Line changes

Melissa and I talked a bit about line changes on the ride home. We agreed that our team is really sloppy on the line changes. Melissa complained that our coach, Rai, sometimes calls risky changes. As a general rule, you should only change when the puck is in the offensive zone and the play is away from the bench. Rai has been known to violate both those guidelines.

Melissa said that on her college team, the rule was that if you get off the ice, you should head towards the door closest to the goalie. I've been using the closer door (wrong door), but I'll try to remember to use the other door in the future. As a general rule, if you are getting on the ice, you should jump over the boards. That avoids a logjam at the door because up to three forwards may be switching at the same time. Unfortunately, some of our teammates don't like jumping over the boards, which I find lame.

Another interesting thing Melissa said is that she pushes off when she jumps over. Normally, I just lift my body so that I sit on the boards and then I jump down a few inches. Melissa says that at the moment she's sitting on the boards, she'll use her hands to push off and give her a little acceleration. That's a great idea and I'll have to try in the future.