Week 17 - Playing Efficient Hockey
The easy road is easy for a reason. A lot of times taking the hard road has huge benefits for later. The tournament to enter the New Year could be viewed as disappointing. We all love to win. Winning and losing doesn't make you a better hockey player though. How you respond to adversity and defeat DOES have a significant impact on your hockey playing career though.
We have 2 travel tournaments coming up very quickly. We saw a lot of good things in the last tournament. We also saw a couple things that we really need to work on. This next couple weeks, the focus is on patience and "efficient" hockey. We are still burning a LOT of energy chasing and it costs us late in games because we are tired. The drills this week were specifically chosen so we can learn from our mistakes in Vancouver. Efficient hockey is the only way we will compete in California a couple weeks from now.
We will need everyone giving their best effort. Ask questions. Challenge each other. Iron sharpens iron.
NOTE: Stats are not updated yet. I had a lot of game video to process for thinking about practices and our next tournament. They will be updated soon.
See everyone on the ice!
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Extra reading:
- Watch the coaching clip in practice plan
- Defending 101: Just Because You Are Standing Next to Someone, Doesn't Mean You Are Guarding Them
- Watch an NHL game, or re-runs from the World Juniors. Pay attention to the defensive zone. Pay attention to the PKs.