ASIAN HOCKEY PLAYERS

I haven't really been talking hockey too much lately and there's a very good reason for that... Basically, my team (the Vancouver Canucks) has dropped from 4th in the league to 14th (out of 30), which is sort of heartbreaking/embarrassing. I left Vancouver on January 9th and they were doing so well, but in the 14 games they've played since then, they've suffered 11 loses. I mean, we lost to the LA Kings and they're last overall.

This is also ironic because my favorite player, and lead defenceman, Mattias Ohlund (#2) had finally come back from being out on an injury. However, we lost our two other strongest defensive linemen, Willie Mitchell (#8) and Lukas Krajicek (#5), in the meantime.

So I have a new friend in Chicago who had been picking on me about the game tonight with the Canucks taking on the Blackhawks (he's a diehard Chicago fan). Vancouver had not lost to Chicago in years and a month ago I would have never doubted that we had this game in the bag, but I was beginning to get nervous. He and I were texting taunts back and forth throughout the game.

Vancouver scored the first goal of the night and had a lead of 1-0 going into the third period, so I was pretty confident. Then Chicago got two in a row with 4 minutes left on the clock and I panicked. Of course, my friend got pretty smug and I'm scared our perfect record against Chicago is going down the toilet...

Then Markus Naslund (#19), the Vancouver team captain, swept one in with 1:18 left on the clock! It was brilliant! Game went into overtime and then into a shootout and one of the rookies who was called up from Manitoba tipped one in and Vancouver won!

Thank. God.

All is right with the world again.

First of all, I know nothing about sports photography, but I happened to have amazing seats to Saturday's game, Anaheim Ducks vs. Dallas Stars so I decided to bring my D40 with me and walked out with nearly 500 shots.
What I've had the most trouble with, other than finding shots that are actually in focus and are any good, was composition. I have to crop basically every single one because my lens's focal range isn't spectacular for this kind of job, but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. So far I've just been trying to go by the rule of thirds when able. Other than that, I'm kind of at a loss, but I think it's ok.

If you have any tips/critique please do share with me. I need all the help I can get.

I'll be adding more once I get around to them (been a bit busy lately).