Last night, I attended my first Hockey 'n Heels. If you've never attended before, this event is sponsered by the Scarlet Caps to further educate it's members on many aspects of hockey. Attendees were given the opportunity to learn to pass pucks (with Karl Alzner), shooting skills (with Alan May, Troy Brouwer, and Matty Perrault), and how to handle face-offs (with Assistant Coach Bob Woods). The informational panels were Chalk Talk with John Walton and Alan May, Bruce Boudreau's ever popular discussion on game preparation with film footage, and Fitness and Conditioning with the Caps Strength and Conditioning Coach Mark Nemish. Attendees also posed for a picture with Nick Backstrom.
Bruce's panel was very entertaining. Great to see how the coaches use game footage to determine how to prepare for an opponent. Chalk Talk was a lot of fun. John Walton and Alan May were very informative while being extremely personable. As you may have guessed, the only panel I didn't attend was the Fitness and Conditioning one. Attendees were expected to do actual exercises, so that was not gonna happen, sorry Coach Nemish!
One bit of advise for anyone who has never attended the event but plans to: ice is slippery (duh!). While I didn't fall on my ass, it took a lot of careful manuvering out on the rink in flat boots. To those who wore actual heels to the event (and there were some), kudos to you!
Anyway, here's some pics. I have more posted on my Flickr account as well.
My thanks to the Washington Capitals Scarlet Caps for allowing me to tag along and to Sarah Kogod of NBC Washington for using some of the above on the Capital Games blog
