Reply To: Diary of a Season 10-11

[Tom Molloy]

Got up at 6:30 and went to the rink for my school skills practice and no one was there. Something going on at the school. I should look at my schedule before leaving.

Great post by kai. How do you get the video to start on the screen like that? Erkka really knows his hockey. He brought me to Vierumaki a few times. Great sports centre there.

Dean I will meet you this morning at the Flames practice and hopefully the Red Wings are on right after. I would love to see them in a real practice and not the pre game skate. I'm still mad at Babc–k for beating us in double overtime for the Canada West title and then going on to win the Canadian Championship with U of Lethbridge. He is a great coach.

In our practice last night I wanted to review some of the things I saw in the game. We warmed up doing a figure 8 in each zone on each side of the ice with various puckhandling tasks. 1. Forward quick hands and quick feet. 2. Backward 3. Face the far end then shoot. Other side-4. Puck only on the forehand. 5. Puck only on the backhand. 6. Alternate turning to the inside then the outside and finish with a shot.

Edmonton got their goal because we rimmed the puck wide 3 times but the winger put her back to the boards each time and stopped the puck with the skates even though she could have picked up two of the rims with the stick and chipped it by the pinch. I had the asst. coach rim the puck and players pick it up while moving. I don't have a diagram of it but the coach was behing the net and the players left from the blueline, swung to the boards to pick up the rim and shot at the far end.

Another thing was poor puck support on the breakouts. No one was close to help get the puck out but instead were skating up the ice away from the puck. We always practice on NHL sized ice but play on international size. It is a huge difference and the gaps between players can get really big. On a pressured breakout I want wall support, the centre coming across for a pass or to help the wing get it out and I want the wide wing coming across the top of the circles for a pass or pick up the chip out in the nzone (also in good defensive position in the mid slot if we don't get it out.) It is also critical the D get to the big ice between the dots and not be forced wide outside the dots. We did breakouts one side, then the other side and they went down and took a shot. I dumped the puck in from the red line and they passed back to me after the first breakout.

We did a simple drill where 2 leave from the middle and the 1 pick up a puck and skate to the big ice between the dots while 2 crosses behind to the outside lane. 1 passes wide to 2 who now skates to the big ice while 1 goes behind for a wide pass. One pass in each zone and then shoot. It goes in both directions.

To promote puck support we did a 1/3 ice game of 2 pass at each end. Goals only counted after a give and go. This was to encourage the passer to jump into the opening after passing instead of pass and watch they had to pass and go. It is incredible how few players give and go and it is the most fundamental principle of the game.

We then did a half ice game of Perry Pearn 3-3 (12 skaters) with the emphasis on the attackers giving close support and the defenders the same thing in order to break out of the zone.

We finished with a game in one zone. The nets were back to back and they played 3-3 with 3 jokers. The defenders had to make at least one pass to the jokers before they could score. Shifts about 40 seconds.

General puck support was the problem. Players should be working together to create 2-1's and not leaving the puck carrier without an easy play.

Attachments

• Rockies Nov 1 practice.pdf (244 KB)

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'