HockeyPlayer TV: Episode 1
Here is our coverage from the 2011 Luc Robitaille Celebrity Shootout, a look at some of our recent product reviews and interviews with Brian Engblom and Pat Verbeek. Take a look!
GearGeek is the world’s first online NHL equipment database.See what every active NHL player is using on the ice right now – sticks, gloves, pants, skates and helmets. You can sort by brands, teams, positions, stat leaders and more.GearGeek is free to …
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…
Here is our coverage from the 2011 Luc Robitaille Celebrity Shootout, a look at some of our recent product reviews and interviews with Brian Engblom and Pat Verbeek. Take a look!
I think I might have a problem, I just can’t bring myself to throw out my broken hockey sticks. Many people pay over $100 for a stick, so when it breaks half way through the season it might be hard to accept the $100 loss and throw the hockey stick out. In this article I will share a few things that you can do with broken hockey sticks. I also have a video showing you how you can build your own defencemen to use while practicing your stickhandling and dekes.
If you have a one piece hockey stick and you break the blade, or pretty close to the blade you can continue to use the shaft, this is very easy to do.
Take off the grip from the top of the stick, this is where the blade will goThere are a few disadvantages to doing this, the stick might be shorter you are used to (depending where it broke) and also some high-end sticks have a specific technologies. For example many sticks have the kick-point manufactured into the stick, by flipping the stick the kick point will be at the top rather than at the bottom.
If the stick broke near the blade, you can flip it and put a blade in it like mentioned above. If the stick is too short after doing this you can keep it for ball hockey or road hockey, or give it to your kids (if you have any)
If the stick broke in the middle of the shaft just cut the jagged part off the shaft, tape a grip on it and give it to your kids to use for road hockey or mini sticks.
This is my favourite option as it will help you improve your skills and you get a free hockey training aid. I did this as a kid and use it quite a bit, I just made another one and thought I would share it with my readers.
)What have you used broken hockey sticks for? Let me know in the comments section below.
Youth coaching tips from Pat Burns
By Alex Carswell
Nov 6, 2001, 19:57
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| ©BBS |
Before he transformed the Toronto Maple Leafs from perennial losers into a perennial Final Four team, before he won 204 games with Montreal, and before he built a .594 winning percentage as an NHL bench boss, Pat Burns coached kids.
“I started with Peewees, Bantams, and Midgets,” says Burns, “(before) going on to Major Junior hockey, which is more of a business. It’s not really youth hockey. (But) Peewee, Bantam and Midget—that’s more of the recreational thing for the youngsters, although it depends whether you work at an elite level or a participation level.
“I worked in the elite level most of the time,” says Burns, recalling the quality of player he coached. “You’d see the kids starting in Peewee (and) you could almost see them going all the way to the NHL.”
Of course, not all hockey dreams come true, something youth coaches and parents must remember. Burns believes that even with promising athletes a youth coach has an obligation to keep a level head—that to do otherwise is a disservice to the young player.
“You start seeing around the age of 15 or 16 whether a kid is going to have any chance to be able to get (to the NHL). But remember, only like one in a thousand kids makes it. So you have to be careful not to make the kid believe that he’s going to play in the National Hockey League.”
That’s not to say that a youth hockey coach can’t have an impact.
“You help the kid along, and if there’s any potential talent that you can see, that you can guide a little bit—and maybe help the parents along, too. But it’s a very dangerous thing to tell a kid he’s going to make it.
“We’ve heard this story many times: that if this kid had a chance he could have made it; that if this kid had a break he could have made it. Well, no. If the kid had been good enough, hewould have made it.”
These are words that stem from ex-perience. It was after returning from the St. Louis Blues training camp that Burns, then a Major Junior player, realized he would never be good enough to compete at the NHL level. So he quit hockey and became a cop. But once he got back into the game—he stood in behind the bench for a sick friend in the early 1970s, and has been coaching ever since—his awareness of hockey’s real world made him a better coach.
