So as mentioned, Tuesday was the New Player Evaluation Skate for the league. There were actually two skates, a B/C skate at 7:30 and an A/B at 9:00. I'm a C leaguer (A is the highest skill level, C the lowest), but I couldn't make the 7:30, so I ended up skating with A/Bers (and I think 2 or 3 other Cs in the same situation).

In some ways it was good--there were fewer players, so I got more ice time--but man, it was tough to keep up. :) I didn't have a shot on goal all night (although I almost had a pair of breakaways), but I played all right on defense (broke up a couple of 2 on 1s and even a 3 on 1), so hopefully I didn't look too bad out there. Those A leaguers are fast, though; even turning around and skating forwards I couldn't keep up with most of them.

It was a heck of a skate--we did skating/shooting drills for 15 minutes just to show off our level of ability, then we scrimmaged for an hour straight, no breaks, just roll the lines. That was kind of a new experience for me--never played organized ice hockey before, so the whole line change thing (when to get off, getting over the wall both ways, shifting down the bench) took me a few shifts to get used to. I about killed myself getting over the wall once; tossed my leg up over it, lost my balance, and crashed to the ice on my back. I'm sure all the captains were impressed. ;)

All in all, I was exhausted, but I actually don't feel too bad about how I played. I'm not sure how many of the C captains stayed to watch; hopefully at least a few. I did get to see the last half hour of the B/C skate, and there were a lot of C leaguers out there who were a lot newer to the sport than I am, so if any C captains did stay I think I'll come off all right.

Anyway, we'll see Friday or Saturday when my new captain contacts me. :)