Chapter 10

I woke up with Vicky still plastered on my side, but she had rotated so her back was to me. I escaped to go the washroom and hopped in the shower after seeing it was almost six thirty. After slipping my shorts back on I tiptoed to the bedroom and grabbed some clothes quietly.

"Sweetie, I don't get to see Big Mike or your cute butt today?" a voice came from the bed.

"Good morning Honey, sorry to wake you. And no, you can't see me naked again" I replied. Shall we meet for lunch at the arena or are you too busy?"

"I should be able to make it but I'll call you if I can't. I will see you there for supper for sure" she said.

"Ok Vicky, go back to sleep and have a good morning" I told her.

"You too Michael" she answered.

I got dressed and grabbed my backpack and a granola bar and left for the arena. I was early but I went in to check on who made the list for Saturday's game without a lot of people around. It was posted outside of Fred's office and I found John and I listed as the third defensive pairing as well as the defensive pair for the first power play unit. I was surprised that the coaches went that way instead of putting me in as a seventh D-man for just the power play but it did give him four full forward lines rather than having to double shift a forward for the fourth line. I hoped John would be alright with the third pairing, but that didn't concern me as much as being on the ice for a regular shift this early.

I went into the locker room and pulled out the playbook to study more of the five on five defensive and offensive plays. I went through all of them a couple of times and then got ready as more guys showed up. There was some excited talk between some of the players that had made the game roster and long faces on those who didn't but I kept quiet and to myself. I nodded to John when he came in with a big smile but he toned it down when he saw some of the faces of our teammates.

I finished dressing and went out to the rink and started stretching and then the warm-up skate. Guys joined in and we had our usual shooting warm-up until the coaches came on the ice and rounded us up.

"By now you should have all had a chance to see if you are playing in Saturday's game" said Fred. "Congratulations to those who are playing, and I hope it makes the rest of you work harder to break into the line-up. You will be very useful as the scout team for the rest of the week."

The coaches split us into the team that was playing in the game and the rest of the guys. Frank took them and made them into some semblance of two full lines that would be our opposition. In the meantime Fred talked to our team and showed some of the first time players some of the simple line changes based on which end of the ice our goal was for that period. I listened very carefully as he explained when the defence should change when we were defending the far end of the ice as it would be a long skate to the bench. He also talked about special team changes which was important to me as well. Finally he talked about teamwork and how the veterans needed to cover the rookies as they were bound to make mistakes for the first few games.

Fred looked over and saw Frank was ready so he put the first line out with the first defensive pair. John made sure to sit by me and told me we would go out with the third line for our first shift but it would switch often as the three defence pair total didn't match the four offensive line total. The first line dominated play in the offensive zone against the scout team as would be expected, but the exercise was more for changing lines and defensive pairings than to score often. Every minute or so Fred would call for a change and the players had to make decisions on when to best execute it. I got on and was in their zone when I heard the whistle for a change. The puck was in deep with our forwards but I looked over at John and he stayed in the zone so I did too. The puck went back out to John who faked putting in on ice and passed it over to me for a one timer which was saved and deflected deep into the corner. I saw John rush back and I followed while the puck was in deep.

John talked to me with Fred down near our end listening. "Ok Mike, this is not an easy thing to get the hang of. In a game they like us to go between 50 seconds to about one minute fifteen seconds max for a normal shift. When we are down in the opposite end we can go a bit longer if we have the opponent trapped. As defence, we need to hold the point but if it is in deep we can break away if we are quick about it. If we are tired then the opposition is even more tired defending us. In our own end we can't change until the puck is out or frozen. We change as soon as we see the forwards cross the centre line with the puck or fire it in their zone.

On the power play the defence can change as our team carries the puck up or we have control in our end. We can change in their end if we have deep control but it's not easy. You are going to have to take cues from me until you get the hang of it."

I nodded as I took a quick drink.

John continued saying "You can't be caught at the end of a long shift defending in your own end. That's the quickest way to giving up a goal. The other team will know when you've been on too long and will exploit that. If it looks like we are going to lose the offensive zone and you've been on for about a minute, leave a little early and change rather than get caught being tired in our zone."

"Ok John thanks. I think I got it but I will err on the side of caution in the game" I said.

"And always pay attention to the ice. You never know when your pairing might be sent in out of order by the coaches" John stated.

Just then Fred blew the whistle for another change and called out "John and Mike, you're up".

We waited until the other defence pair peeled off from the rush up the ice to jump on and race to the offensive end to cover the points as the forwards tried to keep the puck in until we got in the zone. John went in deeper to hold the puck in at the side boards so I moved into the middle of the ice to cover him. Their forward scooted the puck by John so I backed up to cover their breakout as John raced back to help while our forwards completed the change quickly. It turned out to be a three on one with John trying to pick up the third guy. I stayed in the middle to block the cross ice pass but their forward passed back to the third guy who faked a shot and passed it to the other forward for a quick one timer that got by our goalie.

We were replaced by another defence pair and Fred looked at John with an upraised eyebrow.

John said "I wanted Mike to see what happens when the defence goes too far in when our forwards are tired. There's no help for the guy left and more often than not it's in the net."

Fred grinned and shook his head, not believing John that it was really a lesson. It was a good lesson for me even if John just got caught in too deep. John just grinned at me. We continued with shift changes for a bit longer until our scout team was panting with exhaustion.