The parent trap
Burns emphasizes that parents are often guilty of filling their children with dreams of grandeur, and adds with a laugh the best thing they can do to help a kid enjoy youth hockey: “Leave them alone!” But many parents don’t.
“That’s a problem in minor hockey, that the parents want to overcoach or—you hate to say over-encourage—but sometimes it’s true.” And Burns says even one parent’s overzealousness can have a devastating effect on a team, and a coach.
“If you criticize the coach in front of the child, that’s going to reflect itself, because the kid’s going to tell his teammates, ‘Well, my dad said (the coach) doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’
“When a coach is put at a minor league level, there’s a confidence you have to give him at that point. The people who put him there obviously have screened (him) and decided he knows what he’s doing.
“I think what the parents tend to do—because of the illustrious million-dollar careers now—the parents would love to see one of their kids get right in there, and say ‘Hey, my son’s going to make a million dollars a year.’ And they want to push it.
“That’s where the stories often start of ‘this guy could have made it if he’d had a break.’ Well, as I said, I completely rub that one out. If he’s good and he has the drive, he’s going to make it. And parents sometimes forget that. They prefer to think that their kids were somehow overlooked, badly coached, or badly managed.”
Yet a good hockey parent is the most important element in any kid’s playing experience.
“A child loves to play hockey when his parents or family are present. (When) he does something good, he needs that kind of encouragement. But he doesn’t need the distraction of being discouraged through parents who get up and call referees expletives and call other kids expletives.
“You can’t do that in minor hockey.”
— Alex Carswell
This first appeared in the 12/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2001 Hockey Player® and Hockey Player Magazine®
At forward with Bob Corkum
By Bob Cunningham
Nov 6, 2001, 19:52
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| ©BBS |
Like many of his teammates on The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, center Bob Corkum puts a high priority on the mental aspect of the game. And, Corkum points out, the principle applies to all levels of hockey.
“The biggest thing, I believe, is to be mentally prepared for each and every game, and to work as hard as you can,” says Corkum, who paced The Mighty Ducks in scoring for most of the 1993-94 campaign before injuring a leg with less than a month remaining in the regular season. “You don’t want to get too high when things are going well or too low when they’re not. You want to maintain an even keel.”
Corkum believes the best way to prepare for a game is by establishing a routine that provides the right mixture of relaxation, nutrition and mental focusing.
For Corkum, the routine includes breakfast at Denny’s before the morning skate, then some time to himself to gather his thoughts and “really begin thinking about who we’re playing and what I need to accomplish.”
When things are going particularly well, superstition can also play a part. For instance, Corkum admitted to ordering a breakfast of oatmeal with wheat toast on game day during one particular winning streak.
“You go with whatever’s working,” he says.
It’s A Ritual
A pregame meal in the early afternoon is followed by a brief nap. When he awakes, he begins his ritual of mentally visualizing that evening’s developments. Well before the opening faceoff, Corkum visualizes how he wants the game to go.
“I’ve learned that it’s a healthy approach to the game,” he notes.
Corkum’s game-day routine is a gradual build-up of intensity, peaking just prior to his first shift. But Corkum’s preparation wasn’t always this focused.
“When I was with Buffalo, I knew that I was only going to get a half-dozen to maybe a dozen shifts per game,” he recalls. “I was prepared for limited ice time so I went in with the mentality that I had to show them what I could do when I was out there. I wanted to show that I deserved more ice time than I was getting.”
In Anaheim, however, Corkum became an integral part of the team and changed his pre-game approach accordingly.
“I start thinking pretty early in the day about who I am going up against that night, who our line with be matched up against,” he says. “I know that I’m going to be on the ice a lot, sometimes on power plays or killing penalties. So I know I have to be ready for whatever develops.”
Corkum notes that not all players are willing, able or even need to prepare as thoroughly as he does. He just sticks with what works for him.
