Articles

[Bob Gaffney]

Another favorite article.
Bob

[Bob Gaffney]

This is a fantastic study that was done a few years ago. While it doesn't mention hockey, it specifically speaks about praising a child's effort not the result. This is the very reason why there should be no "participation" trophies in sports.

Bob

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Bob great to see another coach contributing ideas.
Tom

Attachments

• How Not To Talk To Your Kids.doc (75 KB)

[hockeygod]

Great articles Bob! Thanks for posting! Keep 'em coming!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Tom Molloy]

Bob,

This era of forced positive reinforcement has been around since the 80's at least. I remember taking a summer graduate level course on effective teaching and the only thing the professor used to evaluate teacher effectiveness was to count how many positive things the instructor said to the students. This model led to forcing the teacher to give a lot of empty praise instead of really evaluating what the learner was doing and giving helpful input.

I had a player last season who has heard nothing but compliments about her play and I found that when I had the team doing exercises that really challenged her skill level she bailed and went back to what she could do well. i.e. carry the puck while skating in a figure eight but only use the forehand part of the blade: repeat but only use the backhand side of the blade. It requires the player to loosen the shoulders and separate the movement of the torso and the waist down. I see this reluctance to meet a new chanllenge a lot when I do camps etc.

I have also seen that the players who want to improve and are willing to try new and chanllenging things go past the early achievers.

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

[Bob Gaffney]

Tom,
I have said to my undergraduate students & my high school students that "The smartest people don't always finish college, but the most determined always do." There is something to be said about determination, unfortunately, in the U. S. much rides on standardized test scores.

Recently, I had my first parents' meeting for my son's Pee Wee team that I am coaching. I told the parents to let their children learn from their mistakes and to grow as a person & player. I explained that you won't hear me yell or scream. You won't hear me praise a great goal or assist, but you will hear me praise effort and hustle. I said, "The thing that I love about hockey is it reflects life. No one cares how many times you fall down, they only care how many times you get back up."

Best,

Bob

[hockeygod]

Bob, Tom,

Good comments. Sad that people who are certifying other professionals are enabling this culture of entitlement as it doesn't promote the characteristic of perseverance – which people need a lot of to survive and succeed in 'real life'! This perpetuates this unfortunate cycle.

You guys should read Carol Dweck's book, "Mindset".

Bob, stick to your guns. It is the better way!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

NHL Hypocrisy? Nah couldn't be…

Taking Note, Gregg Drinnan, Sunday, July 8, 2012

Put down your morning coffee so you don't choke on some of what follows in this paragraph and the next one. . . . In April, Michael Russo, who follows the Minnesota Wild for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, sat down for a chat with Wild owner Craig Leipold. In that interview, Leipold told Russo: "We're not making money, and that's one reason we need to fix our system. We need to fix how much we're spending right now. . . . The revenue that we're generating is not the issue as much as our expenses. And (the Wild's) biggest expense by far is player salaries." . . . On Wednesday, Leipold coughed up US$196 million for defenceman Ryan Suter and forward Zach Parise. . . . You figure it out! . . .

Zach's father, J.P. Parise, played for the Minnesota North Stars in 1971-72, a season for which he was paid $29,000. . . . If you average out Zach's 13-year contract over its life, he will earn $91,932.46 per game. And, based on an average of 27 shifts per game, he will make $2,965.56 per shift. . . . Included in Zach's contract is a $25-million signing bonus. Break that down over the life of the contract and you get $23,452.16 per game. . . . But the signing bonus is payable over three years. Broken down on that basis it comes out to $101,626.02 per game over three seasons. . . . Thanks to Terry Massey for the breakdown. . . . Now back to our regularly scheduled programming for the poorer people like you and me. . . .

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

A Kiwi in Paris

ALISTAIR McMURRAN, IIHF.com, 05-07-12

DUNEDIN, New Zealand – Paris Heyd’s venture into European ice hockey has raised his expectations and made him a potential super star of the sport in New Zealand.

He was a talented New Zealand ice hockey player before his seven-month stint with the Cergy-Pontoise Jokers in France.

The constant play and more time on the ice have honed his skills and he is now demonstrating this in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League as the new hockey season has started in the southern hemisphere.

Heyd, 21, is the best ice hockey player in the country and the first New Zealander to get an overseas professional contract.

He recently returned to his home town of Dunedin after his time with the Cergy-Pontoise Jokers, a team from the second tier about 40 kilometres northwest of Paris.

