Sunday 11th April
(from Dundalk)
We’re not quite in Luxembourg yet but the whole team was together yesterday for its last practice at the Dundalk Ice Dome. Well, at least that’s what we thought before Kenny sprung a little surprise on the boys and let them know that we have one more practice on Monday evening!
The practice on Sunday was a hard fast
practice with a lot of passing and shooting. Sean Dooley, David Morrison and Ross O’Driscoll all sat out the practice just so Rob could work on them in the massage room.
Kevin Kelly arrived at the practice after his long trip from Canada minus his hockey gear!!! It got lost on the flight but luckily we got him a loan of gear and he got out for a skate and looked in good shape.
John Crawley, our equipment manager and engine of the team, arrives later today. John is the man responsible for all the team jerseys/water bottles/towels/sharpening all the players skates fixing their helmets basically he dose everything form A-Z and he does it with a smile on his face. The dressing room might be a bit messy now but John will sort that out when he gets here!
I think we are all set to go. We meet at Dublin Airport on Tuesday morning before we take the short flight to Luxembourg. Our first on ice practice is on Wednesday morning for one hour. For some of the guys, it will be the first time they’ve skated in Luxembourg while others visited here a few years back for a friendly game. This morning skate will give us a chance to blow out the cobwebs prior to Wednesday night’s game with Luxembourg.
Log onto www.iiha.org tomorrow for more inside information on Team Ireland…
Tony Griffin (General Manager)