Reply To: NHL Team Finally Practicing Hockey at Practice

[Tom Molloy]

Dean, now the challenge to you.

How would you have run the ice times. There are 39 skaters and about 6 goalies and they have two ice times in the morning and one together in the afternoon.

I watched the afternoon scrimmage and they can all skate and handle the puck but the Swiss player Baertschi was by far the best. The #1 pick Jankowski is only 17 and 6'3" 170 lbs. He was really good when the puck was on his stick and also found open ice without it. Reminds me of Nugent-Hopkins. Not a clue how to angle or check but he has only played high school hockey and probably had the puck all the time there.

Some players were creative but not many. One defenseman had the scrimmage from hell and gave the puck away 8 of the first ten times he touched it. Gnerallly not much close support or creating 2-1's.

Horak, Rheinhart, Grandlund, Gaudreau, House, #72 and a few others were the best and most creative. The group tends to play the game backwards. I.e. Skate wide and pass into the middle where there is no room instead of skate to the big ice and pass wide.

I am going to go watch again today but won't be able to the next two days as I give private lessons in the morning.

If you look at the video section with pro practices the next one is a pre game skate that Detroit did. It was a good session and the next few videos are examples from the prospects camp a few years ago. Even though a lot of the drills were very good it was more like a hockey school with skill stations and drills under no or little pressure. I am sure the players that were there didn't need that kind of instruction. They all would have gone to many hockey schools and camps growing up. So comparing those practices with the one yesterday is a giant step forward.

I personally would have used a lot of the same games but kept track of scoring and give aways and run it like a tournament and then continue the standings the rest of the week. At the end of the camp you would know who was making the plays and who was managing the puck.

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