“It’s usually the most talented guys that don’t see the need for focusing so far in advance. They can’t turn it on and off like a light switch, although there are some guys that can almost do exactly that,” he said. “They say, ‘why waste a whole day thinking about a three-hour hockey game?’ But I can’t think that way. It may work for them, but not for me.”
Trying Too Hard?
Corkum did point out, however, that there is such a thing as being too prepared for a game.
“When we went back to Buffalo, I was really eager to show them what I could do now that I was getting the chance to play regularly,” he explained. “We had arrived in Buffalo from Pittsburgh and we had two days before the game.
“I was so eager to play that when the game came, I played I think my worst game of the year for the first two periods. I was too keyed up.”
That goes back to Corkum’s advice about maintaining a steady emotional state, and not getting too caught up in individual successes or failures.
“I sure got into it that time,” he said.
Corkum notes that there are two primary ingredients to success playing at center, and oddly enough neither has anything to do with scoring goals.
“The first thing is faceoffs, especially in your own zone. You have to be able to control the puck and get it to your defensemen so that they can clear the zone,” he said.
“The other most important thing about playing center, I think, has to do with down-low play and in the corners, working with your own defensemen. If you don’t do that successfully, it usually results in a goal (for the opposition) or, at the least, a quality scoring chance.
“A center’s job is to do whatever is needed to help win games. If that means defense, he’d better be ready to play defense. When the scoring chances come, he needs to take advantage of them.”
In other words, he needs to be ready. Period.
Bob Cunningham is a Southern California-based freelance writer who contributes to several sports publications throughout the U.S. and Canada.
This first appeared in the 08/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2001 Hockey Player® and Hockey Player Magazine®
Striding forward inline
By Robby Glantz
Nov 6, 2001, 19:50
Summer training is a vital element in improving on-ice performance. I am a firm believer in the benefits of dry-land activities such as plyometrics (spring-coil exercises), sprints, slideboards, bungee cords and in-line skating. An off-season program incorporating these activities will allow you to strengthen the most important body parts involved in skating, your legs and lower body. Of these activities, in-line skating is perhaps the best method to cross-train for ice hockey. It is now also, of course, a sport unto its own. With that in mind, this column will focus on techniques and drills to improve your forward stride while on in-line skates. These tips and drills, if applied and practiced, will give you a great start towards reaching your potential, and becoming the best in-line skater and hockey player you can be.
Techniques
What’s great about in-line skating is that the techniques used are virtually the same as they are on the ice. The following is a checklist of techniques that you should follow (whether skating on in-line or ice hockey skates) in order to improve your skating posture, balance and speed.
l Remember first that all skating is “one foot at a time,” with 100% of your body weight centered directly over the pushing foot. One foot pushes while the other glides.
l To achieve the proper skating posture, lower your body so that your knees bend to a 90° angle. Your knee should end up about two inches out over the toe of your skate.
l Keep your back straight, with your chest even with your front knee, and turn your knees outward (in a bowlegged fashion) to form the letter “V” with your skates (heels together). Turning the knees outward will immediately get your skates in the right position to push directly against the inside edge.
l Roll the ankle of your pushing foot inward to an inside edge about halfway (45°) to the ground (or ice). This creates the strong “grip” from which to push.
l Thrust against that inside edge to the side, using 100% of your body weight, until the leg reaches full extension. Then “snap” the toe part of the skate (the forward wheel of an in-line skate) down and out to get a final burst of power and speed.
l Rapidly return the pushing leg to the center (“V”) position, keeping the skate very low to the ground (or ice), and repeat with the other leg.
Drills
The best drill for working on the forward stride is descriptively called “Drag the Toe and Touch the Heels,” and is something that should be constantly performed both on in-line and ice skates. To execute the drill follow the techniques outlined above, being sure to slow the tempo and exaggerate each maneuver.
The drill requires that you drag the inside part of the front two wheels of the in-line Skate (or toe part of the ice skate), with the foot facing outward, as you return it from its full extension point. Then, click your heels together (while standing on one foot only) to form the “V” position, and go again. Remember to keep your hips facing directly in the line you are traveling by making your pushes more to the side, and not to the back.
