Raymond Bernard's Journal #2

[Mr_Hatter 1,608]

517 words, claiming for the week ending on 7/21

 

#2

Monday, July 15th:

 

Wow, what a first couple weeks this season has been so far! We are off to a really great start, currently at 5 wins and 1 loss (We also lost an exhibition match in the pre-season in a shootout, 
but that doesn’t count). I’m super proud of the team, I think we are really showing the rest of the league that we have what it takes to go far this year! Right now we are third, but only one behind Philly (who we beat today! More on that later).  The only other team ahead of us is Minnesota, who we don’t play for another month. I gotta say, they are looking pretty scary right now. We are scoring at the same level as them right now, two goals ahead, but they have only let in 7 goals in as many games, compared to our 18 goals in 6 games. Their goalie has been in the league a couple years, which makes me feel a little better, but I can’t help but think I need to step up my game if we want to push past them. And their special power play and penalty kill units have been crazy effective so far, above 30% on the PP and above 90% on the PK. 

 

The thing is, regardless of how good our team is doing, I’m not going to be happy until every game is a shutout, and let me tell you, so far none of them have been shutouts. There is a lot of 
room for improvement on my end. I think my issue might be focus. I’ve been doing well when it counts. I’ve performed well in shootouts, and I had a great game today against the reigning champs in Philly, their only goal came when we were short-handed, so I won’t stress it too much. I just have a tendency to leak goals when it “doesn’t matter.” And sure, so far it hasn’t mattered too much, but its only a matter of time before we are playing against one of the worse teams in the league and I’m not on my game, and boom there’s a loss where we should have won. 

 

I know its a team game, but hockey is one of the few sports where a goalie can just win the game for his team. I know that can be me, but I also know that if that is going to be me, I’m going to have to put a lot of work in during training, because I’m not there yet. I just can’t stress enough how good this group of guys is though. There’s a feeling in the locker room that we are really going to be able to compete this year, and honestly I think we have shown that to be the case so far. We just need to keep our focus, put in the work, and the results will come. For now, we just need to go through it one step at a time, take every game like its the championship and every practice like its a game. 
 

Edited July 16, 2019 by Mr_Hatter