Felicia Hardy, doing video review

[JCarson 826]

It is a wet and gloomy afternoon in Davos.  A kind of afternoon that can dampen one’s spirits. Felicia Hardy sits in the video room at the arena going over game tape from their playoff games against the Moscow Menace.   

 

It was probably about the 10th time the Felicia and the video coach had sat and watched the same footage. Sure, there were minor things that Felicia could have done differently but for the most part they had played a solid defensive game, hard on the puck, clean passes. Yet Felicia knew deep down that something needed to change, that if they were going to ramp things up and be a bigger contributor to the team that something needed to change, drastically. 

 

It was just then, as Felicia’s mind wandered and they weren’t paying attention to the screen in front of them that the video coach stopped the playback, and said “Why didn’t you shoot there?”  Felicia didn’t really catch the words as they were deep in thought but the sound caught their attention and brought them back.  The video coach backed up the play and started watching again. Suddenly stopping the video again, they pointed.  “Right there, you receive the puck as it comes around the boards, take two strides towards the middle of the ice, you raise your stick to shoot, and you pause.” 

 

As if by some stroke of luck, the camera position was right behind Felicia on the ice. It was so obvious looking at the position of Felicia, the opposing team’s forward they had just stepped around that no longer had a play, her own forward clearly planted in front of the goalie and the opposing defense only adding to the screen.  The entire blocker side of the net wide open.  It was one of those scoring chances that every player dreams of having, it was simply a matter of putting the puck on net and the video didn’t lie, Felicia paused, looked around and then passed to her defense partner who unfortunately wasn’t at the proper place to take the shot. 

 

Felicia sat staring at the screen, “Why didn’t I take the shot” echoing over and over in their mind.  Hoping for an excuse, a valid reason to come, Felicia just stared but it was obvious, the shot should have been theirs to take.  And they didn’t.   

 

Video replays of her time on the ice, focused on offensive zone time started to play.  This time Felicia didn’t view things looking to see how they did, but what they could have done.  Criticizing ever choice to pass instead of shoot.  Criticizing every choice to pull back instead of pinch forward and play the puck.  It soon became obvious, in an attempt to play a strong defensive game Felicia was leaving offensive opportunities uncapitalized on. 

 

Felicia knew it was going to take some time and effort.  There were going to be natural habits they were going to need to break, things so engrained in them that they hadn’t seen this before.  This offseason would be different, next season would be different.