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The scrimmage was a good starting point for me after nearly 8 months since my last official game. I tried to keep things simple and play physical. Obviously I expected to make mistakes, but I also wanted to stay away from letting one mistake lead to another. It was great to get the feeling of that first shift, to get the legs burning in actual competition, and I’m excited to get on the ice tomorrow.
Reflecting on the game today I started to think about all the effort I had put in during my injury to be ready for this opportunity, and I wanted to take the time to recognize a few people that were extremely important in my progress and ability to improve.
The first guy that comes to mind is Jack Blatherwick. He’s been more important to my training, both mentally and physically, than anyone else, not just over the past 8 months, but over the past few years in the summer months. The way that we train is to mimic on-ice movements and maximize their correlation with skating. I could go on for the next few days divulging the information that has sunk in, but I’ll spare you all.
The second guy is Tom Donahue from the Blake Ice Arena back home in Minnesota. He’s been opening the doors to his rink since I was 8 years old and I have rented ice from him (well my parents when I was younger) since I can remember. Having ice to skate on all year round is an unbelievable resource to have. The fact that he’s always been willing to help make me a better player and always has a smile on his face makes it that much more inviting to come in and work hard. Even if it’s for just a half hour just to go shoot pucks, Tom has been invaluable. For that I will always be indebted.
With all of that being said, I want to thank everyone who came out to support us today. I can’t thank you all enough and explain how great it is for all of us at this camp to play in front of a large crowd of passionate hockey fans in the middle of July! Again THANK YOU.
Time to tuck Bruiser into bed and read him a bed time story about Group A beating Group B for our scrimmage tomorrow.
–Fins
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