Hockey, Hockey and MORE Hockey

When I last blogged, the boys were just about to start a very intense try-out period.  I'd like to say we took it all in stride and came through it stress-free, but that would be more than a stretch.  To make a long story short, Ethan was battling an asthma attack during the first weekend of tryouts and didn't fare too well on the ice.  Unfortunately placements are fairly firmly established during that first weekend and the next THREE weekends (yes, it's ridiculous) are spent switching kids around and seeing if they missed any outliers.  His coach from the last few years, Jeff Cliff, had a bit of an inside scoop and it became clear that Ethan had a big uphill battle in front of him if he wanted to end up placed with his friends from last year.  As a parent, I feel this process is absurd and it drives me nuts that there's no weight put on performance from the previous year.  Furthermore, it's appalling the stress we put our kids under.  Alas, I digress.  We were torn between keeping Ethan sheltered from the situation to not stress him out, or telling him the truth.  In the end, we felt he deserved to know.  To say the kid was motivated after that is an understatement.  He absolutely rocked the next few games and was identified as an outlier or bubble kid.  In the last chance skate, he dominated again and had the two tier 2 coaches both name him as their first pick.  All's well that ends well, but oh my goodness what a ridiculous month September was.  Ethan laughs at the whole process now and says it was all thanks to his backhander rocket of a shot that landed him in tier 2.  He scored a couple of doozy backhander top shelf goals in one of the games and at one point had the spectators actually applauding.  He is on the Redwing Phantoms Atom II team with Jeff Cliff as his head coach, some guy named Pete Longo as an Assistant and his dear old Mom as the team's Manager.

Jeff came over early one morning to deliver the news personally to Ethan.

And then there's Josh.  Josh, who is as laid back as they come.  Josh, who could take or leave even playing hockey.  Josh, who during tryouts barely batted an eye.  Josh, who goes on the ice and has only one speed - as fast as he can go in spite of his skinny "baby giraffe legs" that sometimes struggle to keep him standing.  Josh, who has been playing hockey with a big brother and isn't the least bit intimidated by kids that tower above him.  Josh, needless to say, easily made tier 2 Novice.  Thankfully Pete stepped up to be an assistant coach and was on the bench during Josh's first game.  Tier 2 is a big step up from Advanced Initiation that he played last year and it was more than a shock to Josh when the ref gave the poor kid his first penalty.  It was even more of a shock when he received a second penalty just 2 shifts later.  There was almost even a third called but Josh's hero on the bench had already tipped the refs off that it was somebody's first game in Novice and the penalties were unintentional.  Josh is on the, appropriately named, Redwing Cyclones Novice II team. 

The boys took Leah out to public skating and gave her tips before her first hockey practice.

Which brings us to Leah.  Leah was old enough to join a team in the SMHA league this year, but we decided to take another year to ease her in to the sport.  She is doing a "Hockey Tips for Tots" program that focuses on proper technique and power skating drills with short scrimmages at the end of every hour.  She loves it and it's been the perfect transition for her.  As an added bonus, she's able to do both hockey and gymnastics during the afternoons when the boys are still at school, which makes our evenings far more manageable. 

Ready for her first practice!