Heyd was a first-line member of the Jokers and played in all 26 games and scored 28 points – 13 goals and 15 assists.

The standard of the ice hockey league in France was a step up from the experience he had in New Zealand. The consistent hockey at a high level week by week has added a new dimension to Heyd’s game.

His start to the New Zealand Ice Hockey League was delayed because of an ankle sprain.

But he returned in style to score a hat trick to help Dunedin Thunder beat defending champions Botany Swarm 8-2 at Auckland before winning 6-1 in the second game against the same opponent.

He has teamed up with the three Finish imports to give the Thunder its second double header in the league when it beat the Southern Stampede 4-2 and 6-3 last weekend.

It was a record fourth straight win by the Thunder and keeps it at the top of the New Zealand league.

Heyd’s European experience has sped up his skating and he is using it to help the Dunedin Thunder to its best ever performance in the New Zealand league. The time spent in the French league was an eye opener for Heyd.

“They play a different style of ice hockey in France. It is a lot faster and not as rough,’’ he said. “It is typical of European hockey. It is a lot more skill-based rather than physicality and contact. There is more finesse and they skate faster. The reaction time is quicker and the execution of shots and passing is more accurate.”

For Heyd it meant adjusting to the new environment and style of play à la française.

“More thought and preparation is needed for each game. You have to keep playing at a top standard. You can’t slack,” he said. “You are held accountable for the work you do and you learn not to make mistakes.’’

Dunedin Thunder Finnish import Matti Haapakoski has described ice hockey in New Zealand as a rough and tumble physical game that is played in a rugby style.

New Zealand ice hockey has adopted the more physical North American style of ice hockey where players are more frequently pushed into the boards.

It is different in Europe.

“In France it is all skills with few physical clashes,'' Haapakoski said. “It is a bit more physical in Finland.'”

The Jokers team finished 13th of the 14 teams in the competition.

“But there was only three points between eighth place and 13th. We were only three points off the play-offs,” Heyd said. “We played one game each week and we trained on another three days.”

“It has always been my dream to make a living playing hockey. It came true in France,” Heyd said after his one-year contract had expired. “It was what I expected it would be. They have more depth in Europe. We lack depth in New Zealand.”

His talent was recognised last year by the Dunedin Thunder assistant coach Kevin Arrault, who coaches professional hockey in France. He recommended Heyd to the Jokers.

It was a better deal than he ever had in New Zealand.

His accommodation and flights were paid by the Jokers and he got enough “pocket money” each month to enjoy his overseas experience.

A couple of inline hockey players from New Zealand have made the trek to Europe to play in leagues but Heyd was the first ice hockey exponent to blaze the trail. It was a reward for six years of hard slog.

“I hope it has opened the doors for others,” he said. “The game is a lot faster and more serious over there. It's been the dream of my life. I just love playing hockey on the ice.”

Heyd’s early form in the New Zealand league indicates that the standard of his hockey has improved after his intense period in France.

“I was on the ice four times a week for seven months,” he said. “I’ve had a lot more time to build up my skills. I’m now faster on skates and it has helped my shooting accuracy, stick handling and puck control.”

Heyd’s French was non-existent before he left. It is not much better now but he can make himself understood by French shop keepers.

“I found it so hard to learn the language before I left New Zealand and I didn’t pick up that much over there,” he admitted. “The French speak too quickly and I still can’t follow a full conversation.”

He was lucky that the Jokers had a French-Canadian coach who could speak English.

“The young French guys in our team spoke English and I could get by,” he said.

He was invited back to the Cergy-Pontoise Jokers for next season but put the invitation on hold to concentrate on his university studies.

Heyd also gave up the chance of representing the Ice Blacks at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division II Group A in Reykjavik, Iceland, in April. He did not want to miss the first four weeks of his second-year business management and tourism degree course at the University of Otago in Dunedin.

“It was also the cost,” he said. “I had to save my money for university. I want to advance my degree. Playing for the Ice Blacks is a massive financial commitment, so a lot of people can’t play. It’s all funded privately, by our parents, our summer jobs, however we can get the money.”

Knowing there is a life after ice hockey, he wants to advance his university degree first.

“I’m taking the year off international hockey to get my study going and then go back to Europe to gain more ice hockey experience and finish my degree by a correspondence course,” he said about his future plans

The plight of talented New Zealand ice hockey players has been highlighted by the three Finnish imports playing for Dunedin Thunder in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League this season.