This exercise will allow you to “feel” your mistakes more clearly. For example, if you are unable to bring your heels together while on one foot, then you will know that you are having trouble centering all of your weight over every push. And if you are turning your knee downward rather than outward when attempting to drag the toe, then that tells you that you are having a problem finishing the push in the proper manner — and are therefore losing valuable speed and power on each subsequent stride.
Finally, mastering all of the techniques of the forward stride takes a lot of time and practice. Don’t get discouraged if you can’t perfect your stride overnight: no one else ever has. The most important tips to remember are to keep bending your knees lower than what might feel comfortable, or natural, and to put all of your energy into every single push. That alone will get you going faster and give you more confidence, no matter what you’re skating on.
This first appeared in the 08/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2001 Hockey Player® and Hockey Player Magazine®
Overloading the power play
By By Fred Pletsch
Even though you can’t go much beyond the basics with kids, Clarkson University coach Mark Morris says that in youth hockey, just as in the NCAA and NHL, personnel and execution are critical factors in the success of the power play.
The first pass on the power play is the most important in allowing the attacking team to gain position and set up inside the offensive zone.
“The key for any good breakout is to create a little bit of width and depth,” says Morris, now in his seventh year with the Golden Knights. “You’ve got to make sure you’ve got the width of the ice covered with attacking players, and you also want to create some depth from your own goal line to the far blueline. (That way) you’ve got men ahead of the puck carrier, but not too far away, and anytime you’re coming out of your zone you want to make that first pass a hard, short one — preferably to a guy in motion.”
How you proceed across the offensive blueline will depend on the defense encountered.
“If they’re going to stand up on the blueline, then you want to dump it in — either around the boards or into the opposite corner,” advises the 1991 ECAC Coach of the Year. The players without the puck must be in full flight when it’s surrendered, and you should shoot to an area where your teammates can get to it first.
“If the other team tends to let you carry the puck into their zone, you want to make sure your puck carrier is driving hard and wide (in order) to make that defenseman respect your speed and try to get him to turn, which opens up a lane on the inside,” explains Morris.
How To Overload
The most basic power play formations in college hockey are variations of what is called the “overload system” and are easily adaptable to youth hockey. Here’s how it works:
“You want to have a guy somewhere down below the goal line, to one side of or behind the net,” chalk-talks Morris. “Then, preferably, you have a winger on the hash marks near the boards, a defenseman at the blueline near the boards, and the other defenseman directly in front of the net (but back at the blueline). The fifth player is a weak-side player, and is either in front of the net or off on top of the far circle.”
This “overload formation” creates manpower superiority on the strong side while leaving the threat of a trigger-man on the far side.
Energetic puck movement is an integral part of a smoothly functioning power play. Morris says a short, crisp pass with a lot on it is like electricity jumping from one player to another. “You can really feel the confidence and surehandedness when somebody gives you one with something on it. You want to beat people with good, short, solid passes and stay away from those high-risk attempts that wind up as dump-outs back into your zone where you have to start all over again.”
Once in formation, says Morris, “the guy below the goal line has the option of playing catch with the forward on the boards. He can step out from behind the net if that option is open, or he can rotate with the man on the boards — who would enter the defensive box and then continue the cycle (by going) below the goal line while the first guy is on the opposite side of that elliptical shape you’re trying to create.”
Use Your Best
You want these two players to be your best puck handlers, since their role is to create motion while maintaining possession. Morris says the player behind the goal line has several other options, too. “He can step out and look for the weak-side forward coming down to the goal mouth for a tap-in pass, or he can feed a defenseman who is trying to sneak in the back door.”
