PALLARDY BLOG: TIME TO BUCKLE DOWN

September 1, 2010

Time to Buckle Down

Opening night is now less that two months away and I think it's time to really make sure I'm doing the right things to prepare myself for the season, which is why I was skating with my buddies in St. Louis the past couple weeks at a conditioning camp hosted by an agency that represents many local players as well as NHL and AHL players. I'm was on the ice from 9-11am each morning doing practice drills and scrimmages followed by a conditioning skate.

This off-season has been a bit different for me; usually I'd be on the ice at least once or twice a week from July until training camp, but being away from St. Louis has made that difficult to do because there are just less opportunities for on-ice training in Independence compared to St. Louis.

The hockey talent in St. Louis has really come a long way. When I was growing up, there was maybe one player from each age group that was able to make it to the Division I college level. Now the amateur teams are regularly ranked in the nation's top 10 for their age group and players are being scattered all over the country and even Europe to play professionally or at Division I colleges. The talent pool has enabled us to train together in the off-season and put together scrimmages that can simulate the level of play of our respective regular seasons. However, being in Independence as opposed to St. Louis this off-season has given me the chance to help lay a foundation for the sport of hockey that will hopefully result in hockey growing in Independence/Kansas City the same way it did in St. Louis.

It's been fun to be even a small part of everything that hockey has done for this community and that this community has done for hockey over the past (almost) year. Hockey in Independence seems to be a perfect fit, and it's in very large part due to the fans. If the fans hadn't been so great from the start, I doubt I would have chosen to stay in Independence during the summer. The fans fill seats and buildings for every event that has anything to do with the Mavericks organization, most recently at the Fan Fest a couple weekends ago. Strong evidence that Independence has the potential to be one of the best hockey towns is being built, and it makes me want to contribute to achieving that reputation. It has been so fun to help generate increasing interest in Mavericks hockey and hockey in general in and around Independence.

On a side note, I received an e-mail from someone in the front office today telling me not to quit my day job. Attached was a sound byte of me doing play-by-play for one of my goals this season. For those who don't know, there was a table set up at the Fan Fest which allowed anyone to call a bit of a Mavericks game as Bob Rennison would from his press box. Bob talked me into giving this a shot, and I'll just say that I have a great deal of respect for the work that he does. I'm guessing that I could have also taken "don't quit your day job" as referring to my officiating during the Making the Mavs games on Saturday. I guess people figure that if I can make a transition from forward to defense that I might also try play-by-play and officiating, but for right now I'm going to just stick with hockey!

- Derek Pallardy