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Drill:1. Place O in each corner with a puck2. D starts in front of net and skates toward one of the O3. When he stops and transitions, the O drives the net and they play 1 on 1 until a score, puck freeze or D clears the puck4. D then picks another O an…
I’ve been asked a lot over the years what I look for in a player during evaluations. After watching my son during various AA & AAA Ice try-outs, I’ve been thinking more about this topic and wanted to share a bit of what I look for and some ot…
| By Gianni Raimondo | Printer friendly page |
Players need to accept defensive responsibilities as a crucial part of the game and understand the importance of keeping things simple and basic in your own zone. If you make a mistake in your own end, the opposition will get a direct scoring chance. Some key elements of Defensive Zone Coverage (DZC) is proper positioning on the ice, hard work, communication with your teammates, and keeping things basic.
There are several systems that teams use for their DZC, but the end result is the same; to get back possession of the puck and go from defense to offense. There is not one system that is better than the other; it is just based on what the coaching staff is comfortable with and the strength of the players.
At an early age, all players must work with some form of Zone Defense, so they get familiar with their basic positioning on the ice. As players get older, they will probably get familiar with more advanced systems, such as man to man, or Box plus One.
I will be discussing a system which is called “The Combination”. The name originates from the fact that this system is a combination of zone defense and man to man coverage.
Combination DZC
The “Combination DZC” is a system that many PRO and Junior teams use. Although some teams might call it different names, this system is basically a combination of Man to Man coverage with a Zone Defense.
This system includes both conservative and aggressive elements, which make it very useful for teams to be successful. The conservative aspect is that each of the 5 players is responsible for one of the five areas in the defensive zone (Zone Defense), whereas the aggressive aspect comes from the fact that players are given the freedom to leave their area and help out a teammate in another area (when you are out numbered in a certain area of the zone). Players are encouraged to pressure the puck and be pro-active in the defensive zone, not re-active.
Responsibilities:
D1
– move in and challenge the puck carrier
– pressure/contain/stall your man
– keep your eyes up on his chest
– stay between your man and the net (defensive side positioning)
– keep a tight gap if possible
D2
– protect the front of the net area
– control opponents stick, play tough, keep defensive side positioning (referees allow more physical play when battling in front of the net, be aggressive)
– if your man moves away from net area (high slot), you need to stay in his shooting lane, and take a few strides in his direction
– if puck changes corner, or area, you have to read your defensive partner, you can either wait for your partner to come protect the net area and then you go and pressure the puck carrier (release), or you can stay in front of the net and let your partner go and pressure the puck carrier in the opposite corner. Either way there always needs to be a defenseman in front of the net (Communication with your partner is very important).
F1
– the first forward into the defensive zone (not necessarily the center) plays down low supporting D1 battling for the puck
– always stay in between your man and the net
– do not over commit where one pass can beat two players (yourself and D1)
– if defenseman gets beat, play the 2 on 1 and stall play as much as possible
– if puck changes corner, you need to follow the puck to opposite corner and continue supporting defenseman (stay down low)
F2
– the second forward back into the zone should cover the weak side slot area, secure middle of the rink
– keep your head on a swivel, know where puck and your point man is at all times
– your main responsibility is to protect the front of the net (slot area), and your second responsibility is the weak side point man (although this can vary depending on coaches philosophy)
– make sure weak side point man does not sneak around you and rush to the net
– Be ready to block shots
F3
– the third forward back into the zone should cover the strong side point.
– keep your head on a swivel; you are responsible for strong side point man, make sure he does not beat you to the net by going around you
– stay in between your man and the net, staying away from the boards to take away the lane to the net
– be ready to sag down low if necessary if a teammate gets beat and your team is outnumbered in the slot area
– you are responsible for defending the high cycle, staying with your point man
– Be ready to block shots
Overall Key Points to DZC:
– ALWAYS protect the net area
– Always stay in between your opponent and the net (defensive side positioning)
– Never give up a second scoring opportunity
– Team work is key
– If back checking forwards are not sure where to go – ALWAYS go down to the slot area and figure it out from there.
– When blocking a shot you must get directly in front of the shooter.
– When the puck is along the boards the first defender takes the body and the second get the puck
– For F2 & F3, always be ready to SAG to the net/slot area if a teammate down low gets beat
– Some teams (coaches) switch F2 & F3 responsibilities (example they have F2 cover the strong side point). Either way, forwards need to understand the importance of having all 5 players back in the defensive zone as quickly as possible
– Some coaches want their weak side defenseman (in front of the net) to play man on man with the player in the slot area and follow him wherever he goes (man on man)
Defense at the Posts – when opposing player is behind your net with the puck
• Defense at the Posts (DAP) is making sure to cut off the opposition at the goal line, by preventing the offensive player from attacking the net from below the goal line.
• If opposition is set up in back of the net, have both defenseman protecting one post each, facing the puck carrier behind the net.
• F1 should be in the low slot area, ready to protect one of the posts that are left vacant by a defenseman that has attacked the puck carrier.
• F2 & F3 should sag down in the high slot, with a head on a swivel making sure they are aware of their point men.
• Always try to make attacking player come out behind the net on his backhand.
Gianni Raimondo is a regular columnist at HockeyPlayer.com. He currently coaches at the Midget Level in Montreal, Quebec (Deux Rives Organization). Gianni, who is a CMA accountant, also has his own coaching website where he is the site administrator and head writer. http://www.behindthebench.t83.net/
This first appeared in the September/2007 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2003, Hockey Player® LLC and Hockey Player Magazine®
Posted: Sep 13, 2007, 20:25
By Matt Vensel
As the charter bus pulls up to the leading docks of the University Union on a sunny Monday afternoon, it’s too late for the members of the Towson University roller hockey team to work on their slap shots or to hit the gym for one last workout. As the bus slowly comes to a halt, the countdown finally hits zero. After seven and a half months of late-night week-night practices at a rink in a remote industrial park forty-five minutes away, grueling conditioning sessions that consisted of running seemingly endless sprints and pushing around a pick-up truck, and grueling game weekends that pulled the players away from regular campus life twice a month, it is time to see if the team is ready to finish what it has started.
The players are upbeat and excited, better yet, hyper, as they load their bulky equipment bags and hockey sticks into the storage compartments under the bus. They hop up the steps of the bus with their backpacks and pillows in hand to grab seats near their closest friends on the team. Are they excited because they think they have a realistic shot at winning the 2007 National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association (NCRHA) National Championships, or are they simply excited that this demanding season is finally coming to an end? It’s hard to tell right now, but it seems like the former.
When the 24 players, the coach, and the coach’s wife are finally settled on the bus, the bus driver calls out “Who’s in charge here?”
