A story about my first couple of months at college, with a life lesson for everyone at the end! Enjoy the read! 🙂

I was well travelled, had lots of international playing experience, I graduated from an English-speaking high school, I was ready to go to college in the US! Northeastern University, here I come!

Right, right, right. I guess nothing really prepares you enough for such a step in your life. I remember the day I left Switzerland like it was yesterday, but actually it was exactly 10 years ago. In August 2008, I packed my hockey bag and my suitcase and I boarded the plane to Boston. I was so excited and nervous at the same time. Did I know what to expect? Yes, I thought so. But yet, such a big step in my life, to just move across the Atlantic, leave my family and friends behind and just start an entire new life overseas.

I took a straight flight from Zurich to Boston that landed in the evening in Boston, perfect for overcoming jetlag. I sat down in the plane and started watching movies and looked at a couple documents from Northeastern University (NU), I guess I was too excited to even come anywhere close to falling asleep. The flight went by quick and upon arrival, I was picked up at the airport among some other international students that arrived at the same time than me. The first time I would meet freshmen (1^st year students), would they become my new friends?

Once everyone was there, we got on the minivan and drove to campus, one after the other was dropped off at their dorm (freshmen housing), I was the last one getting off at White Hall. Getting out of the car, I looked at the building and told myself, this is where you’ll be living your first year. I would be lying if I said it was a great feeling, my stomach was cramping up. Home in Switzerland was different… ☺ Anyways, not much time to think about home, I had people coming to me with a “move-in bin” to put all my belongings in to bring to the room. I had no idea what that move-in bin was and I told them that I only have these two bags (hockey bag and suitcase) and I can carry that. Having lived there for 5 years, I came to understand why they have those move-in bins… ☺

Quickly, I had to sign up and get all the paperwork out of the way so that I could move into my room that I was sharing with another teammate. I knew that this would be the case, but being there, seeing the room, my stomach cramped up again. I kept telling myself not to worry, I’ll get used to it and since I’m from Switzerland, I am very spoilt. The room was completely empty except for a bed, a dresser, a study table and a chair. The Americans drive to university with a car fully packed with their belongings to make those rooms feel like home, and thus the need for the move-in bins… ☺

An empty room to share is the worst? No, the worst was yet to come. A shared bathroom with the rest of the people living on the same floor! I was definitely not excited about that, yet again, I told myself that I’ll get used to it. Now, that must have been the worst, right? I mentioned earlier that the room was completely empty, right? Well, so empty that there was no blanket and pillows there either. That meant I had to spend a night on a bed without a blanket and pillow! I was not impressed. My roommate was so kind to let me borrow one of her pillows for the night, but it goes without saying that my first night was not a good one.

The next two days, I had international student orientation where you meet other international students and get a campus tour and sign up for your classes for the 1^st semester and so forth. I also got to know the athletic department in Cabot, a building that I spent most of my freshmen year in. However, it was during that orientation a guy came up to me and asked me if I was not the one on the flight from Zurich to Boston last night, which I was. Turns out the guy’s name was Jeffrey and he sat one row over from where I was sitting on the airplane. What a coincidence! It felt great knowing another Swiss person there, it was a relief, to be able to complain about freshmen dorms and so on to somebody with the same origin. ☺

On the first day there, I had my first team off-ice practice. I therefore met the team officially for the first. It was so great, it was so much fun, right until practice started! ☺ Damn, that was the moment when I was wishing I would have worked out harder in the summer, done more weights, more conditioning and so forth. It was tough! Real tough! I was sore, I was sore the first couple of days… and we weren’t even on the ice yet.

After the two days of orientation, classes began. I was officially a university student, or even better, I was a student athlete at Northeastern University (!). Now, was the English language an issue? Mostly not, until I sat in my first ever university lecture, macroeconomics! Oh my goodness, it was everything but fun. I had an incredible hard time understanding and following the professor in addition to not really understanding macroeconomics… I knew right away what that would mean for me, lots of studying, and English – German translations!

