Don Cherry – Hockey Night In Canada
Death Of Mike Serba
Today would have been Mike’s birthday
Miss the kid
Don Cherry – Hockey Night in Canada – Death of Mike Serba
Covid19 – Some Thoughts
When our governments first took action and forced the closure of so called “non-essential” businesses, there was one overwhelming thought that stuck in my mind. They had no idea and no concept of the economic damage that they have inflicted by this order .
I’m no doctor or specialist in infectious diseases and nor am I am economic expert. It’s just that I’ve been around about 100 years (lol) and experienced and done a variety of………………………………
Screw It!
I started to write some comments and then thought screw it ……nobody is going to care about a long dissertation by me about the current Covid19 crisis, so I will just let you reflect on this.
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What Are You Working On To Be The Best You Can Be?
Don’t Be A One Trick Pony
With over 40 plus years of involvement in hockey including coaching, scouting teams & players and 15 years teaching hockey skills; there is one thing that has always stuck in my mind when I watch players in action.
For some reason most players develop a favorite move along with the skating and stick-handling skills to support that move. Probably they were fascinated by some move they saw a pro player do and dedicated themselves to learning it. It becomes their strength. It becomes their “go-to” move and their comfort zone.
But here’s the problem. I can guarantee you that after a year or so, everyone in the league will know your “go-to” move and for the most part shut you down.
You’ll Need To Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Under pressure everyone reverts to their comfort zone. Like it or not, that’s just what happens.
Learning and doing something new takes one out of their comfort zone. Learning something new feels different. The moves and skill sets don’t feel natural. You have to think about what you doing and the brain gets engaged. The need to engage the brain in itself inhibits fluid and skillful execution at the early stages or learning something new. But this is the process. This is what is required to learn something new and develop to the point where it is natural and it will not become natural without constant and many repetitions.
Hockey is played under pressure and under pressure everyone reverts to their comfort zone. It’s what you’ve practiced. It’s what you know. Under pressure it’s what you’ll revert to.
Think About It
Your strengths will always be your strengths, but what about your weaknesses?
You love the slap shot. You’ve practiced it constantly and you’re good at it and sometimes you score a goal. If you’re like most kids I’ve watched, you take probably take forever to set it up, glide in to the shot, transfer your weight to your front foot as you shoot, and veer to one side after the shot.
But do you have a wrist shot … a snap shot …. a backhand? Are you able to place the puck where you want? Can you shoot all types of shots while in stride from either foot and square up to the net for a potential rebound after shooting?
This just involves some aspects of shooting on net and nowhere near the full breadth of this subject. The full spectrum of skill sets that make up becoming a great hockey player is vast.
My advice to you is to figure out what your weaknesses are and begin to work on them. Think about it; your greatest opportunity to improve as a player is to work on your weaknesses.
When you’re at a practice or hockey school session; go with the purpose to work on a specific area of your weaknesses.
In my next blog I’ll go over some of my exprience and observations to provide some understanding of the process and challeges of working on new skills.
Note:
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Attitude
If I have to name the one key thing that’s a main factor contributing to success or failure in hockey, I would have to say it’s a player’s attitude.
Sadly, I’ve seen players develop a bad attitude and watched performance and prospects dwindle and eventually die.
Life Isn’t Fair And Hockey Is Just A Slice Of Life
As in life, not everything in your hockey experience is going to go your way.
Think about it; perfection doesn’t exist and that’s just reality. The ice isn’t perfect …. a great pass can hit an imperfection in the ice and jump over a stick. The referees are imperfect human beings that can miss a call or make a bad call and after making a bad call they are likely to act like human beings and stay with the call. Coaches are imperfect human beings and will make poor decisions. And by the way; you as a player are far from perfect.
The biggest problems develop from coaching decisions that a player feels negatively impacts their ice time or stature in the line up.
You as a player have control over how you choose to react.
Advice For Parents
There are several main areas in which parents can be of great help to your hockey player child.
One is to be aware of and make sure that they’re not being inhibited be fear. I wrote about this recently and you can review my thoughts in the Blog titled “Fear And Loathing In Las Hockeyville”.
