Thanks to everyone for a wonderful experience.  In no particular order, our team highlights included:

• our incredible accomodations at Homewood Suites at such a great rate
• the once-in-a-lifetime experience for the early birds who attended the Leafs-Panthers game and got to skate with NHL players during the warm up and conduct a shootout during the first intermission
• winning the Florida International Invitational - our players put up with early wake up calls (4:15, 5:30 and 6:30 am) and incredibly long days and demonstrated incredible class, discipline, and ambassadorship (I think I just made up a new word) en route to winning this tournament.  Although we sailed through the round robin portion with a perfect 4-0 record, we found ourselves emmersed in incredible competition in both the semi finals and finals.  Jake Henley was nothing short of spectacular in net allowing only 3 goals in 6 games, our penalty killing unit was terrific (especially in the closing minutes of the gold medal game facing the challenge of being out-manned 6 skaters to 3), and the game winning goal by Mark DaCosta will be etched in our minds for years.

Heading into the International Silver Stick QualifyingTournament the coaching staff knew the long and interesting history of this event (see this link for more details - http://silverstick.pointstreaksites.com/view/silverstick/silver-stick-story) and this was something we wanted our players to experience.  Given the challenges we faced even getting registered in the Midland tournament, we were certainly going to do everything we could to have them in a position to be successful.

The round robin games had us start off against the stiffest competition of the group.  We had scouted Richmond Hill before we arrived and thought we had a game plan in place to counter their strengths.  The boys played with discipline and patience and the late goal by Erich Richards made it an exciting win.  (Apparently I jumped up and down like I've never been part of a win before - I'm not sure I believe that).  The game against New Hamburg was probably the most fun to watch as we moved the puck around like never before and did a nice job of executing.  Although the Napanee game was a little up and down at times it provided us with some confidence heading into the semi finals.

The semi final game against Collingwood had a little bit of everything.  We demonstrated some excellent playmaking, terrific and timely goaltending (like we had all weekend), and enough late game breakdowns to add some drama.  The 3-0 victory had us in a nice situation knowing that we had been more succesful than 14 of the other teams who had arrived vying for a chance to head to Port Huron in late January.

Although the final game didn't work out the way we had hoped and planned, there was a silver lining. For a variety of reasons, they were sending two teams from Midland and we were going to get our chance to compete against teams from across North America.  Exciting stuff. 

Everyone should feel proud of themselves for their efforts.  It was, and is, exciting to share this experience together.  I'm sure we will make the most of it.

Our round robin record of 3-0-0 provided the coaching staff with all sorts of moments to reflect upon some very good play.  In particular some highlights included our puck management and our ability to move the puck laterally, get it deep and work the corner cycle as an effort to sustain possession.  This was especially true in the arenas with bigger ice surfaces.  Our adaptation to the small arena was gratifying as we won a lot of board battles and used the walls to chip our way out of our zone and into the offensive end of the ice.

In the finals, our play also looked good for about two and a half periods.  Aside from some ill-advised penalties that we just can't afford to take (especially in the finals), our play with the puck was quite good.  The issues of penalties and some poor play in our own end of the ice essentially determined the outcome of both the game and the tournament.  We will work very hard in the upcoming practises to becoming more efficient in our own end.

Going forward I like how our game has progressed with the puck.  We are starting to do some very nice things from the mid-ice to the net.  Our most immediate area of development is our play in our defensive zone.  Having said that, we are two for two in our team goal of making it to the finals in tournament play.

It seemed that with every game we played we developed into a stronger unit. Our round robin record of 2-0-1 had all sorts of highs and lows. This is to be expected in the early going as our team is now comprised of players who have come from four different teams last year - with four different coaches stressing quite possibly different requests than being made this season.

We all have to get used to the new rules governing head shots. We had more work on penalty killing than if we'd dedicated an entire practise to special teams. This may slacken as the season progresses, but play with/without an extra man will certainly be an important aspect of any success we hope to have this season.

In particular, I am very impressed with the character our team displayed in our last three games. There were all sorts of opportunities to get frustrated and quit - but they didn't. They chose to accept the challenge and fight through it. Although we came out on the short end of the 2-1 decision in the finals, all in attendance know the outcome could quite easily have gone the other way.

Going forward I like where we have positioned ourselves. The players seem more and more comfortable with our system and what is being asked of them. We know they are prepared to work hard and that is all we ask.