As a freshmen student-athlete we had to sit at study hall for 5 hours every week. Study hall was taking place in a room at Cabot, where the athletic department was at. During study hall, students basically just do their homework and study in a (mostly) quiet environment. I enjoyed going there, as I would be able to meet other athletes and get my school stuff done. It was there that I learnt about tutoring. I had no idea that you could request tutoring for every class (for free!). The tutors were always other students, which at first was weird to me, but trust me, I came to love these tutors, they were so much help, from explaining macroeconomics to just proof-reading papers!

In addition to study hall, every student-athlete was assigned a athletic advisor that we would have weekly meetings with. They always made sure that you were keeping up with school and were attending class and everything. They were incredibly helpful with everything. Even after my freshmen year, when these meetings and studyhall were not mandatory anymore, I dropped by there a lot.

I’m writing too much about school, am I? Well for hockey, we first had only off-ice practices due to some NCAA rule. Then once we were allowed to go on the ice, the first practice was a ‘captain’s practice’. Now what the heck is that? Basically the coaches make the drills for practice, but are then not coming on the ice, instead they are in the stands and evaluate the players. At that age, that was just weird to me, but now I fully understand the meaning behind this.

After captain’s practice, we would then start official team practices and after I 1 exhibition game, the season started. My first college game, an away game at RPI and a 3-2 win!

At this point I had been in Boston for over a month and guess what? I was terribly homesick! I was so homesick because I was struggling so much with my housing situation and the classes, I just wanted to quit and go back to Switzerland. On the way back from my first road trip, I called my family, who was luckily up already due to the time difference. I was crying and telling them that I’m coming home… My family knew better though, they knew that if I’d quit now, I would regret it for the rest of my life. So, instead of me flying home, my mom came to visit me and spent a lot of time with me outside of classes and hockey. It was a game changer!

When my mom left again, the situation was not better, but I decided to stick it out until the end of the first semester, Christmas break, when I would fly home anyways. It was during these weeks before Christmas break, that I finally got used to the university lecture and the English language. I did not have to study until the early morning hours anymore to just understand a topic. So when Christmas break came and I flew home, I actually got excited to go back, not because of the housing, but because of the hockey, my teammates, my friends and my education!

5 years later, I graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. 10 years later, I’ve had the best time of my life while being at Northeastern! At Northeastern, I learnt what real life is all about. I was able to develop on and off the ice and received all the help and support that I needed to become who I am today!

So, long story short. Going from Switzerland to College, is extremely difficult. But sometimes in life, it’s really good to stick it out during the hard times in order to experience the best times!

However, no matter whether this is about going to college, or at a workplace or at any difficult time in life, stick it out and don’t give up right away, it’ll make you a stronger person!

Life is like the ocean. Every time a wave knocks down your sand castle, you build it again.

Xo

Florence

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a great week with Easter break, got to enjoy your family and eat lots of Easter eggs!

I’ve had another crazy week with the play-off final week and the Stanford Students from my university project on a visit in Linköping during that time. The Stanford Students flew in Sunday, so after our last semi-final game on Sunday, we met up with them and went for a quick dinner before going home to recover and prepare for “hell week”.

Monday morning, the entire project group (4 Linköping students, 3 Stanford Students and 3 Teachers) went for a company visit to Saab. It was a few very interesting hours, where we got to hear lots about Saab’s background but then also were able to fly in a fighter jet simulator and look at an original fighter jet and so on. Lots of new information, lots to process. In the afternoon, we were scheduled to visit the Linköping aviation museum, but unfortunately, that was closed that afternoon and instead we went back to our office to work. It was a long day, very intensive, so I was actually happy that we had the evening off from practice.

All day Tuesday, the project group and myself were in Stockholm for some sightseeing and team bonding. We split up in two groups and did a scavenger hunt through Stockholm. With very tired legs, I went to practice in the evening, which was to no surprise a terrible practice. After practice, I went home and took a cold bath, which worked wonders!