Fred called a break and then we worked on face-offs for a good while. Frank worked with the defence to line us up for every situation that could happen in both the defensive and the offensive zones. Then he showed us the right places for the five different neutral zone face-offs. Finally he went over special teams' face-off positioning and responsibilities. It was a lot to learn in a short time but it was right from the playbook so I could review it again after practice. We finally took another break while the coaches talked for a bit.

Fred and Frank pulled us together and discussed some defensive schemes for the entire ice once the opponent got control of the puck in their zone. Basically there were different ways to pressure the team in their zone and the neutral zone area before they got to our zone. You could send in one or two forwards to fore-check in their zone or put all five in the neutral zone for the neutral zone trap. There were various combinations of who goes in or how the forwards collapsed to the puck carrier. I just paid attention to where the defence had to play for each version, which luckily was back near our blueline for most of them.

The coaches finally called it a practice and we all rushed in to get changed and off to our classes. I got out as quickly as I could and rushed to my computer programming class, getting there with a minute to spare. I found a seat in the back and got out my notepad as Dr. Albert walked in and quickly started the lecture on the next chapters. I was glad I read ahead so I knew what was going on. At the end he handed out the first programming assignment due a week from today. He briefed us on the computer lab and had the teaching assistants stand up so we knew who they were when we got to the computer lab tomorrow. After that he let us go for the day.

I walked back to the rink and looked for Frank for the hour with him before lunch. I found him at his desk and asked him if he wanted me to change into full equipment for our one on one lesson.

"Just skates, gloves and a stick should be fine for this time Mike" he said.

I went in and quickly got changed into sweat pants and skates, grabbed my gloves and stick and met Frank on the ice. We briefly went over everything that he taught me on Tuesday without many mistakes on my part.

"Ok, you seem to have those moves down pat. Now let's work on technique on the boards and what to do down deep against one or two opponents" Frank said.

Frank showed me how to pin a man without drawing a holding penalty, how to corral a puck with your skates, how to avoid being pinned, how to hold off a player with your outer hand while carrying the puck with your stick with the other and other important tricks of the trade. Then he gave me some pointers on what to do with the puck in certain situations in your own zone — clearing out via the boards, going around the net to the other defenceman or carrying it out yourself. Finally he taught me a few things about tying up opposition in front of the net or clearing them away from the front if you could get away with it. The new rules made it much harder to push them away without getting a holding or obstruction penalty.

"Ok, that's enough for this morning Mike" Frank said. "I'll see you at four. Keep up the good work."

"Thanks Frank for all of your help" I replied as we left the ice.

I took a real quick shower, got dressed and headed out to the cafeteria. Vicky wasn't around so I checked my cell to see if she left me a message. There wasn't one so I waited a few minutes and then gave her a call. She didn't answer so I left her a message telling her I was in the cafeteria if she was walking over or if not I would see her after practice at the cafeteria again.

I had a fast lunch while reading the defensive schemes again in the playbook. My cell rang and I saw it was Vicky so I picked it up and said "Hi Vicky, how are you doing?"

"Hi Michael, I'm ok, I just got too busy to get over there for lunch" she replied. "Sorry Sweetie."

"No problem honey, I knew it was a stretch that you could make it today" I told her. "Can you still make supper over here?"

"Sure, I'll be watching a bit of your practice as well ok?" she asked.

"Sounds great Vicky, I'll see you then" I said.

"Alright have a good afternoon Sweetie. Bye!" she said and hung up after I said bye.

I walked back down and got changed for weight training. I found Chris in the weight room with a book ready for me with all my routines, beginning weights and number of reps and sets for each exercise.

"Ok Mike, let's go through the two other programs today with one set of each exercise to make sure you know the proper way to do them" said Chris.

"Sure Chris and thanks for the book" I replied. "It looks very thorough."

"No problem Mike" he said.

Chris walked me through the back and abdominal exercises and then the legs and shoulder ones for the next hour and a half. I felt it by the end of the time but luckily I only did one set rather than the required three. I thanked him, showered and got dressed quickly, then went back to the cafeteria to do the computer science assignment. I pulled out my laptop and wrote the program in the simple notepad text program. I hoped I could just download it to the lab computer and copy and paste it into their program editor. If not, I would just have to type it in again. I saved my work and packed up for the afternoon practice.

Afternoon practice was more of the line changes and then they switched it up again with lines one and four playing against lines two and three with the first and fourth defensive pairs on the one team versus the second and third pairs on the other. It was a pretty even game except when the fourth forward line and the fourth defensive pair were on the ice at the same time. They could be taken advantage of because their combined skill was much less than either our second or third lines.

John and I had a hard time defending against the first line as they were highly skilled, fast and experienced. They had played together last year so they knew where everyone was going to be without having to look for them. They were hard to knock off the puck or pin on the boards and they moved so well without the puck. The same three forwards were on our top power play unit so John and I were familiar with them but usually playing with them, not against them.

I got burned badly by their left forward but managed to get back into the play before a pass could get through to him. I pinned his stick to the ice just as the puck got to him so he deflected it slowly towards the net rather than getting a hard shot away. Our goalie managed to stop the puck as he slid over and covered up for a change. I was panting for air when we got off the ice.

"Good work out there Mike" said John.