Haapakoski, Jussi Vähämaa and Joni Nukari play semi-professional ice hockey in Finland and have come to New Zealand to gain more experience.

When playing in Finland they need a part time job to supplement their income from ice hockey. In New Zealand they have to pay to play for Dunedin Thunder. There are no free rides in New Zealand ice hockey.

“Kiwis even have to pay to play for the Ice Blacks,” Haapakoski said. “I just play for the experience. I don’t get paid. I came because I want to play all year round. The team organises me a job while I am playing.

“The reason I came to Dunedin is because they have a great rink. When I was coming here we could tell that everything is done with passion and love for the sport.”

It is different in Finland with elite players earning hundreds of thousands Euros a year.

“Young players have two dreams – to play for Finland and then play in the NHL,” Nukari said.

The situation in New Zealand is different. Rugby is the national sport and any player contracted for the All Blacks (the national team) is paid a minimum of $NZ 250,000 a year. The super stars get paid more and with endorsements could be paid over one million each year.

International cricketers are also well paid in New Zealand with rates of around $NZ 180,000 a year. The best players can also get short-term contracts with the lucrative Indian league.

Rowing is New Zealand’s most successful Olympic sport and international rowers get all their expenses paid and earn a comfortable wage to train fulltime.

But elite performers in other sports have to juggle their careers with their sport.

For Paris Heyd, ice hockey has been his passion since he was a kid.

“It has been his dream since he started playing ice hockey at the age of five," his father Maurice Heyd said. His family have backed him and given him financial help to represent New Zealand internationally.

His father, mother Ushi and sister Cuba (11) were at the Dunedin Ice Stadium last year when Heyd was one of the star players for New Zealand at the New Zealand Winter Games. He scored a hat trick in the 6-1 semi-final win against China.

Heyd was born in Alexandra but he grew up in Christchurch, before spending the last three years of his school days in Canada.

“I went to secondary school in Montreal to improve my hockey,” he said.

Heyd has played for the Ice Blacks for the last three years and now feels confident on the international scene.

Heyd got his start in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League as a 15-year-old for the Southern Stampede. He spent 2006 training and watching from the bench.

But a shift to Christchurch saw him start to get regular ice time for the Canterbury Red Devils.

For the next three consecutive New Zealand summers he attended an ice hockey school in Montreal, Canada, to hone his craft.

Heyd shifted back to Dunedin where he was raised to begin a degree in business management at the University of Otago in 2010 and joined the Thunder.

Some strong performances in the league propelled him from the national under-20 side to the Ice Blacks, playing for the senior national team at the 2011 IIHF World Championship Division II Group A. It was his first time, but it will likely not be his last time, despite his break.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Opposite worlds in Zurich: Lions swap high-end coaches, Flyers saved from grounding

MARTIN MERK, IIHF.com, 04-07-12

ZURICH – The off-season is usually a quiet time in the Swiss National League A. Not so this summer, and especially not in Zurich where the ZSC Lions and the Kloten Flyers had to go through very different challenges.

The Lions, who won the championship after a seventh-place finish in the regular season, woke up from their championship celebrations without their coach.

Despite a second year remaining on the contract, it soon became pretty obvious that Bob Hartley would not stay. He had verbally agreed with the Zurich club management that he would leave, but only if the Calgary Flames, managed by his friend Jay Feaster, or the Montreal Canadiens – despite his Anglophone name, Hartley is French-Canadian – offered him a contract.

After leading the ZSC Lions to the championship in his first year, Hartley was coveted by both clubs, but opted for the Flames at the end of May, and he took his assistant Jacques Cloutier with him.

Hartley goes, Crawford comes

Bob Hartley agreed on dissolving the contract with the Zurich club, ending an turbulent period with plenty of rumours. The management started immediately to scan the market and eyed Marc Crawford, who was invited to Zurich in June.

After other NHL teams like Montreal, Washington and Edmonton also had found their coaches, Crawford remained free to join the team and signed a two-year contract during the last weekend.

Same as with Hartley one year ago, the Lions get in Crawford a long-time NHL coach who led the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup win. He later coached the Vancouver Canucks for many years, followed by two-year stints in Los Angeles and Dallas.

Crawford also has international experience as the head coach of Canada’s first Olympic team with full NHL participation in Nagano 1998.

