TIMMINS - Timmins native Andrew Boucher continues to add to his impressive resume in the hockey world.
A very good player in his own right here in Timmins and later Ottawa, Boucher is now assisting other athletes as a video coach with various elements of Team Canada. This past weekend, Andrew was part of the Canadian women's under 18 world gold medal. Canada went undefeated in the tournament, eventually blanking the US 3-0 in the final game.
Every year we've seen more and more the importance of having a good video/assistant coach in hockey. A lot of people think the most important aspect of a video coach is the role they play in challenging calls on the ice. While this is a facet of the job, it is but a small part of the role. Breaking down the game and using it as a valuable learning tool for players and coaches is the most important element of a video coach's role. Congratulations go out to Andrew, the coaches and players of our national women's U18 team.
Almost on a nightly basis, you can listen to hockey analysts talk about the struggles of a team's power play. You will hear them talk about things like a team not practising a power play or other things like who comprises the five members of the power play. When it comes to practising the power play a lot of the most successful power plays in hockey do not spend a great amount of time practising it. The first time I learned of this notion was at a coaching symposium a few years ago. During a session on power plays a Stanley Cup-winning coach whose team had a highly successful power play unit explained his philosophy. He rationalized that they didn't spend a lot of time practising the PP for the following reasons:
Firstly, the PP uses the most gifted offensive players on your team. Offensive players find ways to get open ice or good positioning on defenders to get high percentage scoring chances at any time during the game. These gifts are magnified when the opposition is short-handed and more opportunities to score are available. Like most offensive chances it is about creating odd-man opportunities against your opposition. It is only natural that a PP enhances the opportunity to do so.
Secondly, the proper personnel on the ice during the PP is of utmost importance. Some teams use an element of size to have a net front presence to create even more open ice and potential screenshots or deflections. You also do not want a PP that slows things down and gives the penalty-killing unit time to adjust and defend. You want the puck moving quickly and accurately around the zone. The presence of highly skilled offensive players increases the opportunity for PP success. In other words, the more individually skilled the players on your PP are, the more likely you are to be successful.
Power plays and offense are built by general managers. Penalty killing and defensive structure are built by coaches. Penalty killing and defensive responsibility can be taught and practiced for improvement and while offensive principles can be taught, their execution is reliant upon skill. The ability to find time and space and execute high percentage opportunities is predicated almost entirely on offensive creativity. While there are many elements that can be fine-tuned for a PP, the vast majority of the reason for success is still a high skill level. There is a reason most losing teams have ineffective power plays. They don't have the skill level or personnel to be effective. Probably the most effective means a coach can employ towards his PP is finding the five players who exhibit good chemistry to be an effective unit.
Of course, not everybody will agree with the above philosophy. That's what makes this game so intriguing. The various approaches teams take to find success or avoid failure in areas of the game are ever-evolving and creative.
Timmins has an inordinate number of Fighting Irish fans and all are anxiously awaiting Notre Dame's upcoming national championship game in football. Notre Dame has not won a national championship since the 1980s. It's time for the Irish to grab another national championship. Go Irish!
Later skater.
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