Wednesday morning, I spent the entire morning at university with the project group working and around noon, I went home to get ready for the game. I had a good lunch and then a two hour nap from 2 – 4 pm, basically right up to when we left for the game.

Game #1, was a crazy game. Fun to have a home game during the week again, after having away games the last 3 weeks during the week. The warm-up was terrible, but I’m actually not worried about that anymore. I’m so experienced, that even if I had a bad warm-up, I can bounce for the game. So actually, once the game started, I felt great in net, barely left any rebounds and if I did, they were controlled ones. I was confident and really thought we could win this game 1. Unfortunately, Lulea’s goalie had an incredible game and we did not manage to score during the entire game, even though we were the better team. With one minute left in the game and a score of 0:0, Lulea managed to score of a face off with a screen in front of me. Game one went to Lulea even though we were the better team. I was disappointed, but not really at the same time. We played so well, I figured we would just do it in 3 games again.

Thursday morning we had practice and then headed to Stockholm Arlanda airport to take the plane to Lulea. It was a rather relaxing day although we were busy from morning till evening when we finally got to the hotel.

Friday morning, gameday #2. We slept in until 9am and had a bigger breakfast at the Scandic hotel before we went for a 30-minute team walk in the area. Right after the walk, we went back to our room and put our legs up against the wall for 20 minutes and then took a 30-minute nap before we had a light lunch. Right after lunch, I went to take another 1-hour nap before heading to the rink at 2pm. What a game again, pretty identical than the game on Wednesday, except the other way around. I had a pretty brutal warm-up again and then felt great again for the game. Even better puck control and less rebounds than on Wednesday. The other way around, because this time, Lulea was so much better than us this time. But we ended up winning the game with a goal with less than 1 minute before the end of the game.

With that, we were to play the championship game on Saturday at 4pm.

The entire morning on Saturday was exactly the same than on Friday. I had such a good feeling, I was ready for that championship game. Ready to go out and play and win that final. It all came out differently, we did not play well at all, including me. Actually, I played terrible. So the disappointment when we last that game, was so big, and it still is. I wish I could have played one more good game and give the team a chance to win the championship.

But it is what it is now and there is no turning back anymore.

We travelled back home to Linköping on Sunday and had a team dinner in the evening before a lot of our players left to go to their Worlds.

Once I’ve absorbed losing the Championship, I’ll write another blog post about the season reflection, so stay tuned.

Xo

Florence

Hi everyone,

Last week was a crazy and a very much different kind of week.

I think for the first time since the beginning of the season we had a Monday off from practice. It was a good feeling to get a Monday off and take that night to recover and recharge for Wednesday’s game.

Further, we had an early wake up on Tuesday as we left with the bus for our road trip to Örnsköldsvik at 8am from Linköping. Our first stop we mad in Sandviken shortly before 1pm where we went on the ice for a one-hour practice. It was really good to get up and get out of the bus and move. That way the long bus ride did not actually feel that long. Around 3pm, we continued our trip to Örnskölsvik until shortly before 9pm when we finally got to the rink and hotel. Once at the hotel, we had a quick dinner before heading to our rooms of 4 (!) for the night.

Wednesday was quite the chill morning. We were able to sleep in a bit and then went for a walk with the team before just hanging out at the hotel. During that time, I tried to get some school work done since I was missing quite some time at school with being on the road during the week. After lunch time, I took a 2-hour nap and then we headed to the rink for the first semi-final game against Modo.

The first game was good, everything felt so good. I knew that we were going to win that game. It wasn’t going to be easy but I was confident. The game itself started off being very physical, many penalties were called. So we had to adapt our game, but I didn’t think that would change our chances. Towards the end of the second period, Modo got a ‘too many men’ penalty on which we were able to capitalize and take a 1-0 lead in the game. What a good feeling going into the 3^rd period with a lead and knowing that we don’t necessarily need to score anymore but just play safe. We ended up winning the game 2-0 and take the lead in the series.