Last year, without a job in the NHL, he was working for the Canadian sports broadcaster TSN and also coaching Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland. In Zurich he will be assisted by Rob Cookson, who was already in Crawford’s coaching staff in Nagano, and who was an assistant coach for Canada in two World Championships and three World Junior Championships.

{CONGRATS ROB!!}

With Crawford the Lions have solved their problem by having another highly-respected coach behind the bench of a team that has a reputation of being too satisfied, at least until Hartley’s taming of the Lions.

Kloten Flyers close to grounding

However, compared to the challenges regional rival Kloten Flyers have had recently, Zurich’s issues with Hartley’s departure can be described as luxury problem.

When the club, after several delays, presented its financial figures at the end of May, it was virtually clinically dead. More than half of the annual budget was not funded, causing a record loss of 7.9 million Swiss Francs (€6.6m) and an increase of the debt to 10.9 million Swiss Francs (€9.1m).

The club from Kloten, a Zurich suburb mostly known for the international airport, had its primetime in the ‘90s when it won four straight championships between 1993 and 1996, and in the process getting the nickname “Flüger”. It later made it to the official club name when it was Americanized to Kloten Flyers rather than the old EHC Kloten.

But the club has been going through difficult times ever since the end of the ‘90s when its main sponsor Swissair folded. A retired hotelier, Peter Bossert, saved the club in 2001 before selling it to Jürg Bircher, a real-estate businessman, in 2008.

Already during Bossert’s era the owner was complaining about an annual “base loss” of up to one million Francs he had to cover each year. The club’s trademark was developing many young players, but the payroll was constantly too high.

Under Bircher the situation got worse with a careless payroll increase over the years. It resulted in two final appearances, but not in healthy finances. In the end the Bircher imperium seemed to fall apart while the stream of red ink was becoming a river.

Bircher tried to sell his shares to a potential new owner, who later claimed being cheated with false numbers indicating financial stability. That made the disastrous economic situation public.

The news was a shock not only for the fans in this region around the city of Zurich, but also for Swiss hockey in general. Kloten has been an important contributor of talent both to the league and the national team, and it’s the club that has been in the top league for more consecutive years than any other, since gaining promotion in 1962.

With the mountain of debt, the club became a case for the bankruptcy court and it was close to expulsion from the league. There were two choices: Try to rescue the organization financially and continue playing in the league under the same legal entity, or to restructure with a new entity, which would mean that Kloten would have to start from the bottom tier league.

Despite the gloomy prospects, several people and groups in and around the club fought a battle almost as hopeless as the Greek financial crisis to avoid the Flyers’ imminent grounding. Fan clubs collected money, as did the players themselves (while waiting for salaries since April), also assisted by local entrepreneurs. They came together in a task force led by former club owner Bossert, who co-ordinated all efforts.

Federation President Gaydoul at the rescue

In June, very unexpectedly, a new investor was found in billionaire Philippe Gaydoul, who on top of everything suddenly found himself in a severe conflict of interest as he has been the President of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation for the past three years.

Together with banker Thomas Metter, the duo announced they would be willing to take over the club if a massive debt reduction could be reached and the shares, or at least the qualified majority of voting rights, be transferred to them.

After weeks of fighting for the club with the fans not knowing if they would have a team to cheer for, the biggest rescue operation in Swiss hockey history concluded with a happy end last week.

2.9 million Francs (€2.4m) were raised by various supporting groups, and several parties were willing to write off bad debts totalling 5.2 million Francs (€4.3m), half of it from a former board member who lent the club money.

But also regional authorities participated in the rescuing plan with a reduction of tax debts, knowing that getting part of the debts paid would serve them better than the club’s bankruptcy.

The efforts paved the way for the new investors, who now have the two-third majority they need in order to devalue the old shares and pump in new capital.

Dismantling of a Kloten legend

While most of the players, astonishingly, were kept during the crisis, it was decided to part ways with long-time coach Anders Eldebrink from Sweden as his contract was considered as too expensive. Players Niklas Nordgren, Roman Wick and Arnaud Jacquemet were also let loose.

The investors installed a new CEO in Wolfgang Schickli, who sacked his predecessor Jürg Schawalder and assistant coach Felix Hollenstein. Schickli wanted a fresh start, meaning that there was no room for nostalgia.

Player-legend and long-time assistant coach Hollenstein, who had been with the club for 28 years, was shown the door and the lesser known Czech coach of Kloten’s junior team, Tomas Tamfal, was promoted to lead the elite league team.