“I’m in charge of nothing here,” coach Kevin Murphy loudly answers. When speaking with his deep, raspy smoker’s voice, the no-nonsense coach commands the attention of the team at all times, but he speaks the truth. He’s here to coach the team on the rink; nothing more, nothing less.
With that, the bus slowly begins to pull away from the Towson University campus, fittingly heading into the sunset toward St. Louis, Missouri.
THE WAITING GAME
A few miles down the road, Jim Tamburino, a 25-year old graduate student and the captain of Towson’s roller hockey team for the past five years, yells out “Cowdell, let me see it!”
Ryan Cowdell, a freshman with childlike dimples and a struggling mustache, steps into the aisle wearing a pair of Speedo-esque briefs over his shorts. He’s the only rookie on the team, so he’s been forced to wear the ridiculous briefs over his clothes for the entire trip. “Beautiful!” yells Tamburino.
“Shake that, baby! Shake that!” yells Keith Huffman, a junior defenseman.
Never refusing an opportunity to dance, Cowdell shakes his stuff for a brief moment in the aisle to the delight of his teammates. “Looking good, baby,” he says confidently.
There is a ton of chatter on the bus and the sounds of laughter and the opening of drinks and bags of chips fill the bus. Stuart Miller, who isn’t one of the fittest players on the team, is devouring a turkey wrap.
“Stu! I heard you ate some cake at the ECRHA meeting! I have photographic evidence!” yells out Roy Pumphrey, another graduate student and the 26-year old assistant captain. “When we get to St. Louis, you better get your running shorts on. You’re doing some running!”
Once the bus gets off the beltway, Huffman pops “Talladega Nights” into the bus’s DVD player and the driver turns down the interior lights. Darkness, then eventually silence, falls over the bus. Within a couple of hours, all that can be heard is the hum of rubber tires on pavement, the shifting of gears, and the soft drone of a few iPods.
Fifteen hours and 862 miles later, the bus arrives at the team’s hotel in St. Louis. The team doesn’t play its first game until 2:15 Wednesday afternoon, which is another 28 hours from now. The waiting game begins again.
In that span, the players relax, socialize, watch a lot of TV, eat a couple of big meals, and get some much needed sleep in their hotel rooms (a welcome luxury after being crammed on a charter bus for what may have felt like three days to some of the players).
The night before their first game, a matchup against the University of North Texas Eagles, some of the veteran players start to get introspective. For some of the guys on the team, this is their third, fourth, or even fifth shot at the national title. And for a few of them, this will be their final shot.
Pumphrey is one of those players. After playing three seasons for the team and finishing his undergraduate degree in 2005, he had thought he was done with the NCRHA. But after taking a year off, Pumphrey has returned to the Tigers to finish what he started.
Sitting by the hotel pool in a blue NCRHA T-shirt, shorts, and a Towson hat, Pumphrey is an imposing figure. Though he is only 5’9”, he is tremendously muscular and fit. A graduate student focusing in Health Science, he was the mastermind behind the team’s strenuous off-ice conditioning program.
While downing a protein bar and a can of soda, Pumphrey speaks candidly about his five years with the Tigers.
“The actual beginning of the program was about five years before me. I was part of the second generation from going to playing recreationally to actually having a competitive team. When I first started playing, we practiced by playing 3-on-3 games with a ball on tennis courts that were about fifteen years old. We’ve gone from that to finishing in the top eight, at least, in the last four years.
“This year is a little different. We’ve had a lot of curveballs this year, more than usual. We could have been in a really good position this year and we shot ourselves in the foot several times. The drama, as a whole, trickles through the team and has a lasting effect.
“I’ve already had one last year. This is last year number two. I came back because we have a good enough team to win and I was able to come back. I could play, so I did. I have spent $1,595 in class fees alone to play, just because I want to win so badly. You play to win, that’s why I play. The expectation is to win the national championship each and every year and nothing less. If you’re not playing for that, you shouldn’t be playing. Winning would be the greatest thing I ever did in my life, bar none.
“We win. Plain and simple, we win. [Teams] should think we’re overconfident. We’re here at nationals for the fifth year, and that’s not a coincidence. It’s the same teams that go every year to Nationals. Why is that? It’s gotta’ be something. Yeah, we’re cocky. Yeah, we’re confident. Are we over-confident? I don’t think so. I don’t think that any of us expect us to roll through everyone.”
THE FIRST GAME
It’s a half hour before the start of the Towson-North Texas game and the Tigers are busy in the locker room preparing for their first round-robin game at Nationals. The team will play in three round-robin games before moving on to single-elimination bracket play.
The players all sit on flat steel benches, getting their gear and their minds ready for the game. One player is sawing a stick down to the preferred length. The starting goalie, Mike Burke, has a saw of his own; he’s doctoring one of his wheels so it spins properly. A few players are tying their skates, heads down in thought, stopping only to have the occasional swig of Red Bull. Pump-up music ranging from Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses blares from a stereo. There are three or four separate conversations going on as everyone talks strategy with nearby teammates.
Eventually, the players begin to put on their Towson uniforms. Today, they’re the home team, so they will be wearing their white jerseys along with black, yellow, and gray roller hockey pants. If you’re unfamiliar with roller hockey pants, they resemble something that MC Hammer might have worn back in the day.
Greg Pantaleo, a senior forward, announces that his adrenaline is starting to pump. “Last Nationals,” he explains.
“This is the first step to glory, gentlemen,” says defenseman Chris Harrell, who is another one of the five graduate students on the team.
Coach Murphy slips through the locker room door, not disturbing any of the players. He’s wearing a black Towson pullover, a black hat, khakis, a white dress shirt and a tie. He stands silently by the door, not mentioning a single word. Murphy has coached in the league for years and he knows how to let his veteran players lead the team.
“This is why we signed up, boys. This is why we signed up,” says Tamburino.
Tamburino is the unquestioned leader of the Towson University roller hockey team. He is bright, engaging and passionate. His hard work and dedication over the past five years is the main reason that the Tigers have been to four straight NCRHA Elite Eights.
However, the road that led him to this point has been long and winding. After graduating from high school, Tamburino, a native of Long Island, moved to Nova Scotia to play junior ice hockey. He had hoped to use that experience as a springboard to playing ice hockey in college, but after six months, he was cut from his team. He returned home to New York and considered giving up the game he loves.
Although he didn’t give it up, his goals have significantly changed.
“[Winning the NCRHA title] is the one accomplishment I’d love to get. That’s the reason I’m here. I started a grad program and took two grad classes just so I can try to win this year. It means that much to me that I’m willing to sacrifice a lot of things for it,” Tamburino would later say.
“Roy [Pumphrey] and I had an agreement that if one of us was coming back, the other one was. Chris Harrell and Burke came back. It was something that we all wanted to do and agreed to do. We said we would do everything possible this year to win this year and that if we took the extra step this year, we would get that much closer. We’re getting closer and closer every year, and honestly, it would be the greatest feeling of my life to accomplish that. I never thought roller hockey would make me feel that way.”
