We finished the round robin of the tournament with a 3-0 record and played the 4th place team. Everyone had said that this was the dirtiest team in the tournament but they were actually pretty clean and did not do that much until the 3rd period. The biggest issue though is that their team had 5 or 6 U18AAA players from the local teams. The team that we played today was much different than the team that went 1-2 in the round robin. You could hear players that were watching asking if they could play in the finals. This is a common occurrence when we play at this tournament, once they see our team they start to bring in others. Our kids are 2-3 years younger than the teams that we were playing and overall they held their own and did well. We ended up losing in the semi-finals as our team did not play like they normally do and we took a ridiculous amount of penalties. We finished the game with more penalty minutes than game play. For most of the 2nd and 3rd period we were shorthanded at least once and several times 2 down. Our kids were taunting the other teams in the tournament telling them that they were assaulting minors, or asking them if they borrowed their mom’s cars to come to the games. The other team was stronger and outplayed us. It is amusing though as Mel was taking photos and she heard parents make comments that we were the better team, but we were U16 and younger than the other kids. I think a 3-1 record against the older kids was pretty good. Their goalie was not that great and we could have won if we did not spend the game in the penalty box. Regardless we had fun and no one seemed to really care that we lost and we got to go home early, especially when you see a bunch of players coming out with U18AAA hockey bags. I do hear parents that made comments that our team had some AAA players and that we had a AAA goalie on our team, so this made it a bit more fair. It always amuses me when we go away to these tournaments and they assume that Xavier is AAA. He does not move or play like a A or AA goalie so it is understandable. Goalies at the A level have very poor rebound control, at the AA level they start to have better rebound control and their edge work and skating is starting to get better. A good AAA knows how to be in proper position and they are generally fantastic skaters with very smooth movements in the net. Overall the tournament was a success and the kids had a lot of fun. We had the best look out there and looked like a team. When our team plays their game it looks like they have been together forever with the way that they pass the puck around. The kids and parents loved it and we will do it again for the next 2 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did not drive all of the way home as I was too tired. After about an hour or so of driving I could feel myself getting quite tired so I asked Mel if she could drive. We were going to let Xavier drive but he was not feeling great and had a headache. He played well enough in the game, but could not create a miracle and win the game for our team. Once we were down 3-2 and we kept on getting penalties I knew that the game was over and I was not really sad about it. I woke up this morning at 7am and ate ramen for breakfast and then we ordered in some food that arrived around 10am. I ate and drank some fluids in the afternoon and we ended up going to an Asian restaurant for dinner because Olivier wanted dim sum. There are no good dim sum in Barrie so we had to settle for a Vietnamese restaurant that had some dim sum. Once Olivier saw pho on the menu he ordered that and the soup dumplings that they made had shrimp in it so he did not want them. We ordered some anyway and we also ordered some pan ftried dumplings and they were not pan fried. The dough was quite thick and they did not really cook them properly to make them really good. They were really big so we have leftovers. I will cook them properly and make a proper sauce for them at home and we will see how they are. The shrimp tempura we ordered also did not come with a sauce even though the photos of the food showed one. Overall we would not go back to that restaurant as the food was ok, but not that great. We are probably a bit too picky as everything that they made my parents make better. I thought it was safe getting shrimp summer rolls but the sauce that they served it with was not that great. They served hoisin sauce with some pickled carrots and peanuts. My parents make the same sauce but they fry some garlic in oil, add in the hoisin, some water and some sugar to dilute the strength of the hoisin a bit. It has much better overall flavour. For some reason I did not manage to eat much at that store as it sat heavy. I also had my favorite crab claw, except there was not much crab in it at all and it was mostly just the shrimp. There were quite a few people in the restaurant when we arrived in the middle of the afternoon. One person who left had said that the food was “fire”. I think that they have never had good Vietnamese food before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was in high school I started playing hockey, much to the chagrin of my parents. I bought some of my own equipment and scrounged to get everything together. I bought cheap things and made the best of what I could with the money that I had. My father bought me a blocker, and I remember that we were at Canadian Tire and the ones