It will be an uncertain future on the ice for the team when the season kicks off on 12th September, but at least one with the certain backing of the new investors. Gaydoul’s entry in Kloten will also mean the end of his presidency of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.

For now he passes on being on Kloten’s board and the federation’s committee accepts the temporary continuation of his presidency while being Kloten’s owner for a transitional period until his succession will be arranged.

Swiss Notebook:

Same as Kloten, also troubled mountain-village club HC Ambrì-Piotta can count on a new investor. Samih Sawiris, an Egyptian businessman with domicile in Switzerland, is building a new resort in not far away Andermatt and he wants to support the main sport teams in this Alpine area. After investing in football team FC Luzern, he will subscribe to Ambrì shares for 1 million Swiss Francs and join support organizations for the club.

The ZSC Lions Zurich not only have a new coach, but they also want to solve the issues with the city’s busy multifunctional Hallenstadion by building an own arena. The new sport complex would include an ice arena for 12,000 fans, a practice rink and a 3,000-seat volleyball arena. The complex in the Altstetten district would cost 193 million Swiss Francs and because a substantial loan from the city is foreseen, the local parliament has to vote on the plan, and probably also the citizens in an eventual referendum. Meanwhile the architecture competition is going on and the club hopes to move to the new arena in 2017.

One year after defenceman Raphael Diaz (Montreal Canadiens), EV Zug loses another player to the NHL as the league’s scoring leader Damien Brunner signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Brunner announced his intention to move to the NHL very early and he impressed GM Ken Holland and coach Mike Babcock when they scouted him at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Helsinki.

The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation confirmed Sean Simpson as the head coach of the Swiss national team. Although Simpson has an ongoing contract, his position was put into question after the 11th-place finish at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

Swiss coach Jakob Kölliker didn’t enjoy the same kind of backing in Germany. The German Ice Hockey Association decided not to extend his contract as the German national team coach after the 12th-place finish and missing the direct Olympic qualification. A successor has not been named yet.

Kevin Lötscher, the player who was involved in a life-threatening accident a few days after coming home from the 2011 IIHF World Championship with several weeks in artificial coma and severe head injuries, will attempt a comeback in the upcoming season. The other clubs agreed on an exception to allow him to represent his club SC Bern in the junior league in order to start playing in a less physical competition.

The Spengler Cup organizers announced the teams that will participate in the traditional tournament between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Apart from host HC Davos and the usual guests from Team Canada, the tournament includes KHL team Salavat Yulayev Ufa. The Spengler Cup will be kind of an exile as Ufa’s two main ice arenas will host the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship, 26 December 2012 to 5 January 2013. Fribourg-Gottéron (SUI), Adler Mannheim (GER) and Vitkovice Ostrava (CZE) are the other participants in the six-team tournament.

Davos was also in the spotlight when the members of Swiss Olympic voted in favour of a candidacy for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games with St. Moritz as the main venue and Davos as a second venue and a host for ice sports. Women’s ice hockey would be played in the current rink while a bigger arena would be built at the lake for the men’s ice hockey tournament. The applicants will be known by September 2013 and the 2022 Olympics will be awarded at the 127th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 2015. The next Winter Olympics will take place in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and in 2018 in PyeongChang, Korea.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Vintage baseball cards found in Ohio attic could be worth millions

By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press, July 10 2012

TOLEDO, Ohio • Karl Kissner picked up a soot-covered cardboard box that had been under a wooden dollhouse in his grandfather’s attic. Taking a look inside, he saw baseball cards bundled with twine. They were smaller than the ones he was used to seeing.

But some of the names were familiar: Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner.

Then he put the box on a dresser and went back to digging through the attic.

It wasn’t until two weeks later that he learned that his family had come across what experts say is one of the biggest, most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting, a discovery probably worth millions.

The cards are from an extremely rare series issued around 1910. The few known to exist are in so-so condition at best, with faded images and worn edges. But the ones from the attic in the Ohio town of Defiance are nearly pristine, untouched for more than a century. The colors are vibrant, the borders crisp and white.

"It’s like finding the Mona Lisa in the attic" Kissner said.

Sports card experts who authenticated the find say they may never see something this impressive again.

"Every future find will ultimately be compared to this," said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator.