Another, but related situation is to make sure that they are not unrealistic in their expectations related to skills development. All too often they see a highly skilled player display an effortless ease in the performance of a skill and wonder why they struggle with that same skill. I can assure that when it comes to development of demanding physical skills (regardless of the discipline) you have to pay your dues. Its takes time, effort and practice. When they watch someone perform a difficult skill with ease; what they didn’t see was the time and effort put out in the development of that skill.
Last but most important please …. please ….. please do not enable a negative attitude. Every normal parent wants the best for their children but I’m amazed at the number of parents who instinctively do exactly the wrong thing when trying to help their child. It seems to me that in the modern world in which we live, we have to make sure everybody just feels good. I’ve seen a number of situations a where a parent dumps on the coach in some misguided effort to support their child. The following is a real example and not the only instance where I’ve seen this happen: There was really good player in the Toronto minor hockey system. He was drafted high to the OHL and initial prospects and ranking for the NHL draft were good. However being a 17 year old rookie in the OHL you’re not exactly treated as you were in Midget hockey as “the go-to guy”. I would overhear the boy’s father speaking to his son and say things like …. “the coach is an idiot and doesn’t know what he’s doing” …… “he has you on the wrong line with the wrong line mates” ….. “your line mates are useless and don’t know how to take or give a pass”. The players attitude went south …. his play went south ……. prospects and ranking for NHL draft went south. He never played a game in the NHL.
Make The Coach Look Foolish
To repeat; the biggest problems develop from coaching decisions that a player feels negatively impacts their icetime or stature in the line up.
You as a player have control over how you choose to react.
Believe it or not, hockey at the higher levels is ultimately quite nondiscriminatory and dispassionate. The reason is very simple. At the higher levels, ownership, management and coaching just wants and needs to win. Winning is everything. Success, money and keeping your job depends on winning. Nobody cares how much money Daddy has or how nicely Mommy smiles as she talks to the coach. I’ve written previously that I think there are a lot of lousy coaches out there but for the most part even the lousy ones are able to figure out which players are making the biggest contribution to the cause. Ultimately your ability to contribute to the cause with determine your ice time and your success.
If you not getting the ice time you think you deserve, I suggest your best choice is to work your ass off and prove different.
You Haven’t Made It Until You’ve Made It …… And Even Then ……
Back just before the NHL strike around 2005 we used have an annual pro-camp that was attended by a good number of NHL players and top prospects to the NHL currently playing in the AHL or OHL. NHL players that attended included Jason Spezza, Steven Stamkos, Brent Burns, Manny Malholtra and Rick Nash. I can tell you that all of these guys worked their asses off. Their work ethic was almost maniacal … and these guys were already in the NHL.
At the same time there were 2 brothers that were in the OHL. They were both drafted highly to the OHL and prospects for the NHL were initially very good. While the guys I mentioned above worked their asses off; these 2 brothers goofed off. Guess what? …. neither brother played a single game in the NHL.
You Haven’t Made It Until You’ve Made It …… And Even Then ……
Attitude
I’m not sure what the next topic will be. I’ll just wait to be struck by the muse.
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Does Size Matter?
They Used To Say: “A Good Big Hockey Player Will Always Be Better Than A Good Little Hockey Player.”
But This Statement Is Not Fully Correct
To be fully correct, I believe the statement should read: “A Good Big Hockey Player Will Always Be Better Than A Good Little Hockey Player ….. Everything Else Being Equal”.
Think about it.
The Perfect Hockey Player
Thank about it. What qualities, skills or attributes would the perfect hockey player possess?
I did a Google search of articles written about the abilities and qualities required to be a good hockey player.
One article listed the following: “Skating – Shooting – Stick-handling/Puck Control – Hands – Passing/Play-making – On-Ice Vision“.
Another listed these: “Be Coachable – Have Intense Desire To Win- Be Willing To Practice – Be Willing To Make Sacrifices – …….”.
(I have to throw an editorial comment in here in about a lot of the articles that I read …. and that is I can’t believe the amount of superficial crap that’s is written out there.)