The first step toward that elusive NCRHA championship trophy is now only ten minutes away.
Everyone is fully equipped and sitting quietly on the benches of the locker room. Burke is staring down at the ground, chin in his jersey, not moving at all. This may be his last Nationals, and he wants to finally get over the top and make it to the finals.
Tamburino calmly and quietly breaks the silence. “One game at a time,” he says.
“Let’s fuck these guys up! Send them back where they came from!” screams Roy.
“Let’s bring it in boys,” says Harrell, and everyone huddles up around Huffman in the middle of the locker room.
“You know what comes from Texas? Steers and queers! And they don’t have horns!” yells Pumphrey, a reference to the movie “Full Metal Jacket”
“Let’s go boys!” yells Huffman. “Tigers on 3!”
1!
2!
3!
TIGERS!
They all file out of the locker room where Tamburino is waiting at the entrance to the rink, giving them a tap on their heads as they step out onto the rink.
The players get a quick three-minute warm-up, performing some standard drills to get their legs going. The buzzer sounds, ending their warm-up and ending their long wait. The time to perform has finally arrived. Has the team truly done everything it could to prepare for this moment?
Before the starters line up for the opening face-off, they all skate back to tap their goalie, Burke, on his leg pads with their sticks.
Both teams line up at the face-off circle, the puck is dropped, and they’re off to the races.
Towson strikes first, taking a 1-0 lead just 51 seconds into the game as Pantaleo buries the rebound off a shot from Dane Houser, his sophomore linemate.
North Texas answers right back to make it 1-1 with 9:07 remaining in the first period.
Thirty-six seconds later, Pantaleo scores his second goal of the game on a wrist shot to take the lead back, but once again, North Texas ties it up moments later.
Houser adds a powerplay goal at the 6:10 mark and Pantaleo scores again seventeen seconds later, recording a hat trick to make the score 4-2, a lead that the Tigers would never surrender.
By the time the first period ended, Towson had registered an impressive 7-2 lead. The game of roller hockey, which is played 4-on-4, is generally higher scoring than ice hockey, but this wild scoring pace is very unusual. Then again, this afternoon’s opponent is easily the weakest challenger that the Tigers will face all tournament.
The Tigers coast to an easy 9-3 victory over the Eagles, but they don’t have much time to rest, as their second round-robin game is in just a few hours.
The players grab a quick bite to eat at Quiznos and head back to the hotel for a power nap. They’re going to need the rest. They’re taking on a familiar foe, the Florida Gators.
THE RIVALRY GAME
It’s hard to imagine that two schools located 1,000 miles apart could have an intense rivalry, but one exists between Towson University and the University of Florida. That’s part of the lure of collegiate roller hockey: any school, big or small, can end up being hated enemies. These two teams have met in bracket play the past three years. Each time, the loser was sent home for good.
In the Elite Eight of the 2004 National Championships, Florida knocked out Towson in a 3-2 overtime thriller.
The following year, the Tigers got their revenge as they sent the Gators packing with a decisive 5-1 victory in the Sweet Sixteen.
Last year, the Tigers again eliminated Florida, this time with a 3-2 overtime victory in the 2006 NCRHA Elite Eight.
Considering the history between the two teams, it’s not surprising that they will meet again in St. Louis, but this match-up isn’t an elimination game so neither team will be going home just yet. That doesn’t mean that these two teams will let up the slightest bit, however.
This is evident even before the drop of the puck.
Well before the start of the game, Tamburino is stretching outside of the Towson locker room, but his pre-game ritual is interrupted by a Florida player who is trying to bait Tamburino into some extra-curricular activities.
“You guys are gonna’ lose,” the Florida player mutters.
Tamburino is definitely not a stranger to this kind of abuse, as he’s one of the most hated players in the NCRHA for his rugged and aggressive style of play. He has been to mix it up from time to time, but at this moment, Tamburino is only focused on the task at hand. He simply turns and looks away, saying nothing. He plans on doing his talking on the rink.
The Towson captain returns to the locker room, where The Game is blaring from the speakers of a stereo. When Coach Murphy enters the locker room, the music is turned off. He’s more vocal before this game than he usually is.
“Guys, listen,” Murphy says. “This team is a pretty quick team. They’re disciplined. Keep your feet moving. Don’t try to skate through three guys. Move the puck and shoot on this goalie.”
“Gentlemen, if you’re going to get up for a game, it’s this one,” adds Harrell.
Milliseconds later, Pumphrey, intense as always, yells “Fuck that! Let’s play our game and fuck these guys up!”
The game starts off like a chess match with both teams playing tentatively and carefully, as if they’re sizing up one another. For the first few minutes of the game, neither team takes any chances because it doesn’t want to be the team that makes the first mistake.
Finally, 5:15 into the game, the Tigers strike on their patented trick play. Tamburino innocently carries the puck from his own end down the left boards. As he swoops in behind the net, the goalie follows him in an attempt to beat him to the right post. The goalie beats Tamburino there, but the Tigers’ captain has already made a discreet little drop pass to Pantaleo, who is wide open on the left post. He bangs the puck into the yawning net to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
Towson scores again two and a half minutes later. Seconds after the Tigers kill off a two-minute Gator power play, sophomore forward Mike Parlon hits Pumphrey, the now-exonerated penalty-taker who has just stepped out of the box, with a long bomb pass. The pass springs Pumphrey on a breakaway, and he buries a backhand between the goalie’s legs to make it 2-0. That would be the score at the end of the first period.
Halfway through the second period, Towson runs its trick play again, but this time it’s from the right side of the rink. Cowdell easily buries the Tamburino pass. 3-0: Towson. Minutes later, Houser adds a power play goal, and the stunned Gators call a timeout.
Florida comes out firing after the timeout and scores a goal 42 seconds later, but Tamburino makes the score 5-1 on a beautiful individual effort in the final minute of the period.
Minutes into the third period, the Gators score a second goal to make the game interesting, but Burke and the Tigers are able to hold the fort the rest of the way. Harrell scores a power play goal with 4:18 remaining to ice a 6-2 Towson victory.
“Huge fucking win, boys,” Houser says to his teammates on the bench.
“We should have been doin’ this all year,” announces Pantaleo.
None of his teammates have a response for that, and the bench becomes silent.
THE BLAME GAME
The Tigers get a big lift heading into their third and final round-robin game against the Eastern Michigan University Eagles, who have also gone 2-0 in round-robin play: Josh Stein, the team’s leading scorer during the regular season, is returning from a two-game suspension that carried over from the regional qualifying tournament.
Watching the team from the stands, as you might imagine, has been difficult for the junior forward.
