Hockey changeup

I had a hockey game a couple nights ago and it was actually pretty fun. As usually there was a time during the game where our defense just kind of fell apart and we let in a few goals which was our downfall. We ended up losing 7-5, with their 7th goal being an empty netter after we had pulled the goaling being down only 6-5. Our main difficulties this year have been untimely defensive breakdowns and a lack of offensive production. We tried to combat both of these last night by switching up our lines. We moved a few of the guys who normally play defense up to forward and then brought a few forwards back to D. The guys we moved forward have not been playing defence with the mindset I like to see back there. First, they make lots of mental mistakes, and they make the same ones over and over again. Second, most of them seem to have an offensive and aggresive temperment which leads them to be out of position more times than is necessary. The difficulty was finding people to move back. The choice of defensemen was made by basically putting most of the best skaters and most experience hockey players back there. This worked very well last year but this year it hasn't helped because we haven't had any offensive power.

The first period went really well with the new lines but the second period was the same old story. A few timely defensive breakdowns (by the defensive pair that *wasn't* me, I might add) led to 4 goals. So late in the 3rd period we were down 6-2. But then, the line switches paid off as we scored 3 quick goals to make it 6-5. Then of course we grew a little timid when we pulled the goalie and they were able to
bag the empty netter. But all in all the game went a lot better than normal.