I’ve given considerable thought to this subject over the years and have come to the conclusion that if someone were to write a complete treatise about all of the skills, abilities and attributes that the perfect hockey player would have; it would take a lifetime of work ….. it would be an encyclopedia containing probably at least 20 volumes …. and the 21st volume would be a massive index to the other 20.
“….. Everything Else Being Equal”.
The fact is that the perfect hockey player does not exist ….. never has and never will. Everything will never be equal. Size is only one factor. Is is important? …. of course it is. But size alone without sufficient other skills and attributes in the right mix will not achieve success. There are simply too many other factors that come into play. Too many factors that when sufficient in their number and their dimension; will make up for lack of size.
It’s a shame when scouting focuses mainly on size. This happens way too often and discourages many players of smaller stature from playing the game.
Look at some of the greatest players of all time: Theo Fleury – Yvan Cornoyer – Marcel Dionne – Henri Richard – Martin St Louis.
Current players of shorter stature include; Ryan Ellis of the Nashville Predators, Mats Zuccarello of the Dallas Stars, Tory Krug of the Boston Bruins, Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks ……. and my all time favorite Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins. Marchand drives me nuts. Every time Boston plays my home team Toronto; Marchand has a big part to play in us losing …. can’t stand him but you can bet that I’d love him if he played for Toronto.
(Looking at the official stats listed of the heights for the players listed above; I believe many of the measurements were taken with their skates on.)
The Bottom Line As I See It
Size alone without sufficient other skills and attributes in the right mix will not achieve success. There are simply too many other factors that come into play. Too many factors that when sufficient in their number and their dimension; will make up for lack of size.
“A Good Big Hockey Player Will Always Be Better Than A Good Little Hockey Player …. Everything Else Being Equal ….. But Everything Else Will Never Be Equal.”
In the next couple of Blogs it occurs to me that it would be timely and useful to talk about what in my experience are important factors that contribute to or inhibit success in hockey. Stayed tuned.
Note:
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Does Size Matter?
They Used To Say: “A Good Big Hockey Player Will Always Be Better Than A Good Little Hockey Player.”
From the mid 1970’s through to the early 2000’s, player size was the dominant factor in building your team. N.H.L. defensemen had learned the most effective way to stop a speeding forward was to use his stick to obstruct a rushing forward. While hooking, holding and interference were illegal tactics, they were effective and were not being called as penalties.
While the search was on for big strong defensemen, the search was also on for big strong powerful forwards that could stand the abuse and break through the obstruction.
During these years I noted the following observations in the minor hockey scene:
1. The players that were smaller in stature had to develop their skills in order to survive and to be effective. Then as now and with certainty into the future; if you can’t be effective, you won’t be on the team and so the player smaller in stature went to hockey schools and developed their skills.
2. As I’ve written before, one of the problems with hockey at the minor levels is that coaches are not really “coaches and teachers” they’re recruiters. If you have the best players, you don’t need to be a teacher and coach. You just throw them on the ice and win. In the recruitment process the larger stature player and his parents were were being told how great he was and what a great future he had.
If you’re already great , there’s not much need to work on your skills. I always thought it was a shame that larger stature players didn’t feel the need to work on their skills.
Things Change
The NHL was concerned that the play of the game 
had become slow, low-scoring and boring. In 2005 the NHL made some important rule changes.
- The center ice line was removed for 2 line off side passes exiting a team’s home zone. This allowed for long “stretch” passes which forced defense to back off and opened up the ice adding speed to the play of the game.
- There was now zero tolerance for any kind of obstruction; interference, hooking, holding or otherwise impeding a player’s progress except for a legitimate body check on a puck carrier. Defending players could no longer hook and “water ski” being dragged along behind a player. And when they said zero tolerance they meant zero tolerance. A trailing defender who even touched the elbow of a puck carrier in front of him was called for hooking even though there was no apparent effect on the puck carrier.
This had a tremendous effect on the speed of play of the game. The slow footed player was now at a big disadvantage. The quick, agile player was now allowed to show his skills and show the value of those skills to winning hockey games. The whole game changed.
