A second New Year's resolution for me. Stop using helium balloons to train my hunting falcons. The first was to stop training falcons when neighbours’ cats are playing in their yard.
Early on in the season, I raved about the moves Calgary made in the off-season and how it made them a better team. Well, I still believe that. Huberdeau seems to be adjusting a little better to a new system and I think most of the roster realizes that they have the personnel to go deep in the playoffs. But if they don't soon put that realization into effect, they could find themselves not even making the playoffs. Never mind the new guys. Some of the vets from last year's strong club have not been playing as well as last season. Until everybody gets on the same bus, they may continue to flounder.
As for my Penguins, they are in jeopardy of being unable to extend the longest continual playoff appearance streak in pro sports. (Not coincidentally during the Crosby era.) With goaltender Jarry unable to stay healthy the Pens have thrown away some valuable points.
He is soon to be back and, hopefully, that gives them the spark to climb the playoff race ladder. Last year DeSmith did an admirable job in the playoffs until he was hurt. But it's a lot to ask of your back-up to log heavy minutes any time in the season.
Crosby has been having another MVP consideration-type season and I'd hate to see them bow out. Even with Jarry, the Penguins have fallen behind early in a lot of games and that's a habit they are going to have to break soon.
Hats off to everyone involved with last week's U18 Canadian Curling Championships. They masterfully pulled off a hugely successful and exciting event. Just another example of the fine volunteers we have in our city, who make us all so very proud. The city was abuzz.
RELATED: 'It was pretty amazing': Timmins curler makes national event debut"
SEE: Local curling team throws rocks with Olympian
Leave it to the bureaucrats. What an ugly mess they have put our esteemed women's soccer team in. No national team representing Canada, let alone the defending Olympic champion, should be subjected to inadequate funding. To have our athletes scrounging for fair compensation for the many sacrifices made is just plain lousy. It's a longstanding problem that needs urgent attention. The money is there. Why deny the players a fair share? More than just I would really, really like to know.
A while back I had the chance to watch my Atom-aged nephew play while on a trip down south. He was playing defence and was a confident, smooth skater who made getting out of his zone that was a boon for his club. And here is the rub. I did not hear anyone from the bench or the stands yell “pass the puck" over and over. And that is because of the coaching.
Whenever one of the team's D gets a chance to skate up a puck, especially against a passive forecheck, they are encouraged to move it out. As open outlets appear they make a pass to continue moving the puck up ice. I have never understood the whole “pass the puck” philosophy when a D has open ice to take. I listen to coaches at all levels talk about how hard it is to find defencemen with good offensive skills that can move the puck up effectively. It may have something to do with not allowing and teaching D men how to take the ice allotted to them and develop a vision of the ice. Allowing them to skate with it increases confidence, develops skating skills with the puck, and promotes defencemen to become engaged in the offence.
I was very pleased to watch an Atom-aged team move up the ice as a unit. When there was pressure on the D, you could tell they spent a lot of time making a quick pass to an open forward or their partner. There's enough pressure on young D on the ice, without the added pressure of hearing “pass it” when they have time and space.
Yes, there are times when the young D screw up while skating it up, but that's how you learn. And when they did screw up, I never heard or saw any chastising for it. Just encouragement and correction methods. Without the coach's philosophy as a base, the development of the defencemen would be stagnant. It was so refreshing to watch a team so young not just banging the puck off the boards/glass hoping it gets to a teammate. They are taught how to read the pressure, or lack of it, and respond in an efficient manner.
A lot of people might deduce that it is common sense to use this approach and must be universal. Well, not quite. A vast number of teams don't have the luxury of patient coaches and parents who afford the time needed to develop what I believe to be the most important team skill you can teach. Getting the puck out of your zone cleanly and safely. I see far too much of just hammering it out and hoping for a positive outcome. I could also tell by watching my nephew's team that the coaching staff spent a large amount of time teaching and developing read and react skills. Reading whether it was pressure or contain, reacting to open ice or open teammates, etc. Too many kids regardless of position handle the puck like a live grenade. Being patient and providing an environment to get comfortable handling a puck is vital to a kid's continued development. It makes the transition to more involved tactics and individual skills that much easier. Other than that ace goalie that bails you out with massive saves, nothing puts a coach or teammates at ease more than knowing you can count on your D to clear the zone.
I also found out, to no surprise, that the team spends a great deal of time working on their passing skills. Both in moving and stationary situations. You can see that along with skating, passing skills and puck movement are the basis they are building on. They will gradually increase their skill sets as the coaches gauge proficiency.
I guess I'm just trying to convey my support to coaches at the young levels to develop individual skills first and team skills second, along with patience to develop puck movement skills to successful levels.
And be careful not to get caught in the trap of running breakouts that rely heavy on formulation. As in repetitive player placement drills. Have coaches and staff move into areas as forecheckers to allow players to hone their read and react skills to find the proper outlets , run a reverse , carry out , etc. Will it be chaotic? It will be at first . But the kids will get better and better at it as you keep doing it.
An old friend who I coached against for many years and was an NHL veteran use to have a classic line about break outs. “How many breakouts are there in hockey? Two … the right and the wrong way!” I love it still today.
Later Skater!
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