The best of the bunch – 37 cards – are expected to bring a total of $500,000 when they are sold at auction in August during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. There are about 700 cards in all that could be worth up to $3 million, experts say. They include such legends as Christy Mathewson and Connie Mack.

Kissner and his family say the cards belonged to their grandfather, Carl Hench, who died in the 1940s. Hench ran a meat market in Defiance, and the family suspects he got them as a promotional item from a candy company that distributed them with caramels. They think he gave some away and kept others.

"We guess he stuck them in the attic and forgot about them," Kissner said. "They remained there frozen in time."

After Hench and his wife died, two of his daughters lived in the house. Jean Hench kept the house until she died last October, leaving everything inside to her 20 nieces and nephews. Kissner, 51, is the youngest and was put in charge of the estate. His aunt was a pack rat, and the house was filled with three generations of stuff.

They found calendars from the meat market, turn-of-the-century dresses, a steamer trunk from Germany and a dresser with Grandma’s clothes neatly folded in the drawers.

Months went by before they even got to the attic. On Feb. 29, Kissner’s cousin Karla Hench pulled out the dirty green box with metal clips at the corners and lifted the lid.

Not knowing whether the cards were valuable, the two cousins put the box aside. But Kissner decided to do a little research. The cards were at his office in the restaurant he owns when he realized they might have something. He immediately took them across the street and put them in a bank vault.

Still not knowing whether the cards were real, they sent eight to expert Peter Calderon at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, which recently sold the baseball that rolled through the legs of Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series for $418,000.

Calderon said his first words were "Oh, my God."

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

TAVARES, HALL TO COACH TEAMS AT MENTORSHIP CUP ON TSN

TSN.CA STAFF, 7/12/2012

The Allstate All-Canadians Mentorship Cup is back for a second year, and 42 of the best bantam-aged players in the country will be learning from some star NHL talent.

The National Hockey League Players' Association announced Thursday that John Tavares and Taylor Hall have been named the coaches of the two teams that will meet in Mississauga, Ontario on Saturday, July 21.

You can watch the game live next Saturday on TSN beginning at 1pm et/10am pt.

"This program is a great way to teach the next generation of young hockey players about all the hard work and sacrifice it takes to perform at an elite level," explained Tavares in a statement. "It will be fun to participate behind the bench for a change and I'm excited to be a part of it."

"It's been six years since my bantam hockey year, and the Allstate All-Canadians program reminds me of all the things I've learned since then about taking care of my body and being mentally strong," said Hall. "I hope that I'll be able to pass a few of those helpful lessons I've learned to this group of young hockey players.

The game will be the culmination of a week-long Allstate All-Canadians Mentorship Camp, which will be led by former NHLer Gary Roberts and assisted by current players including Jason Spezza, Tyler Seguin, Jeff Skinner, and Martin Biron. The bantam players, who are 13 and 14 years old, will receive instruction in fitness and nutrition, along with other skills focusing on both on- and off-ice conditioning.

"These young hockey players are tremendously focused and driven to improve, and it was inspiring to be a part of the camp last year," explained Spezza. "I look forward to attending this year's camp as a Mentor and continuing my involvement with the program."

TSN will have complete coverage all week from the Allstate All-Canadians Mentorship Camp. SportsCentre will be filing reports from the camp all week, while That's Hockey will be doing features on some of Canada's best young hockey talent.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Bob Gaffney]

Malkin is bringing his trainer to Russia again this summer. He said Malkin won't get on the ice until August!!!!! If it is good enough for Malking, why do we insist on getting kids on the ice in the summer?

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=637783

Bob

[hockeygod]

Bob,

Wow, what a post! I knew Mike Kadar "back in the day" from the Central Alberta area and knew he went to LA but then lost track of him. I had no idea he was working for Pittsburgh. I will have to try to get in touch again. Mike was a really nice guy.

I will answer this in the Game Intelligence thread.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[TomM]

Bob, I don't think it is an either or question. Malkin and anyone else that goes trough a gruelling pro season where they play about 100 games in 8 months and are on the ice for regular and pre game practices almost every day needs to take off a few months for physical and mental recovery. He will be doing off ice training and probably playing tennis etc.

If an on ice spring or summer program is well run and the kid's have fun I don't understand why there is anything wrong with it.

I have had experience all over the world with off season programs (Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, USA, Canada, Norway, Korea, Mexico) running camps, hockey schools and pro guest coach. The players at these camps want to get better and have fun while learning from good coaches, which they don't always have in the regular season. Most of these players do other sports at the same time.

