USA Rink Hockey

Well, first things first, a special congratulations goes out our Men’s and Lady’s USA Teams. Over the last month or so, we have had some great achievements. First, our Lady’s did more than their thing in becoming the 4th ranked team in the World. Let me repeat that again: our ladies are the 4th best team in the WORLD. Look at all those countries that either have profession leagues, or at least leagues where players are playing quality games every weekend, practicing 4-5 times a week, and our ladies come together as a team, lead by a coach that understands the game and the flow of the game, and flat out plays with the best in the world. Not only plays with them, but knocks the defending champions (Chile) out of the championship bracket (top 4 spots). Definitely, congrats to every member of that team. You done good!

And, not to be out done, especially in a position that I think the pressure was really on, our Men took care of business when business needed to be taken care of. Due to a bad run of luck at the Men’s last World A Championships, Team USA was relegated to the World B Championships, with the hopes of placing and making it back to A’s. At this point, I would have to say the pressure was on, especially since we do have a high expectation for our team. Well, much like the ladies, our boys took care of business when business needed to be taken care of. And, oh yes, they did it in convincing fashion, by going undefeated and taking home the gold medal. And, from the sound of things, even though the team didn’t have much time to train together, they played as a team and their record demonstrated that. A special congrats goes out to Brian Stallman, who I was told by more than one person, was the best player at the tournament. I know that I went on record criticizing how he made the team (not that he isn’t our most talented goalie, but that he wasn’t able to make it to all the qualifying camps), so I believe even more pressure was on his shoulders to not only play well, but help our squad get back to A’s. He didn’t fail at all. In fact, one comment that I heard was that if he were in the opposing net, the story may have been different. That’s not a slight on our floor players, it’s just a tribute to how well he played. Throw in the team work on the floor, and the guidance from a highly qualified coaching staff, and back to the A’s we come.

So, again to both squads, excellent work. You definitely made us all very proud.

And now to the request:

I am thinking about putting together a highlight reel of the most exciting goals scored in our sport. I know there are videos out there, from around the world, that show just what can be done with our stick and ball. The reason I want to put this together is that I frequent sites where users publish links to website about topics they find interesting, and the users can comment on those articles. I occasionally see posts about the NHL and hockey and how amazing or great these shots are, referring to a youtube video or something like that. I want to be able to comment saying, if you think that was amazing, you should check these out, and then post a link to a video that highlights all the creativity and finesse that our sport has.

So, what I need from you are links to videos that have creative shots. If it’s already a highlight reel, then that’s all I need. If it’s full game footage, if you could provide me with the minute mark where the shot occurs, I would appreciate it. That would just save me the research time.

Now, I have about zero experience with video editing, so it won’t be all that, but I figure it’s a way to highlight our sport, and present it to people in the form that they all love to see, goal scoring!

If you have a link or two, please email it to me, or add it to the comments on this post. My email is now pj@usarinkhockey.com. Thanks for the help.