Eric Bailey's

I finally went out and played hockey again this year. No I did not score 5 goals or anything like that. My expectations were quite a bit lower. Last year when I played a few games with these guys I was extremely frustrated trying to do things on the ice that just didn't work. I think I might have played better, probably because I was not trying as hard.

As I was driving to hockey I was thinking about what worked for me in Thunder Bay with the hockey there and why that did not work here. What I realized was that in Thunder Bay there was a group of us who all seemed to realize that we play better when we play as a team than we do when we try to play like the skilled guys that we really can't compete with on their game. We would generally try to form a line of just us and we would sometimes find our line as the stronger line, instead of the skilled line that made up the other group. We would work together and it was our intention.

I do not have that here, I do not know where the others are going, I do not know what they expect. For now I just need to play and skate, and see what happens. The other positive thing from tonight that I was not expecting is that I did not have the same trouble skating that I had last year. When I was playing I did not think about or notice my knee. I hurts right now a little, and it has been swelling a little all week (actually longer), but it did not change my skating stride while I was playing. My knee did inhibit me last year, I know I thought about what my stride should be while I was playing last year. Today I even had a hard skate to beat someone to the puck and I did it. I could not corner in the direction I wanted, as sharply as I wanted, so I passed the puck and cornered. I am happy I can skate again. I have always loved to skate and especially to get an opportunity to skate fast. Now I just have to work on my leg strength and my conditioning since I quit working out by the start of last summer.