One quick result was the elimination of the slow footed enforcer. Toughness and intimidation have always been a part of the game. Many teams had that one tough guy they could put out on the ice when some intimidation was needed. Many of these guys were not the most agile in the world but were not a liability under the old rules. Under the new rules with their lack of speed and agility, they became a liability.
They Used To Say: “A Good Big Hockey Player Will Always Be Better Than A Good Little Hockey Player.”
In part 3 I’ll give you my take on this subject.
Note:
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Does Size Matter?
First Some History
Way back when there were a lot of hockey players quite a bit shorter than six feet tall. Back then there were only six teams and there wasn’t much money to made for hockey players in the NHL. Most players played for the love of the game and most had other jobs in the off-season.
In 1966 the NHL announced expansion and in the 1967-68 season there was a total 12 teams playing in the NHL.
A big change came with the formation of the WHA (The World Hockey Association) a rival league to the NHL, which fielded 12 teams in 1972. The League struggled and was not considered much of a threat, until Bobby Hull; arguably the NHL’s top forward at the time, jumped to the new league. Hull was not thought to be seriously considering signing with the WHA and when he told reporters that he would only move to the WHA “for a million dollars”, it was both intended by Hull and taken by his audience to be a joke since a million dollars at that time was considered to be a ridiculous amount of money for a hockey player. Nevertheless, the Winnipeg Jets offered Hull a five-year, one million dollar contract with a one million dollar signing bonus. Hull’s move to the WHA attracted other first line NHL players and started a wage war between the rival leagues for top talent.
The net result was that hockey was now a very big and costly business and winning became ever more important. Making the play-offs and going deep or winning it all meant thousands of extra dollars to a team.
And Thus Came The Search For Size
The saying became; “A good big hockey player will always be better than a good little hockey player”.
I remember going to Toronto Maple Leaf games in the mid to late 1970’s and watching the Leafs 
play the Flyers in the Stanley Cup play-offs. At that time the Fliers were known as the “Broad Street Bullies” and the games were a virtual war and blood bath.
This was a time when size and toughness were the primary factors that were considered when selecting a hockey player. This was because of the rules at that time and the way the game was played under those rules.
The center red line was in play for off side passes which slowed down the advancement of a line rush. More important though were the rules on obstruction and fighting. When it came to obstruction and interference, we used to joke that a player could wrap his stick around the waist of an opposing player and “water ski” behind him by being dragged along the ice and not get a penalty. Slashing and hacking at a player was just a part of the game. When it came to intimidation and fighting, it was considered as important as any other asset in your arsenal for success.
Size and toughness became paramount to success.
What Happens At The Pro Level Filters Down To The Minor Hockey Level
The play of the game at the minor league levels tends to take it’s lead from the play of the game at the NHL and the play of the game quickly filters down to hockey at the very young age groups.
I used to hear this phrase from minor league hockey coaches: “I can teach a player all kinds of things, but I can’t teach size”.
I know of coaches in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (the biggest minor hockey league in the world) that went out and recruited the biggest players they could find as the easiest pathway to coaching success.
I personally know of quite a number of players who were six foot two or three at the age of 16 that were given shots at the OHL and these players couldn’t tie the skates of much smaller skilled players who never got a look. This was happening through the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s.
They used to say: “A good big hockey player will always be better than a good little hockey player”.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series.
Note:
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Fear And Loathing In Las Hockeyville
Or
The Mental And Psychological Part Of The Game
The mental and psychological aspects of an athletes comportment has become an important part of preparation in the modern sports world. In more recent time, this has been studied and better understood and there is hardly a professional athlete today who does not receive coaching in this important area.
You hear athletes refer to being in the zone or being in the moment while in the action of the game and being free from and fear or self doubt.
Fear
I want to deal with what I believe is the most important area of the mental side of sports and that is the crippling effects of fear. In this part I’m not dealing with physical fear (the fear of being hit and having and injury in hockey) but the other aspects of fear.
