Scrimmage v Red Wing, Part 4

Sometimes forwards play defense, too. But don't get your hopes up. I don't have many photos of forwards playing defense.

Here's Willy.

Wyatt and Andy.

Wyatt and Max B.

A photo of Hunter doing his job. But without Wyatt.

Here's another photo that Wyatt isn't in. Reading left to right that's Max D., Eric, Matthew and Andy.

So in this storm of defensiveness (catch the pun?) one key player has been left out. I'm not sure how it happened. When I first noticed it I went through every photo I had left from the game, those that survived the first merciless edit in which I get rid of everything that's badly composed, that's blurry (unless something important like a goal happened), that I've posted a dozen times before or that's just not right for the blog. But there were no survivors with him in it. I know he was there, since I saw him sitting on the bench after he got off the ice. Sorry about that, Jackson. How about during the Wings of Spring I just take photos of Jackson and players on offense? ("Why not," she says. "That's what you've been doing all along anyway.")

Come back tomorrow for one more special post before the Wings of Spring tournament. Good luck to all our players and coaches for the season finale. See you all at the rink!

Scrimmage v Red Wing, Part 3

This one has its token forward to cut the defense focus that we'll abandon at the earliest available opportunity. That won't happen until the Wings of Spring next weekend. So here we go:

Eric in a hurry.

Max K.

Matthew.

Max K. again.

Wyatt.

There's one more post from Hastings, and maybe a bonus, too. We'll see what happens.

Scrimmage v Red Wing, Part 2

I found five photos that didn't have the blurry outlines of the players on the bench in the foreground.

Willy with the puck.

Marco, moving down the ice.

Max B. chasing after a face off.

Wyatt on the ice after having foiled the opponent's offensive push, with Hunter looking on.

Here are Max K and Willy, another defensive combo, watching two of the opponents who hope that Andy P. will drop the puck he's just saved from the net.

Scrimmage v Red Wing, Part 1

On Tuesday, March 10, the Spartans played the Red Wing team at the new sheet of ice right next to the historic Hastings arena. The main arena has been there for a while. I wish I could include a photo here, but it just didn't work out. Maybe another time.

It took a lot less time to get to Hastings than I thought it would. The weather wasn't bad south of town, even if it was pretty gnarly on the north side.

The Spartans won the game 7-5, which tells you a little about the defensive play during the game. In honor of the request made recently by my most perceptive critic, the following photos depict mostly the defense, with a few shots of offensive players thrown in to relieve the monotony of defensive action. Actually, there aren't that many photos of action in the next few posts.

The new sheet of ice in Hastings, like many other sheets that have been built recently, is very bad for photography. These modern sheets could benefit greatly from tort law reform, or at least the perception on the part of insurance companies that tort law reform might eventually happen. In other words, the new rinks are built so that no spectator could ever be injured during a game of hockey. (Sometimes I wonder why they put in bleachers at all, since someone could slip and fall on a carelessly spilled Coke.) The glass is high relative even to the highest bleacher step. That's great for safety, but you might not want to look at photos shot through the glass. It's great to know that as our little angels are careening around the rink, slashing each other with sticks, trying to knock each other senseless, we're completely safe.

To circumvent this travesty of our legal and insuring institutions and put myself in harm's way, I shot from behind the bench. That has some advantages, but being able to catch all the action is not one of them. Yes, this is an excuse. Excuse me.

Here's Wyatt.

And Hunter. Wyatt and Hunter are on the ice together, forming a defensive bulwark.

Here's one of the refs for the game. He has a terrific shiner, just before the technicolor stage. I'd love to know the story there, but it's not something you ask a stranger.

This is Garrett, who forms a defensive team with Matthew.

Coach McCoy giving some direction to Matthew during the game. We'll see a shot of Matthew's face later.