“It was painful not being out there because I wanted to help out and I wish I could have done more. I wanted to be playing and out there, helping my team win,” Stein said, while lying in a bed in his hotel room. “The first game, the team won, but they didn’t look as they should have, and in the second game, they looked great and won 6-2. I’m very excited to get out there.”
It is 7 a.m. Thursday, and the Tigers are already out of bed. There’s a team rule that states that all players must be awake at least two hours before the start of all games. The team grabs a quick continental breakfast and some coffee at the hotel and heads to the rink for the 9 a.m. showdown with the Eagles.
Towson jumps out to an early lead when Pantaleo scores 1:55 into the game. So far, Pantaleo has the hot hand for the Tigers, recording at least one goal in every game and five goals for the tournament.
Eastern Michigan evens the score at 1-1 minutes later, and the first period ends with the score tied.
Towson takes back the lead late in the second period when Harrell rips a wrist shot from the left circle past the Eastern Michigan goaltender for a power play goal.
However, in the third period, the game slowly starts to slip away from the Tigers. Some of the Towson players have been taking extremely long shifts all game long, and their fatigue is starting to show. They stop skating hard and beating their opponents to loose pucks. As a result, the Eagles are dictating the play of the period.
However, the Tigers have a chance to pad their lead when Stein is awarded a penalty shot after he is pulled down from behind on a breakaway.
He slowly skates in on the penalty shot, dangling the puck from left to right and right to left. Right as he puts his head down to make his finishing move, the goaltender springs forward and pokes the puck away with a well-executed poke check.
“I was very excited to be out there, but I didn’t play well,” said Stein after the game. “I had a chance to put the game away, but I missed a penalty shot. I think rust was partially a factor.”
Halfway through the final stanza, Harrell takes a costly interference penalty, and Eastern Michigan takes advantage of the opportunity with just over four minutes left in the game. The score is now tied at two with plenty of time left on the clock.
As the game reaches the final two minutes, the Tigers are completely out of gas and Eastern Michigan has all of the momentum. The Tigers are desperate to take the lead back, but their aggressiveness backfires when they give the Eagles an odd-man break. Vinny Jalaba, an Eagles forward, cashes in on the opportunity to give Eastern Michigan the lead with 1:40 remaining on the clock.
The Eagles add an insurance goal in the closing seconds to seal a 4-2 victory.
Back at the hotel after the game, Pumphrey is extremely frustrated with his teammates after the tough loss.
“We played really good for the first period and played really terrible in the second and stopped skating, and in the third, we were a mess. We could have easily smoked that team. They relied on three guys that scored their goals. Basically, they had one line,” Pumphrey said.
“Somehow, someway, some of us decided they were going to be heroes and play extra long shifts so they could score a goal, and they were tired and couldn’t skate on the rink. And that beat us in the end. If we would have skated hard the whole time, we would have easily beaten that team pretty bad. We could have smoked them.”
Now the team must wait until the seeding for elimination play is announced to determine who they will face in single-elimination bracket play.
In the meantime, the players kill some time, calm their nerves, and fill their stomachs with some pizza back at the hotel. The greasy pizzas, ten in all, are enough to do the trick. They have already forgotten about this morning’s loss and they’re joking around and laughing.
The seeding is announced around 10 p.m. The Tigers have a favorable bracket (the overwhelming tournament favorite, Lindenwood University, is on the other side of the bracket), but they first must get past Florida International University, a relative unknown in college roller hockey, on Friday afternoon.
The Tigers are already looking past that game to who they might face down the road in the championship. If they can beat FIU and then potentially Eastern Michigan, a favorite to win their first-round game, the Tigers will be in the Final Four again.
“I am excited about the bracket. I am confident that we will do very well and I think we can go all the way to the finals. We’ve never seen FIU, but based on who they played and who they lost to, we believe we can beat them,” Tamburino says. “It’s important that we don’t overlook them. Just concentrate on this game, go out and beat them, then focus on the next.”
Cowdell, the baby-faced freshman forward, came to Towson University not only because of its education program, but for its roller hockey program. He was heavily recruited by Towson and by the University of Connecticut, but in the end, he knew Towson was the right choice.
“[Delaware] was my first choice, but I didn’t get accepted,” Cowdell explained. “I talked to Jim Tamburino. He emailed me and said, ‘You should look at Towson.’ I applied, got it, visited, and it was love at first sight. I applied because of roller hockey, and when I found out the education department was good, I definitely wanted to come.”
Games like tomorrow’s games are the reason that Cowdell is at Towson, but he is both excited and nervous for Friday’s game.
“First game, I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous. It’s definitely nerve-wracking. But now, it’s just hockey and I’m going to go out and play and have fun. I want to go out and win it for the other guys,” he explains. “They’re great guys. I don’t want to be the one who blows it. I want to win for them.”
THE GUT-CHECK GAME
In the locker room before the Sweet Sixteen game against the FIU Golden Panthers, the Towson players are very loose. They’re making jokes, chatting it up, and laughing. It seems like they’re confident that they will be able to dispose of the Golden Panthers and move on to the next round.
The iPod stereo system finishes up another up-beat track, but instead of routinely switching to the next pump-up song, it eerily selects at random the audio from last year’s loss to Michigan State in the Final Four.
Welcome to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Towson Tigers take on the . . .
Burke quickly skips ahead to the next track, but from that point on, the locker room was ominously and solemnly silent.
Coach Murphy enters the locker room for his pre-game speech. He makes sure that he hammers home his main point: the Tigers should not overlook FIU.
“Guys, this is the first game in bracket play. If everyone plays to their potential, this game will be a lot easier. Whatever you do, DO NOT take this team lightly,” he says calmly, but sternly. “This is do or die for us, so we have to take it seriously out there. Play like you guys have for the last couple years.”
Things don’t start well for the Tigers.
Stein takes an early roughing penalty thirty-two seconds into the game, and the Golden Panthers quickly take advantage when Ben Miller buries a one-timer from the right face-off dot to give FIU the 1-0 lead.
The teams exchange chances for most of the first period, but the Golden Panthers capitalize again when Alejandro Ortiz sends a wrist shot past Burke for the two-goal lead.
The Tigers, already in a hole, need a goal before the end of the period to get back in the game. So what do they do? They run their favorite play on their unsuspecting opponents. With five seconds left in the first, Pantaleo slips Tamburino’s pass into the net and it’s 2-1 FIU after one period.
Towson’s momentum from Pantaleo’s goal carried into the second period as the Tigers are completely dominating the Golden Panthers. They are firing shots at FIU goalie Carlos Novoa from all angles, but none of them can find the back of the net. Finally, five minutes into the period, Harrell gets one past Novoa to tie the game at 2-2.