there were not that great. He asked me if it was good and I said no, and he said we should not buy it. We went to an actual hockey shop and he ended up buying me a nice blocker. I was a bit surprised as it seemed a bit out of character for him to spend more money on something like that for me. My mother’s fear of driving in the winter was caused by me as she was forced to drive me in horrible weather all of the time. I must admit that I was also not the best of kids and I use to get mad at her for picking me up late. Sometimes she would be 20 or 30 minutes late, but now that I am older I understand it more with how bad the weather could be and I should have been more understanding. My parents never went with me on out of town tournaments. I would end up getting a room for myself and my parents would give me money. I was quite spoiled and they did a lot for me. For games in town they would occasionally stay for my games. I dreaded the drive home, because if I did not get a shutout I would be quetioned on why I let a goal in. I remember one game that we won 2-1 and I had a ridiculous amount of shots. The goal I let in happened because after I made the initial save I was pinned down by a player and could not move. They asked me why I let that goal in and why did I not stop it. I replied that I could not move and they told me that I should have. They go watch Xavier play now and they will say that he is very good, but that his team does not always help him out, especially when we get heavily outshot. In all of the situations though they have never asked him why he let in a goal. The response is normally you played well. I laugh because in their old age as grandparents they are extremely supportive and go out of their way to do things or buy things that they think that the kids will like. I think I am like my parents a bit that we chat with Xavier about what happened with some of his goals and sometimes he gets annoyed but he will sometimes point out what he could have done differently to prevent it. When we watch the videos together he always points out things that could be different. Watching the game today that we lost, I can not really fault him for the goals he let in. Two of the goals were on rebounds after desperation saves, a break away and some screens. He stopped a bunch of breakaways during the game. The kids were bigger, stronger and faster than some of our players and some of the moves that they did were impressive. I want him to go out on the ice in August with the U18AA kids to get a bit more exposure to hopefully more skilled players than what he is playing with as it should make him a better goalie. I love watching him skate on the ice as he has such great edge work. Growing up there were not goalie schools or programs like they have now. I also know that my parents could not afford to pay for private lessons. They could not really afford to pay for me to play hockey and do all of that, but I think that they caved when they saw that I snuck out and did it on my own. They bought me things to make sure that I at least was safe and did not get hurt. I think that I had more raw athletic talent when I was young, but now that Xavier has grown, his work ethic and talent far exceeds me. He is strong enough to carry the team to a certain degree, he can steal games, and even tournaments, but he is not strong enough to win on his own when the team gets into serious penalty problems. I think that is why I probably over compensate a bit for Xavier. I give him all of the things that I wish I had when I was a goalie when I was younger. I knew that my parents could not afford to get me good equipment as it is quite expensive. Hockey is not a cheap sport at the best of times, but Xavier gets customized the best of the best. Some other goalie parents dictate what type of equipment their kids can get and only allow certain colours or brands for various reasons. I let Xavier get what he wants and he gets to customize and design things the way he sees fit. As he gets older his designs match much better with less colours. When he does well and succeeds I am proud of him. Not because of his hockey talent, but because I can see the hard work that he has put in pay off. Neither him nor I care what level he plays at and I have never tried to sway any coach to take him. What I care about is progress. Understanding what you did wrong and correcting that. That is what my parents tried to do with me, but they did it the Asian style that completely lacks empathy. Mel and I expained why we look at mistakes and he gets it. My parents have more empathy now compared to when my sister and I were kids. Times are different now and my parents are not trying to build a life and save for the future. I have learned a lot from them and from the parents of my friends who were always giving us life lessons. I try and do that now with my team members who are younger than I. Hopefully I am succeeding and they appreciate it as much as I do now with what I was taught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quoc Hao<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We finished the round robin of the tournament with a 3-0 record and played the 4th place team. Everyone had said that this was the dirtiest team in the tournament but they were actually pretty clean and did not do that much until the 3rd period. The biggest issue though is that their team had…<\/p>\n