be prepared is to practice what you are expecting during a game.”  The consensus was that players needed to learn to play physical but disciplined games.  The other teams need to fear going into the corners to get the puck.  New acquisition to HC Davos, Mina was quoted as saying “I don’t envy the task of the other team's forwards, Hardy has a powerful stride and a large muscular frame, give them even half a step to get moving and they can plaster most players into the boards with enough force to knock any puck loose. I’m glad to be on their side so I don’t have to deal with the constant punishment.” 

 

From what we can tell Hardy seems prepared for the upcoming season.