I have spent a great many hours in an arena as a coach and then countless more hours on the ice involved in the teaching and training of individual skills to hockey players. Most of my time in training hockey players was spent with young kids, however I was also fortunate enough to work with a number of first round NHL draft picks and highly successful NHL players.
Over the years I’ve become more and more aware of the effects of fear in the performance of the hockey player athlete.
To categorize the aspects of fear that I’m talking about it would involve the following; the fear of making a mistake and looking stupid and the fear of letting someone down.
For Hockey Coaches
Trust me, no player wants to make a mistake that costs a goal and let his team mates down. It’s pretty much a guarantee that if you berate a player for a mistake, you increase the chance that the player will get scared crapless and make even more mistakes.
I’ve watched players playing with fear during a a game and it was easy to imagine the “thought bubble” above their heads a one would see in a cartoon comic book. These are players that are afraid and thinking about what they should do. But guess what? …. they’re already screwed …. the game is unfolding so fast that there is no time for thinking about what to do. The play of the game requires instantaneous reactions; not analysis and thinking about what to do. That will just not work.
Coaches should put players in an environment where they can play without the fear of being berated for making a mistake. We don’t want them to make mistakes and mistakes should be pointed out; however, need to understand that making mistakes is part of the learning process.
As a coach you’re supposed to be a teacher. Point out and explain mistakes and then explain and teach the correct actions or choices.
For Hockey Parents
Every normal hockey parent wants their children to be successful, however I am constantly amazed at how parents often instinctively do the wrong thing and in fact hinder the success of their children.
Trust me; there is not a child out there that does not want to please their parents. They sense the enthusiasm and passion of their parents in relation to their sporting endeavors and all they want to do is please Mom and Dad.
First advice is to read the section above for coaches.
Second, it’s not just in the play of the game, it’s also about effort and performance in practices and at hockey school sessions. The same fear of making a mistake and looking foolish takes hold here as well. I’ve seen many kids give up on doing a new and difficult maneuver because of this fear. Once again they need to understand making mistakes or not getting it perfect is part of the learning process. Additionally, to progress in skill they should understand the need to push their limits in practice and risk failure as a pathway to getting better.
It’s OK to expect a solid effort for the commitment of time and money to an endeavor; just don’t crap on them for making honest mistakes.
I’m not sure what the next topic will be. I’m waiting to struck by the muse, but it may be titled “Does Size Matter?”
Note:
If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.
The One Skill That Will Make You 10 Times The Hockey Player
Learn To Skate With And Handle The Puck With Your Head Up
Some Random Final Thoughts
In the writing of this series, a number of important but random concepts about this topic popped into my head, so I’m lumping them all together as some final thoughts.
There are a number of skills and subsets of skills that need to be mastered to be a great hockey player. Too much of a deficiency in any one these skills will limit a player’s career.
I happen to believe that the most important skill that needs to learned is that of skating and handling a puck with one’s head up. You can have every other skill set mastered, but if when handling a puck if you have your head down focused on the puck, you will have little or no clue of what is going on around you. You will never be the player you could be and is the single skill set without which your career will end early.
Skating while handling a puck with the head up is not an innate skill. In fact, as I wrote in a previous part of this series, there are a number factors that are typically a part of the usual process of learning hockey that tend to work to produce poor habits. It is an acquired skill that needs to learned and practiced in order to become proficient and become natural.
My advise is to take lessons from a qualified instructor. Fortunately in recent years the fundamentals of hockey skills have been analysed and broken down into their essential elements and there are good people qualified to teach these skills.
Some More Thoughts
As I noted before; If you do not have control of your edges in skating, you will not have control of your lower body and will be fighting to maintain balance. Since your upper body is attached to your lower body; there will little chance to efficiently control and handle a puck. It is wise to get some professional instruction for edge control. Twenty to thirty years ago, there was very little good qualified instruction available but this is no longer the case. Fortunately there are some very good instructors of hockey skills out there. I know of a couple in my area of Toronto, so feel free to contact me for information …. and by the way, I have no attachment what so ever to those I will be recommending.