After the game, we got back on the bus and were headed back home to Linköping. It was a long night with little sleep… We were finally home before 8am on Thursday. The rest of Thursday was a blur, not much sleep, went to school, it was tough. Happy that we had another night off though, so I could go to bed early and catch up on a bit of sleep.

Friday morning I spent in school working on my Master Thesis. For lunch I went downtown with Courtney and hung out there until practice Friday afternoon/evening. Friday was a better day than Thursday, although I still felt very tired. So practice on Friday was actually not really good, but I tried to make the best out of it.

Game #2 on Saturday was a hell of a game. I truly believe, Saturday’s game was the best game I played all season, but we came up short. I was exhausted after 2 periods, but was trying my best to stay in the game and give the team a chance to win. After 3 periods, we had to go into a 10min overtime. During the overtime I think my brain shut off and I my body was just doing something. It went well, until we went into shootout. I got scored twice in a row, and we ended up losing the game 3-2. That meant that we had to play another game on Sunday.

Game #3 on Sunday… After Saturday’s game, I didn’t think I could recover for Sunday’s game. I woke up and felt like I was run over by a truck, not a good sign. Once I went to the rink, I still felt terrible and was hoping for a really good warm-up. That didn’t happen either… By the time that game started, I wasn’t sure how I will be a good backbone for the team. I tried to stay positive though and actually once I made my first save, I felt great. I wasn’t tired, my legs were functioning and my head was on full focus. 60 minutes later, we won the 3^rd game 3-0 and we are off to the final…

This was a crazy week, but wait for this upcoming week. It’ll be even more crazy! We are facing off against Lulea in a best-of-3 series in the playoff final. First game is on Wednesday at home and Friday/Saturday in Lulea. Lots of travelling again.

I’m super excited to be in the final and can’t wait for that series to start, it’s going to be tough, but surely lots of fun!

Wish us luck!

Xo

Florence

Hey everyone,

As most of you know, last Wednesday was the start of the quarter-final playoffs in the SDHL After we came in 2^nd in the regular season, we were to face-off against AIK in the first round, who ranked 7^th. Lulea faced-off against Brynäs, Modo against Leksand and Djurgarden against HV71.

It was actually the first time since I play in this league, that the playoff pairings were done like that. Previously, the first ranked team could pick a team that they want to play that was ranked 5 – 8. Once the first ranked picked, it would be the second ranked team’s turn to pick… The same would be done for the semi-final pairings, best ranked team could pick who to play against for the semi-final. I always thought that was very weird, so I was happy now that they changed that for this season.

In our league, we play a best-of-3 playoff series, but if you are the better ranked team, you have your first game away and then 2 home games. To me, this is very strange as well and I still can’t get used to it. 😊 So for us being the second ranked team, we made our way to Stockholm to face off against AIK last Wednesday in the first game.

The first game was not a good game from our side. I think we were very nervous and didn’t know what to expect of AIK since we haven’t played them in quite some time. On top of that, the luck really wasn’t on our side, we had a couple shots off the post and some really good chances that we just couldn’t capitalize on. We ended up losing that game 1-0 and were therefore with our backs against the wall for the second game of the series.

We had Thursday off from practice, which was good to recover and recoup the mind. Friday evening we had a workout and a practice. The workout was a rather quick one, with only 3 weight exercises that were all executed explosively for the quick legs. The practice had a strong focus on the things we didn’t do well in the game on Wednesday, so that we could gain back our confidence for Saturday’s game.

Saturday, game #2, do-or-die. I was nervous and I told myself, I’m not ready for my season to be done yet. I wanted to play the best game of the entire season and be the strong backbone this team needs. Well, haha, that didn’t turn out the way I wanted. We got scored on 10 minutes into the game and were behind 1-0. Were we crestfallen? No, we got right back up and scored shortly before the end of the first period to tie up the game. Once we scored that goal, it was like the knot finally opened, and we were able to score one goal after the other. The final score was 4-1 and we were headed to the game #3 in this playoff series.