The Tigers, threatening to blow the game wide open with another goal, continue to pepper Novoa. He makes several key saves and the Tigers help him out with a few missed wide-open nets. With less than two minutes remaining in the period and Novoa seemingly on the verge of passing out due to exhaustion, Pumphrey takes a costly roughing penalty that kills the Towson momentum.
With nine seconds left in the period, Miller strikes again on the power play, giving the Golden Panthers the lead back and sucking the life out of the Towson squad.
At the onset of the final period, the Golden Panthers now look like a team that thinks it can take out a roller hockey powerhouse and the Tigers look like a team that’s sensing its season slipping away.
The Tigers look desperate. They’re hesitant, sloppy and out of position. They’re one bad break away from completely combusting.
Three minutes and ten seconds in, that bad break happens.
The Golden Panthers break into the Towson zone and Ortiz fires a snap shot that misses the net high and wide, but the puck takes a crazy bounce off the glass behind the net, and careens back toward the net, off the back of Burke’s leg, and into the net.
The Tigers are now facing a two-goal deficit and the clock is not their ally.
As the time ticks down in the game, some of the Towson players still aren’t showing any urgency, lackadaisically skating up and down the rink.
Tamburino, who is usually pretty calm on the bench, explodes.
“Guys on this team have heart and soul and would bust their asses out there!” he yells at his teammates on the rink. “If you’re not going to skate, get off the rink!”
With 5:46 left in the game, FIU scores again, pushing its lead to 5-2. Murphy calls a timeout. His players sullenly sit on the bench around him with their heads down. After fifteen seconds, which feel like fifteen minutes, he finally speaks.
“You guys should not be losing to this team,” he says loudly. “You can either roll over and play dead, or you guys can come back and win this game.”
Play resumes and the Tigers show signs of life for the first time in over a period. When Pantaleo scores his second goal of the game with 3:07 remaining, the Towson bench erupts. With the score 5-3 and momentum on their side, the Tigers can get back into this hockey game.
Ten seconds later, FIU skates down the rink and puts another puck past Burke to make it 6-3. The Towson bench goes silent, and you can feel the air slip out of the team again. That should do it.
But some of the Tigers refuse to give in. Five seconds later, right off of the ensuing face-off, Cowdell grabs the puck, flies down the rink, and fires a shot through Novoa’s five-hole to make the score 6-4.
Towson’s bench goes wild again. This rollercoaster-ride of a game must be nauseating for the players, Murphy, and the Towson fans in attendance.
FIU takes a penalty with 59 seconds left and the Tigers pull the goalie, giving the team an extra attacker for a 5-on-3 advantage.
In the waning seconds of the game, the Towson players desperately shoot the puck on net, hoping for the bounce that goes their way. They chase after the puck when it is cleared by their opponents into their zone and they skate back down the rink and try again. This cycle repeats a few times, but their bounce never comes.
The final buzzer sounds.
Game over.
Season over.
For some, career over.
The players skate into the locker room, take off their helmets and gloves, and sit down. Murphy enters the locker room and everyone stops what they’re doing.
“For two and a half years, you guys were a team . . . but at some point this year, you guys fell apart,” he says. “When I came here to coach, I told you guys that if you stuck together, you could beat anyone. That was a horrible display of roller hockey.”
Then silence. No one moves.
After a few minutes, Harrell softly says “This is my last time in this uniform. I don’t want to take it off.”
As their teammates begin to get remove their equipment, Tamburino and Harrell take forever to get undressed. They leave their white Towson jerseys on while they take off the rest of their equipment.
Usually, when undressing after a hockey game, the order of equipment removal goes as follows: helmet, gloves, jersey, elbow pads, skates, pants, shin guards, hockey girdle, and then jockstrap. After a game, the jerseys are soaking wet and heavy, with a distinct, awful smell. Yet, these two players haven’t taken them off. These two players don’t want this to be the last time they play in their Towson jerseys. These two players don’t ever want to take them off.
Tamburino sits silently in his jersey, his jock strap, and white tube socks that stretch up to his knee caps. His head is down. He may be crying. It’s hard to tell. Murphy is also silent, and also has his head down. He is chewing on a piece of gum, probably craving a cigarette. All of the players sit in street clothes, not saying a word. One by one, they slowly start to gather their things and file out of the locker room. Parlon is the first to go, and others follow his lead. All that can be heard in the locker room are the sounds of zippers, long signs, and the swish-swoosh of the black Towson University warm-up suits.
Murphy and a few of the graduating players remain in the locker room. They haven’t moved in 20 minutes. Eventually, Murphy breaks the silence.
“C’mon guys, let’s get out of here,” he says softly, his voice almost cracking when he speaks. They would have sat there for hours if he hadn’t said something.
The veterans exchange handshakes and hugs, without exchanging a word, before exciting the locker room with heads held high.
A few days after the Tigers returned to campus, at the apartment in Cockeysville that they share with Burke and Huffman, Tamburino and Pumphrey were able to evaluate what went wrong.
“The first word that comes to mind is disappointment. I don’t know if we took them likely or what, ‘cause we got prepared and we said that we weren’t going to take them lightly, but at the same time, I think that we were anxious to play the games further on and it cost us that game. We played terrible as a team. It was actually embarrassing . . . and very disappointing. Guys definitely overlooked that team. We didn’t expect them to work as hard as they did and they came out a lot quicker than us and they beat us,” Tamburino regretfully said.
“I honestly believed from the beginning that there was something about this group . . . we were very talented but we didn’t have that same drive or that hunger that Towson used to have. We used to be anxious to win games and anxious to achieve something. This year, it just seemed like guys were just expecting to win instead of going out there and earning those wins. We tried to find that fire, but we never did.”
Pumphrey also felt the same sense of disappointment as his longtime teammate.
“Some of the guys on the team looked past that game,” Pumphrey added bluntly. “We didn’t play hard until the end of it, and by then, you’re already out of any type of rhythm and out of any type of flow and you have absolutely no chance of getting it back. It’s very, very disappointing, but that’s the way it goes.”
This is the end of an era for Pumphrey, Harrell, Pantaleo, and Burke. But for Tamburino, this may not be it just yet. The heart and soul of the Tigers desperately wants to lace up his skates and throw on his #6 jersey one last time.
“I’m hoping to be back next year, to be honest. If everything works out with the grad assistantship [I’m applying for], you’ll probably be seeing me. I’ll know in a couple of weeks. If not, I can look for a full-time job and take a few classes just to play out my eligibility, which I would love to do. I’m crossing my fingers. I would love to spend one more year and go out the right away. I don’t want to go out like this. We can do it all over next year, make some changes, and go on one last run. I’d rather go out knowing that we did it the right way.”