And Some More Thoughts
If you think of the range of motion in which you can move a puck around your body and still maintain control with your stick; it’s quite remarkable. If you think further of all of the crazy skating maneuvers that you might be perform at the same time as handling a puck; it should become apparent that a high level of “separation” between your upper body and your lower body is required. It’s as if while your lower body is going through all of the crazy skating maneuvers required at a high level hockey; your upper body is sitting relatively serenely atop while moving the puck through the full range of motion possible. Ask your instructor if they do drills using both symmetrical and asymmetrical movements. See if they even know what it means.
And Some Final Final Thoughts
It’s quite impossible to have you head up all the time under all stick handling situations. You just want to get the head back up as quickly as possible and be very careful of the situation during which your head is down. Watch the Connor McDavid goal once again you will see he puts his eyes down for a split second as he beats Rielly.
The ideal position for carrying a puck is hands in front of your body with hands fairly close together. Take a look a the following picture of McDavid just after he has beaten Rielly.
My next blog will be titled “Fear And Loathing In Las Hockeyville”.
Note:
If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.
The One Skill That Will Make You 10 Times The Hockey Player
Learn To Skate With And Handle The Puck With Your Head Up
First of all keeping you head up while skating with a puck is not an innate skill. It is a skill that needs to be taught and it can be learned. There is specific understanding required and there are specific physical skill sets to be mastered.
The proper technique is to skate with the head up focusing; as much as possible, everything that is going on on the ice around you while maintaining control of the puck by being aware of it using your peripheral vision as much as possible. The opposite; focusing on the puck while using peripheral vision to be aware of what going on around you on the ice, is simply wrong. It not that you never put your head down; it just that you want to minimize this as much as possible and keep you head up as much as possible.
If You Can’t Control Your Lower Body,
You Won’t Be Able To Control Your Upper Body
There is a lot action going on when playing hockey. Rapid skating, change of direction, stopping and starting, and transition from forward to backward and back again. Since your upper body is attached to your lower body; the more skilled and in control you are with you skating, the better your chances of being proficient at handling a puck while skating.
I’ve always been an advocate of getting proper skating instruction from a qualified source. If you’re going to be an ice hockey player, you’re going to have to put on skates and you better know how to use them proficiently.
Proper Attitude Of The Body
The good news is that the proper attitude of the body is the same as that necessary for efficient skating. An athletic position with feet apart, knees bent and a slight forward tilt of the upper body. The position you would see a football linebacker take or the position one would take if someone were to toss you a duffel bag with some heft to it and you were to catch it in your arms.
Every sport involves “controlled tension”. In this case you want the least amount of tension necessary for the task and the hands, arms and shoulders should be as relaxed as possible. The arms must hang free from the body and the shoulders should be relaxed. (If you ever feel that the arms are locked into the chest or that the shoulders raised and tense; big trouble and won’t work.)
Proper Use Of The Hands, Arms & Upper Body
It’s tough to describe in writing, but I’m going to do my best.
Here’s how they work together:
- The upper hand on the stick rotates and cups the blade of the stick over the puck as it moves from side to side. This action serves for feel and will tend to keep the puck on the blade of the stick during all skating and stick handling maneuvers.
- The lower hand is kept loose and allowed to move freely up and down the shaft of the stick to accommodate the action being taken.
- The arms are kept free from the upper body to allow for the motions that will accommodate the freest and further movement of the puck from the body.
Some Exercises
As a practice exercise, you can stand in an athletic stance with knees bent and feet a comfortable distance apart (using the above and shifting your weight), take the puck and move it as far away from your core in front of you on your backhand side and from there take the puck as far behind you and away from your core on the backhand side. Then as far as possible directly in front of your body and then as far behind your body between your legs. Lastly as far in front and behind on your forehand side.
Another exercise is to stack handle a ball in front of a TV in your rec room. Watch whats on TV and be aware as as much as possible in the room while seeing the ball in your peripheral vision and feeling the ball on your stick. You’ll be surprised how much you can see in the room and still see the ball.
In the next blog I want to give some closing thoughts and knowledge about this subject.
Note:
If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.
Jim Serba and imissmike.com, 2020.