I have now been here in Sarpsborg for 46 days. We have had 52 on ice practices, 35 off ice sessions, 11 pre-season games, and a generous 4 days off. The coach is from Sweden and has coached all over the world, I know he has coached in Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and now Norway. So far I think that he is good and fair, he coaches all in Swedish though. Swedish and Norweigan are very similar so everyone understands except me and Jurah (A Slovak Defensmen on our team) we just sit there and try to look interested. There is an assistant coach who was a goalie here 5 years ago, it is really good having a goalie on the coaching staff! Goalies understand goalies! The practices are everyday at 4:00 and then some days we skate at 10am as well, I think and hope that the twice a day stuff is over. In the morning when we don't skate, we work out. It has been good because I am not tired when I am at the gym so it should be easier to stay in shape this year. We practice at 4 because 8-10 of the guys are in some sort of school or work, they do things like apprentice work or interships. That is how they keep a lot of these guys without having to pay all that much.
In our games we went 7-3-1, we played 4 teams from Swedens 2nd division and the rest against teams from our league. The Swedish teams were good, they play a real discipline game and transition very well (as we know from watching the Swedes with the Wings). I played 7 of the games and my record was 4-2-1. My stats were ok, not sure exactly but under 2.5 and over a 91%. I didn't want to set the bar too high! Ha ha The other goalie is good, he is from Olso, he is a young guy but plays well. More importantly he is a good guy and I think we will work well together.
This week we start getting ready for the Series (that is what they call the season) we play 45 rounds and we open up at home against Furuset. Furuset is a team that is based in Olso, and doesn't have the best track record. However at lunch today, a couple of the guys they said they are better this year. I am excited to get going after the marathon pre-season, I am a little nervous but I think that is good and normal.
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3 comments:
Phil,
A blog was a great idea. And your follower sure is a cutie. We didn't make it to the UM party as Frank jr was playing football in the pouring rain in Brighton.
How is the crash course in Swedish coming?
Hi Aunt Jean, Good to hear from you! How is Frank's football going? Tell everyone I said hi. The language class is going good, I can function when I am out in stores etc. The locker room doesn't help because everyone talks in slang and way too fast to pick anything up:) Hope all is well!! Talk to you soon
Phil,
I have typed this three times, but unfortunately cannot remember my sign in or password, so I just did another on, go figure, maybe I will actually remember it long enough to post this.
We enjoyed the high lights of the game. I couldn't read the words however.... Frank is great. They lost every game last year except for the 0 - 0 tie. So far this year they are 2-1-0 and he plays a lot and hasn't gotten beat up yet, so all is good. Sitting in the rain not so much, but tommorrows game should be 70's and sunny! How is the weather there?
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