You can get carried away like a Korean pro team I worked with whose schedule was like this. Monday to Saturday. 4 week camp
Wake up 6:30
-morning 30 min. Light run
-breakfast
-8-10 on ice practice
-rest
-lunch
-2-4 on ice practice
-supper
7-9 m,w,f weights
7-9 t,th,sat plyo's
Sunday off.

This was a 4 week camp and they got 96 hours on the ice. A few benefits. 1. We beat the U of Calgary 2 of 3 games and Dany Heatley practice every afternoon and went from being a non drafted bantam to the best AAA midget player in the country. (plus he grew about 6 inches)

My grandson who is 10 didn't want to play soccer this spring. He didn't enjoy it. Instead he spent April and May in a spring program that was really well run by one of my former university players who is a teacher. He ran very good practices with good technique and a lot of competition. They played a few games but it was mostly practices. He loved it.

He bikes and plays with his friends all of the time.

Now he is in a summer sports camp for his day care and they do many sports. He will be at our hockey camp in Jasper in a few weeks and get an Olympic skating coach for 7 sessions and me and my son for another 7 sessions. Between sessions he will play in the skateboard park and do a lot of biking with his parents. I can't think of any negatives. He loves it.

So I don't think you can say that summer hockey is bad or always good. If the kid wants to do it, it is a good program and he has fun and a chance to get better what more can you ask for.
Tom

[hockeygod]

NHL labour talks shaping up to be a heavyweight battle

Jack Todd, Postmedia News Jul 16, 2012

MONTREAL — I hate talking hockey in July. Then again, it looks like that’s all we’ll be able to do in November – talk hockey.

It’s probably no coincidence that news of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s scorched-earth proposal to Donald Fehr and the NHL Players Association leaked at the beginning of a July weekend, when you were swatting flies at the cabin, putting down industrial quantities of Molson’s finest or cooling off at the neighbourhood pool.

Bettman is likely to get away with it, or at least part of it, because at this point, the only thing he has to fear is Fehr himself.

Some folks in these parts blame Fehr — former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association — for the Montreal Expos’ lost shot at a World Series back in 1994 – but among sports union leaders, Fehr is up there with Marvin Miller. He was brought in because he’s a heavyweight and this is a heavyweight bout, with enormous stakes.

If you thought Bettman might be at least somewhat conciliatory in order to save the season, you thought wrong. As Larry Brooks of the New York Post (admittedly not Bettman’s dearest friend) tweeted: “NHL proposal amounts to declaration of war against NHLPA.”

It’s only an initial bargaining position – but for Bettman to propose lowering the players’ share of revenues from 57 per cent to 46 per cent is ludicrous, especially at a time when the league is boasting about the increase in overall revenue.

The reports (the initial one coming from Renaud Lavoie at RDS) say the NHL offer would also limit contracts to five years (the one plank with which we are in agreement).

But the proposal would also force players to wait 10 years to become unrestricted free agents, do away with signing bonuses, extend low-paying entry-level contracts for a five-year term rather than the current three, and put an end to salary arbitration. Future deals would also have to have an equal value for each year to do away with front-loading contracts.

This after boasting that league revenue has soared to a record $3.3 billion from $2.2 billion in 2003-04, before the last lockout. Back then, players were taking 75 per cent of a smaller pie. Now they’re down to 57 per cent and Bettman wants to cut it by a further 11 per cent, and to achieve more than that in terms of his overall cuts by all the changes in the structure of free agency and contracts.

The Edmonton Journal calculated that the 43 per cent of the money divided among the owners amounted to $1.42 billion (after the players were paid) meaning that on a per-team basis, revenue increased from $18.3 million in 2003-04 to $47.3 million in 2011-12.

If some franchises are ailing, then, the problem is that the league does not have an adequate revenue-sharing system in place, not that the owners share of revenue is inadequate. Rather than share with each other, however, the owners will attempt to fix their problems by going after the players.

Then, as soon as a new CBA is in place, the owners will go to work to circumvent it. And the fans, the people who swear up and down that they’ll never watch another NHL game, will be the first ones in line to buy season tickets when the league returns.

Might as well plan to spend the fall getting to know the wife and family, fellas. Whatever you do, don’t buy the spin Bettman will try to put on another lockout. This column will be 100 per cent behind Fehr and the players, every step of the way.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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