Our regular season wrapped up last night, and on paper it reads 15-10-1, good for 3rd place in a 10-team division.

But that record doesn’t tell the real story of this group.

We opened the year 0-2 in exhibition and 0-4 in our first tournament, scoring just one goal. On top of that, this team lost 12 players from last year’s roster to AAA and AA. For a group that hadn’t spent much time together, early results were inconsistent, and confidence came and went.

What never left, though, was effort — and once effort started showing up the right way, growth followed.

Small Changes, Real Impact

As the season went on, we focused on moving the puck with pace, passing with purpose, and forechecking with intention. We made a small line adjustment that brought some much-needed chemistry and gave us two lines that could consistently create offense.

The habits started to show up before the wins did.

One moment that stands out came in our second-last regular-season game. We were down 2-0 with under ten minutes to play. Earlier in the year, that’s a game that would have slipped away from us. This time, we kept pushing, stayed on the forecheck, trusted our structure, and scored three unanswered goals to win.

We didn’t win that game because of talent.
We won it because we had the legs — and the belief — to keep working.

Learning to Play the Right Way

There were points this season where we emphasized power skating and positional play, sometimes at the expense of puck skills and offense. That showed up in our scoring at times, and provincial rankings — which heavily favor goals scored and opponent strength — didn’t always reflect the progress we were making.

But the lesson was clear:
If we wanted to keep up, it had to be done through team-first habits, not individual talent.

That was a goal I set back in September — to become a team that plays the right way first — and it’s one I believe this group achieved.

Growth You Can’t Measure on a Scoresheet

We became a solid positional team that skates well and works hard. We still have mental areas to clean up — that’s part of being U10 — but the biggest growth came in how the group handled adversity.

When we lost in the finals of the Barrie tournament, the players felt it. And that mattered. It showed they cared about the team more than individual outcomes.

Earlier in the year, going down early felt like a breaking point. By the end of the season, it became a challenge the group leaned into.

Over our final stretch, we went 7-3 in our last 10 regular-season games, played our best hockey when it mattered most, and beat teams ranked much higher provincially by playing connected, disciplined hockey.

What This Group Is About

This team learned how to:

• Play for one another
• Create offense through passing, not just shooting
• Defend better in our own zone and limit quality chances
• Stay positive and competitive when games got hard

Most importantly, they learned how to be brothers — how to put the team before themselves.

Final Thought (For Players, Parents, and Coaches)

This group hadn’t played together before this season. What made the difference wasn’t talent — it was buy-in. When players and parents commit to a team-first mentality and trust the process, growth becomes endless.

And for coaches:
Just because it isn’t working in September doesn’t mean it won’t work. Stick to your plan. Stay consistent. Success shows up when habits finally catch up.

Proud of the work this group put in.
On to the next challenge.