After the game, we had a team dinner at a sports bar in Linköping. It was a nice evening and felt good to hang out with the team and fuel up for the next day.

Sunday, game #3, do-or-die. Unlike Saturday, I was not nervous at all. I knew we got this, and yet again, I was not ready for the season to be over yet. Not once since after the game on Saturday did I doubt that we would not win that game #3 on Sunday. I’m pretty sure that the rest of the team had the same feeling than I did. We came out strong from the first second of the game and did not give up any chances for AIK to become dangerous. On the other hand, we created many good chances and were able to win the last game 5-0.

With that win, we punched a semi-final ticket along with Lulea, Djurgarden and Modo. Semi-final pairings are Lulea – Djurgarden, Linköping – Modo. 4 incredibly competitive teams and I’m extremely excited for this series to start tomorrow!

Keep your fingers crossed!

Xo

Florence

With Sunday’s game, the regular season came to an end and here’s my regular season recap.

We captured 2^nd place with 87 points in 36 games played which in my opinion is great. All teams get stronger and more competitive every season, so we can be very proud of ourselves for capturing 2^nd place.

For me personally, I too can be very happy and proud of my performance and my achievements during the regular season. Coming back from such a long knee injury, I was a bit hesitant at the beginning of the season, unsure how good I will be and how my knee and my entire body will hold up. Surprisingly, or maybe not that surprisingly, my knee was holding all the way.

I was badly out of shape after the knee surgery and I was struggling getting back into shape, until I started working with my conditioning coach Andrea Zryd again. I strongly believe that the off-ice workouts that I did this season, were the game-changer in my on-ice performance. From week to week, from month to month I felt better, lighter and stronger on and off the ice.

I had 31 games played in net, 2 games where I was backing up and missed 3 games due to a torn groin right before leaving for the Olympics. In those 31 games, I had 854 shots against and let up 44 goals. My Goals Against Average was at 1.45 and I had a Save Percentage of 94.85%. I had 10 shutouts, 26 wins and 4 losses. I was the leading goalie by save percentage and goals against average as well as game winning shots with 8 saves and a 100% rate.

I strongly believe that I’ve stepped up my game throughout the last couple of seasons, but especially during this season I was able to get better and better. In addition to the off-ice trainings that made me stronger, my performance self-evaluation sheets that I filled out after every game improved my game incredibly. Being able to critically reflect my games helped me overcome the fact that I do not have a goalie coach available, but instead teach myself.

I was holding myself accountable of everything this season. No excuses for nothing. I’ve created this determination, this drive that kept me going throughout the entire season. In every off-ice training, I pushed myself to and beyond my limits, creating new limits. During on-ice practices, every puck was played until the end (even if the players did not finish playing, I would still track and follow my rebound), and I skated way more than I ever did before.

It looks like all my effort has paid off so far, but now, now it’s all about the play-offs. The play-offs are like an entire new season. Even more so this season, it being the Olympic year and teams like Canada and USA centralize and therefore are done with their season after the Olympics. A lot of teams picked up new players for the play-offs and therefore they will be even more competitive and our 2^nd place in regular season has little meaning.

We too got a new player on our team. Courtney Birchard from Canada is a new player that we were able to bring on the team and I am extremely pumped about that. I played and lived with Courtney back in 2012/2013 when I was playing for the Brampton Thunder in the CWHL. Back then, Courtney and her family welcomed me at their house, now I was able to welcome Courtney to my house… 😊

Now it’s the most fun time of the season though and I’m even more excited for it to start right away as well. We face off against AIK in a best-of-3 quarterfinal series on Wednesday, Saturday & (Sunday)!

Overall, it’s been a great season so far, but I want more… 😊

Xo Florence