Put some sauce on it

Yesterday at shinny, I was being frustrated by one of my long-armed opponents. Every time I was passing anywhere in his vicinity, he would casually reach his stick waaaaay out to deflect my pass, or even catch it and take off with it. Two lessons here:

1. Apparently I misjudged just how far this particular fellow could reach. It helps to play against the same guys all the time, you learn their favourite moves, their strong points and weak points. Next time I will watch out for this particular player, and not put my passes quite so near him.
2. I should consciously attempt to use saucer passes instead of just passing along the ice. This is all fine and dandy on paper - it's something I've even practiced at the skating and skills camps I've attended, so I know I can do it - but I rarely remember to use a saucer pass in the heat of the moment. I think I've only consciously done it once. Again, in the women's league I can frequently get away with a pass along the ice, but there's no escaping long-armed defencemen at shinny.
3. If you control the distance [between you and the opponent, you and the boards, you and your teammates], you control the puck. As in Taekwondo, distance (not timing, as is frequently claimed) is everything. That is a longer lesson, for another post. 

One technique for constant skills improvement is to come up with one, and only one, specific skill that you want to improve in a training session, and concentrate only on that skill. So next week at shinny that should be my goal - with every pass - to put some sauce on it.