Clarkson also likes to work in a high rotation from the overload formation. “You send the (middle) defenseman down through the slot and have the trigger-man come back and fill his spot,” says Morris. “That’s the high rotation. You can usually collapse the defenders’ box by sending somebody down the middle. Then you send the puck immediately to his replacement up high. If you can feed him, and you’ve already collapsed the box and caused a defender to turn away, then you’ve got an opening down the middle to move in and exploit — possibly with a shot from a high percentage scoring area.”
The Clarkson Golden Knights devote a minimum of two hours of practice time every week to their power play. They tinker with countless variations of different systems, depending on the success they’re having and the opponent they’re preparing for. But because of limited ice time in youth hockey, Morris suggests a basic system with learning-progression components.
“Teach them one basic system, such as the overload, and once they can do it in their sleep you can experiment with new twists.”
A successful power play is an intimidating weapon at every level of hockey, and even youth hockey teams should be able to overload the scoreboard with power play goals. l
Fred Pletsch is a veteran OHL and AHL broadcaster who currently covers the Cornwall Aces for CJFS radio.
This first appeared in the 08/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2001 Hockey Player® and Hockey Player Magazine®
This first appeared in the 08/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
Making daydreams come true
By Mitch Korn
Preparation, both mental and physical, is critical to a goaltender’s success. The physical preparation required is fairly obvious: drills, exercises, stretches and flexes can all be designed to fine-tune a goalie’s game. But since most goaltenders will tell you that a large part of their game is “mental,” how does one best prepare a goalie’s mindset?
Today, sports psychologists play a greater role than ever before in helping players develop routines to properly prepare themselves mentally for a game.
With the Buffalo Sabres, both of our Sports Psychologists, Dr. Dan Smith and Dr. Max Offenberger, spend a great deal of time helping players deal with the pressures of the game, the gaining and loss of confidence, and their overall mental preparation.
The mental-preparation buzzwords these days are “mental imagery” and “positive visualization.” These describe the process of thinking good thoughts and visualizing positive situations — like making big saves — and concentrating on how you feel while all this good stuff is happening.
In truth, this sophisticated 1990’s concept is nothing more than a fancy label for exactly what I did when I was a kid — daydream. Back in my youth, daydreaming was frowned upon because some believed it promoted a “loss of focus and preparation.” It’s funny how time changes things, because today mental imagery is encouraged in order to enhance focus and preparation.
In addition, this kind of mental exercise builds a player’s confidence — because they can “see” themselves succeeding in big situations, when it counts the most.
Picture This
By using mental imagery, a goaltender can literally practice “reading and reacting” to game situations, and physical-skill executions, in their minds.
Picture the other team’s best player (a right handed shot) coming at you on a breakaway. You come out five feet past the top of the crease and slowly back up. The gap between you closes. The player fakes to his forehand (your glove side) then cuts to his backhand on a deke. You make a quick transition from the small shuffle you took because of the fake, push with your left leg and make a great two-pad slide to your stick side (originating from the top of the crease, moving diagonally to just outside the post), and make a magnificent save. Naturally, the rebound goes harmlessly to the corner.
Wasn’t that fun and easy? By preparing for this situation in your mind’s eye, the next time it happens on the ice, you’ll be ready! The goaltender can do this kind of mental routine for as many situations as there are in a game.
If a goalie is giving up too many goals — either on the ice or in his mental imagery — there may be a confidence or self-esteem problem. But all those saves he visualizes himself making will go a long way toward enhancing a goaltender’s confidence and self-esteem. If a goalie feels prepared for success, the odds are better that he will experience it.
See, mom? Daydreaming isn’t so bad after all.
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.
This first appeared in the 08/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2001 Hockey Player® and Hockey Player Magazine®
This is our initial review of the Easton RS Stealth. More to come soon!
Every time we get a product in the mail, we are very excited to take a look at it and get our hands dirty. I have to say that I haven’t been as excited to try out a new product like I have been with the Easton RS Stealth. Since Easton Hockey started to post pictures of it being used by Michael Cammalleri and Zach Parise among others during the playoffs last year, I hoped that it would arrive at our office door. … Continue Reading