Whether he comes back next year or not, Tamburino has always done it the right way, even if he doesn’t have a big, shiny, gold NCRHA championship trophy to prove it. He may not realize it yet, but he has the unwavering respect and admiration of his teammates that look to him for inspiration, and that’s worth more than gold.
By Gianni Raimondo
Every player should learn the basic elements of taking a face-off, no matter what position you play. You do not have to be a center to take a face-off. There might be an opportunity during the game when you will be called upon to take a face-off.
Becoming a face-off specialist is more of a mental game than a physical one. When you are in the face-off circle, you must have confidence in yourself and believe you can win the face-off. That is the first step in becoming better with your face-offs.
| Photo taken by Colin Dillon |
Before you enter the face-off circle, you must first decide what you are going to do with the puck. Will you draw it back or push it forward? Then position your teammates to where you want them to be on the ice (this is extremely important).
The player taking the face-off is responsible for making sure the other skaters are in proper position.
In addition, look at the positioning of your face-off opponent.
1) Is his body turned to the left or right?
2) Is he using a backhand grip on the stick?
3) Is one skate back away from the face-off circle?
You should always look for signs from your opponent as to what he intends to do with the face-off and adjust your strategy.
If their body is turned or one skate is slid back away from the circle, chances are they want to move the puck in that direction. If they use a backhand grip on the stick, this usually means he wants to draw the puck back. Half the battle is figuring out what your opponent is going to do. You should always look for signs from your opponent as to what he intends to do with the face-off and adjust your strategy.
Steps to taking a face-off:
Place your stick blade on the edge of the face-off circle.
Evenly distribute the weight on your skates.
Choke up on the stick by sliding both hands down the shaft of the stick three to four inches and crouch down.
Grip your stick firmly.
Point your toes forward.
Once you decide what you are doing to do, keep your eyes on the hand of the linesman anticipating the drop of the puck
There will be times when the person you are up against is much quicker and has better success than you during the face-off. You can combat this by either choking up on the stick a little bit more or take a defensive approach. The defensive approach is achieved by attacking the stick of your opponent. Bring your stick under your opponent’s stick a few inches above the blade and lift up.
This will eliminate your opponent from using his stick and enable you to either move the puck with your stick or tie up your opponent and kick the puck with your skate to one of your teammates. Attacking the stick is also a good approach to use when the face-off occurs near your own goal. In that situation, you never want to lose the face-off “cleanly”. You either want to beat or draw with your opponent but never give them a clear shot at your net.
This first appeared in the November/2007 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2010Hockey Player® LLC and Hockey Player Magazine®
By Robert Hineline and Andrew A. Turnbull
With your skates sharpened correctly, you’ll skate better and get more enjoyment from your time on the ice. Whether you’re an NHL professional, an amateur player, or you just enjoy a good workout on your hockey skates during public sessions, knowing what to ask for from your local skate sharpener should help you get the most out of your skates.
There is a great deal of science and technology associated with skating, including skate design and skate sharpening; the field is known as “skateology.” While you don’t need to be a skateologist to get the most out of your skates, it helps to understand some of the terminology, to know how sharpening can affect the performance of your skates, and what questions you should ask.
There are some skate sharpening definitions that you’ll want in your hockey vocabulary. These include the parts of the blade, like the “rocker” and the “hollow,” and terms for blades that are flawed like “out of square” or “high edge.” Since the material used to make your blade influences how long it will keep an edge, you’ll want to know about blade material. You’ll want to know how often to get your skates sharpened, and some hints for problems that may result from incorrectly sharpened blades.
The Rocker
No, not Tommy Lee or Eddie Van Halen. The “rocker” refers to the curved profile of the blade running along its length. Whereas skates of former generations used to be flat, forwards and defensemen of today skate on curved blades, which are said to have a “rocker” (netminder’s blades are flat, and have no rocker). Along the curve of the blade, or rocker—which runs front-to-back—there is a balance point which affects the center of gravity for the skater.
When skates are first purchased, this balance point (or pivot point) is in the center of the rocker. Many skaters will be satisfied with the rocker left alone with the balance point in the center. However, if you are a defensemen, you may want that balance point moved forward along the curve of your blade in order to set your center of gravity back, providing an advantage for backward skating. Meanwhile, the forward may want the balance point moved to the rear of center in order to shift his center of gravity forward, providing an advantage for forward skating.
The skater who thinks that his skates make him feel like he is falling forward or falling backward may have the balance point in the wrong location. His problem might be solved by requesting that his skate sharpener move the balance point of the rocker either forward or back along the curve to correct the center of balance.
The Hollow
The “hollow,” also known as the radius of hollow, refers to the depth of the groove ground into the running surface of a blade during sharpening. If you turn over your skates and look at the groove between the two edges of the skate blade, you’ll see the hollow. The depth of that hollow can influence your skating, and different skaters will select different hollows for their skates. Decisions regarding the hollow will often depend on what position one plays and also on the hardness or softness of the ice surface.
When the hollow is shallow, making the bottom of your blade relatively flat, you are more likely to hydroplane along the ice. Forwards and most recreational skaters who want to get speed out of their skates will demand a relatively shallow hollow. However, when the hollow is deeper, the blade will cut deeper into the ice, providing for more control.
Defensemen, who need to be able to turn quickly and make quick starts and stops, will prefer a deeper hollow. Goaltenders choose much flatter hollows than the skaters in front of them, especially the “sliders” and “butterfly” style goaltenders who tend to stay in the crease. But the skating goaltenders who come out of their crease often use a deeper hollow than their stay-at-home counterparts, for better turning and more bite into the ice.
The hardness of the ice surface you usually skate on may also influence your choice in depth of hollow. If the ice is soft (for instance, it’s slushy and has lots of ruts in it), you may want a shallower hollow to help you hydroplane over the ice. When you skate on harder ice (which doesn’t get very chewed up, even during public sessions) you may choose a deeper hollow to permit more of a bite into that hard ice.
The unit of measurement for the depth of the hollow is based upon the radius of a circle on which the hollow would accurately fit. In illustration No. 1, three different skate blades are shown positioned on top of circles, each with a different radius. The top blade was cut for a goaltender, using a 1” radius, so it has a very shallow hollow and is relatively flat. For the middle blade, the skate sharpener made the radius of hollow 1/2”, which is the hollow of choice for most forwards and recreational skaters. In the bottom example, the defenseman’s blade can fit accurately upon a circle with a 7/16” radius, which means its hollow is deeper.
Have skates,
will travel
Players from the Southwest who are taking a trip to play in Canada should keep in mind that the Canadian ice tends to be much harder than Sunbelt ice. Some northbound skaters use a 3/8” radius for a much deeper hollow during the trip. However, upon returning home they go back to the shallower hollow.
