Reply To: Discussion on International Hockey

[Tom Molloy]

From Dean:

Quote by: Aberdeen

Today all the teams in the final 4 practiced at the same time but it was during the time I play hockey so I asked Terry Johnson who did the defense instruction a few weeks ago to video for me. He was volunteering for the tournament. He took about a dozen clips of the Swedes etc. I haven't watched the yet. Swedes, Canada and Russians practiced and the Finns only had a few there.

One thing that really surprised me was NO Transition Games. A few flow drills that were similar but the play went the other way on a whistle. I am a little disappointed that these coaches haven't progressed to that level.

Tom,

I agree 100%. Flow drills (North-South = chip it out / dump it in: give up possession, hoping to either win it back deeper down ice or give it up farther away from your zone), lots of standing around traditional drills… wow, what a let-down. At least there was lots of cool skill stuff off-ice (and some on-ice)!

Watching the practices, I feel that the international game has become far more "North American-ized" than "European-ized" for a variety of reasons. I have seen it first-hand that it is taught in the practices. Possibly, the European teams recognized that they would be playing in North American-sized rinks, so perhaps the philosophy was to 'borrow' what North American teams do, with the hopes of incresing their chances of success?

Most people perceive the NHL as the pinnacle in hockey; thus they want to emulate it… how teams play, etc. and this is reflected in the coaching. These players who 'learn' boring, standing-around, drill-oriented North American hockey (or should it be, unlearn?) 'infect' the other Euro players.

Plus there is so much transference with coaches these days – at least for North Americans… they seem to pop up all over the globe in Euro systems… but the Euro coaches don't seem to either get or make / take the same opportunities here in North America.

How about transference of junior-aged players? Why do you hardly ever see North American's going over to play minor hockey or junior in Europe? It seems to be Europe to North America – exclusively – so far as players are concerned. (After watching the wonderful team play of the Finland U17 National Team at the High School Championships, I would prefer my kids to train under THIS system!)

Tom, you previously commented to me that any team that learned to properly hinge their D-men would hold an incredible edge against their opposition. This leads to increased possession time through always having one support player backing up the puck carrier. I saw this executed consistently by the U17 Finns and you are 100% correct. It makes a huge difference. Even Shattuck St. Mary's tried to do this (just not as consistently) and they were pretty successful – beating the Finns in the final – keeping in mind that SSM's was a much older team. I have seen some signs of a few Euro WJC teams doing this; but the majority seem to have adopted a more North-South approach for this tourney (rink size, emulate the NHL?)

Here are the World Junior rosters showing the number of North American players vs total players by team:

Canada 22/22 (20 Mjr Jr / 2 NHL)
Czech 10/23
Denmark 2/23
Finland 1/23
Latvia 4/23
Russia 6/23
Slovakia 7/20
Sweden 4/22
Switzerland 7/23
USA 22/22 (7 Mjr Jr / 14 NCAA / 1 USA JR)

Perhaps these numbers show why I love what I see in Finland. With the majority of their kids staying home, they have a strong development program and perhaps enough numbers (a critical mass?) to make good results realistic. It will be interesting to see how the Finns respond in today's Bronze Medal game.

Hockey Canada currently has 572,000 kids registered in minor hockey (down more than 200,000 from their peak!); The opposite trend is evident south of the border, where the number of players registered with USA Hockey rose from 195,000 in 1990-91, to 500,579 in 2010. Slovakia currently has about 8000 players TOTAL (including all their pro players up to 40+ years of age; only 200 females registered in total; and about 70 junior-aged kids (18-19 year olds). Finland has about the same number as Hockey Alberta (about 69,000). Not sure of the other countries numbers…

For the Canadian numbers by gender and province, go here – http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.php/ci … a_id/1.htm

I will post this one in the Article forum – http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editoria … nor-hockey

Regarding Slovakia, Igor said that you have about a 1 in 3 chance of being selected for their National Junior team – if you have a Slovak passport and are 18 or 19!

Igor also mentioned that their most-skilled kids (7) who went to play Major Junior in North America are now drastically unfit since they came over – they train far less due to travel; nutrition isn't really a priority and based on my time in the CHL, I suspect the training regimines are not scientifically based on a true Yearly Plan; nor are they 'Long-Term" in nature – they are seasonal at best and are greatly influenced by the ridiculous scheduling of too many games located far aprat. (I think teams would be better off to play two or three in a row to reduce travel and the impact of the schedule.) The Slovaks created an in-country hothouse program to try to keep their juniors together – Team Orange. Time will tell if they are successful (and if they continue to receive the funding to do so!)

Thinking out loud… if I was an NHL GM, when I drafted European players, I would let them stay in their country to develop (provided that country had a strong development program – if not, see if I could place them into a European program that was stronger. Maybe I would encourage some North American prospects to develop in Europe too… a longshot becasue of the 'accepted hockey culture' here and potential rules / ticking off the junior teams here, etc.) Leave the Euro's in Europe to develop their skills until they complete Junior. Then if they need a year or two in the minors and can't contribute to an NHL team yet, so be it. I would look to adapt more of a European training culture (restricted by NHLPA rules) and bring in European coaches / support staff to help change the culture. These things take time – might need 5 or 10 years – and the NHL is a results-oriented beast.

I can't say how much I appreciated the heads-up skill execution and team play by the Fin U17's. Too bad you couldn't keep them together for another 4-5 years and see how they would do…

In closing, myself, Tom and some other coaches on here continue to swim upstream in the adversarial waters of currently accepted North American coaching culture… but like Salmon, we are very determined! Hopefully, we can 'infect' more coaches positively on this site for the betterment of the players and the game!!!

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Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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