Your local skate sharpening expert will likely have a radius of hollow gauge which he can use to set the grinding equipment to your desired hollow. This gauge has numerous cutouts of portions of circles of various radius lengths. At some skate shops, the sharpeners may use other lingo to identify different depths of the hollow. It’s best to spend a few minutes with your sharpening expert to let him know your preferences for the rocker and hollow, and to understand how he identifies the various settings.
Hip to be “square”
A skate that is out of square, or has a high edge, has one edge that is higher than the other. This can lead to a skate turning much more easily in one direction than the other. This is analogous to driving a car that needs a front-end alignment.
The way to determine if your skate has its two edges square to the side of the blade is to turn the skate upside down, hold it up to where you can look across the length of the blade, and place a quarter over the two edges. If the side of the quarter and the side of your blade comprise a “T”, then your skates are correctly in square. But if one side of the quarter sits higher than the other, you have a high edge, and your skates are out of square. See illustration No. 2.
Blades of steel
Modern hockey skate blades are made from either “high-speed steel,” “stainless steel,” or they may be “titanium-coated” (these are the gold colored blades). High-speed steel is less expensive than stainless steel, but unlike stainless, high-speed steel can rust. If you find rust spots on your stainless steel blades, its because you’ve come in contact with someone wearing high speed steel.
Titanium coats may be put over either high-speed steel or stainless steel when the blade is made. A titanium-coated blade does not rust, keeps its edge longer, and does not get dinged as deep when coming in contact with other objects. Titanium-coated blades, naturally, are more expensive than the other types.
If you use the hard plastic walking guards, use them only for protecting and transporting your skates, but not for storage. Since the plastic walking guards get damp, they can rust your blades if left on the skates for long periods. For storage, the best thing to do is take the walking guards off, wipe your blades dry and put them in cloth blade guards.
When should I sharpen my skates?
A rule of thumb for beginners and recreational skaters is to sharpen the skates every 10-to-15 hours on the ice. For example, after skating at fa handful two-hour public sessions, it’s time to get your skates sharpened. This is especially important for beginners because they need consistency in their edges while climbing the learning curve of skating ability. Some hockey players may choose to get their skates sharpened before every game, even though it can be rather expensive.
Do your skates need to be sharpened? Here’s how to tell: Hold the skate upside down with the toe in one hand and the heel in the other. Holding the skate up to the bright lights inside the rink, pivot the skate toward you the same way you would turn a thermometer toward you when you’re trying to read it. If there are dull spots on the skate, they will show up as little spots and lines of reflected light, and it’s time to sharpen.
The “tilt-and-look” method is superior to, and safer than, the old method of running the back of your fingernail across the blade to see if you leave shavings on the blade. Injuries are reported about once a month by people who use this rather inaccurate method. Neverthe-less, some people use the fingernail method to test consistency of the sharpness of each edge of the skate.
Can skates be too sharp?
Yes. Beginners can run into deep trouble if their skates are too sharp. For most skaters who have skated less than two or three years, some amount of “tuning down” (dulling of the blades) will be required. If the blades are too sharp for the skater, he may find himself stopping too fast—the skates stop, but the body keeps going.
Some skaters will take their freshly-sharpened skates and run them along a piece of wood to tune them down. This is a less accurate method than having your skate sharpening professional use a consistent method of tuning down your skates to your ability and your desire. Goaltenders usually request that their skates be tuned down more than skaters.
Was the sharpening done correctly?
Here’s how to tell: First, take a look at the bottom of the blade and observe the “grain of the sharpening” along the length of the hollow. Do the lines run straight along the length of the blade, or are they crooked and run crossways between the edges? Straight lines indicate that the skate was ground correctly. Crooked lines will lead to friction and slow you down. Another test is to carefully run a pen along the length of the hollow and check to see if the line you have drawn runs straight and smooth.
Incorrect handling during a sharpening may lead to a skate blade getting “burned.” If the blade is discolored after sharpening, the skate may have been overheated from being held to the grinder either too tightly or for too long. This means the “temper” (or hardness of the metal) may be lost, which leads to edges wearing off faster.
Diagnostics
If you find that at certain speeds your skates wobble back and forth and become difficult to control, this probably isn’t due to your skating ability. It’s probably due to one or both of your skates being out of square (having a high edge). Try the method described above for determining if your skates are out of square, then take your skates along with a description of the problem to your skate sharpening professional.
A skater who finds his skates slip too much may need a deeper hollow. As mentioned above, the deeper hollow will permit the skate to bite into the ice better.
If your skates seem “sluggish” after a sharpening, and you’re used to getting more speed, you may be used to a shallower hollow. Going to a shallower hollow will provide you more speed, but—in the trade-off—you may give up some of your cornering abilities. l
Robert Hineline is a veteran skate sharpener. Andrew A. Turnbull is a freelance writer.
This first appeared in the 12/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2010, Hockey Player® LLC and Hockey Player Magazine®
| By Mitch Korn |
After spending the past four seasons as the goaltending coach for the Buffalo Sabres organization, I thought I’d share some things that seem to separate the pros from the rest. Here’s what makes them so special.
While being an NHLer appears to be very glamorous (and at times it is), it is an enormous commitment, and a very demanding life. If you are like Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur or Trevor Kidd, among others, you play almost every game—and with just two goalies on most squads, you can’t miss practice.
A demanding schedule
The schedule is unbelievable. The players simply do not stop for eight months. There are no days off, no weekends, and certainly no vacations. The players are either traveling, or on the ice every day. On game days, they skate twice! Those who cannot handle it run out of gas, either physically or mentally.
Heck, the schedule is tough for me—and I do not have to face the rigors of actually playing!
Here’s a typical week:
On Tuesday, players begin arriving at 9 AM for treatment from the trainers (most everyone has some injury that needs attention). From 10:30-Noon there’s practice. At 3 PM, a flight to, say, Hartford (normally a charter). And of course there’s a midnight curfew.
On Wednesday, players begin arriving at the rink at 10 AM to prepare, watch (opposition) Hartford practice and receive treatments. At 11:30, we practice. At 1 PM, the team meal. From 4:30 on, the locker room is open for medical treatment, rubdowns, and equipment (sticks, etc.) preparation.
Puck drop is at 7:30, then a midnight flight back to Buffalo that gets in around 1:15.
Thursday starts with an 11 AM practice. Most players begin arriving at 9:30, however, for medical treatments, physical therapy, etc. Often, players make personal appearances in the early afternoon or evening—from hospitals to card signing, they are very active in the community.
Friday, players begin arriving at the rink early for treatments. Practice runs from 10:30-Noon. At 3 PM, the charter flight departs for Montreal, where the midnight curfew is in effect.
On Saturday, players begin arriving at the Montreal Forum around 10 AM. At 11:30, practice starts. The team meal is at 1:15. At 5 PM, the locker room opens, and at 8 o’clock it’s gametime versus the Canadiens.
Bed down after the game? Not quite.
The midnight flight to Buffalo arrives at 1:30 in the morning, and then the following day a morning media conference is required. Media interviews, often quite a distraction for the players, are also required before games. Is Sunday a day of rest? Well, no. But the 10:30 AM practice is optional. Those needing treatment take it as required. Those who were not in the line-up or who played very little the prior night hit the ice. Options are over at 11:45, when the team meeting is held. At 4 PM the locker room opens in preparation for a 7 o’clock home game against Boston.
Monday and Tuesday, it’s more of the same: 11 AM practice, medical treatments, strength training and rehabilitation that’s done before and after practice. Those who were not in the line-up or who played very little stay on the ice for “extra work,” and do extra off ice—in the weight room, etc.—too.
Wednesday, practice is early, 10 AM. The team meeting is at 11:45, and the game starts at 7:30.
And so it goes.
Between traveling to and from arenas, airports and their homes—along with taking the time to eat very nutritious, excellent meals (fuel in is fuel out!)—along with doing personal appearances, meeting with the media, working out with the strength coach, etc., there is very little time left for much of anything else.
Yet a home life has to fit in somewhere! Most players also have a wife and children.
Other demands
A tolerance for pain is also a player’s prerequisite.
NHL goalies are tough. They have bruises everywhere, even with the best of equipment. They play hurt and with pain. They have to, if they want to keep their job. And yes, it is a job. If you can’t play, someone else will. While they are team oriented, players are always concerned about keeping their job—and about how they might do on their next contract.
Mental toughness is also required. It’s not easy “getting up” for every practice and all 84 games. The best goalies in the NHL do. They are able to keep that demanding schedule and “come to play” almost every night. And when things don’t go right, they are able to bounce back immediately. They have great confidence levels. They believe in themselves and back it up with their performance.
Naturally, a strong work ethic is vital to success.
There is no “floating.” Too many others want your job. While some do float, they often don’t excel over the long run. They come and they go. The best players are on the ice early, and stay on late.
In Buffalo, I can always count on Dominik Hasek to display those work habits. In the past, I have been most impressed with Bill Ranford’s work ethic, seeing him practice as many as four times on off days. Even on game days, he’s the last off the ice!
True big-leaguers take responsibility. It’s easy to blame the defense, or the centerman, etc., when a goal is scored, but the best NHLers take full responsibility for each goal. It’s their job, regardless of any mistakes in front of them, to stop the puck. They have fire—a great desire to make the difference and never be content to give up goals that should go in. They want to be amazing. The best don’t dwell on goals. They don’t let the goals upset them, but rather use them to get fired up and not give up another. They respond to coaching, and never have an excuse.
The amazing thing?
These NHL players may be the best at what they do now—thoroughbreds, with exceptional physical and mental skills and great athleticism. But don’t be scared! They started just like every other youngster, playing house league, travel team, getting up at 5 AM on a Saturday morning.
They started out like you.
The difference? They took advantage of their opportunities, improved their game by mastering all of the above.
Work hard, everyone, and you can too!!
Mitch Korn is the goaltender coach for the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL. In addition, he is an administrator at Miami University (Ohio) and directs the 8-week Summer Hockey School. Miami has Division I ice hockey in the CCHA.
It is said that a team “plays as it practices,” and Shawn Walsh believes a coach must be thoroughly prepared for practice if he expects his players to be properly prepared for games.
“The key is to prepare when you’ve got quality time,” says the University of Maine coach, who recorded 200 NCAA Division 1 hockey victories faster than any bench boss in history. “I’ve found I can’t even prepare my practices in the office anymore because there are just too many distractions. Just to give you an idea, and we were only too glad to sign every one of them, our team (once) had 17 requests in one week alone from different charities in the area (asking) for autographed sticks. So I try to stay at home for at least a half hour—sometimes an hour—and just sit there and plan my practices.”
The inspiration for good practice ideas should come from your most recent game action.
Make notes, improve thinking
“The key to developing a good practice is to watch situations that are happening on the ice and, when you see them happen, make a mental note or physically write them down,” says Walsh. “Then, when it’s time to plan your next practice you know what you have to do to put your players in those same situation.”
It’s important to place young players, especially elite players, into thinking situations.
“I think we’re all doing a pretty good job in North America of trying to improve our physical skills,” Walsh notes. “There are plenty of handouts available on what drills can improve agility, what drills can improve shooting and what drills can improve stick-handling. But what drills are there to improve thinking?”
Can’t you tell he’s a college coach?
Walsh says coaches (and players) should look at NHL games and watch how an Yzerman, or a Lemieux, or a Gretzky thinks. Study the really intelligent players and try to glean something from them that will help your players think a little quicker, anticipate things a little faster and, in the big picture, understand the game better.
From a team perspective, practice must be as challenging for the best players on a team as it is for the least-skilled.
“Kids love competition,” says Walsh. “The only thing you’ve got to watch with competition is that it has to be structured so that the worst players aren’t always losing. You know who is constantly getting beaten on your team, who’s not scoring goals and who’s playing the third line. So set up a drill that almost guarantees that those kids are going to have success.”
For example, take your two best forwards and match them against the other seven. Let the bottom seven guys feel good about themselves.
Draft, play games
Walsh also likes to see situational zone play made into a “game within a game” at practice.
“Face off scrimmages are always fun,” says the coach who knows a strenuous workout has been successful when he sees smiles on his players’ faces when it’s over. “You take ten guys in an offensive zone face off and the squad that’s on defense gets one point for carrying the puck, not shooting the puck, out over the blue line. The offensive team gets two points if it gets a shot on net and five points for a goal. At the end of the drill, or end of practice, see how many points the groups have accumulated.
“Many youth hockey teams consist of three units of five players,” Walsh adds, “so maybe you could have a draft before practice. But set it up so that some of those lesser players will be rewarded, and watch how hard they will work when they have an incentive in mind.”
Walsh uses a similar system at Maine, and the incentive there is that the losing five some has to clean up the locker room after practice. Walsh adds his players love the challenge, and if he can get his Hobey Baker Award candidates picking up used tape and soda cans, youth hockey coaches should be able to get their star players doing it, too.
Walsh says he constantly has to remind himself that hockey is a game of mistakes—although there’s a consensus among opposition teams that Maine makes fewer than most. He’s been a head coach for 10 seasons, but is just beginning to learn about the ratio of positive-feedback-to-constructive-criticism when dealing with players.
“All of us that coach, whether you’re a volunteer or (someone) coaching an
NHL club, want to see your guys do well, and the natural tendency is to point out the things they don’t do well. We pat them on the back, but I wonder if we do it enough. We’ve got to make sure we try to improve that end of it by just staying positive. Don’t jump on your guys too much, and just let them play through it. It helps.”
