THE HOCKEY COACH 14

There are two catch phrases I remember from playing hockey with the Varsity Blues at the University Toronto. The first is what was said...

I have spent the better part of the week between Christmas and New Year writing a new book. As a follow up to Torpedo Hockey, I truly...

As coaches we often get caught up in winning today’s game rather than truly looking at what is best for our team two months from now or,...

Last weekend, I had the real pleasure of helping host a “NAPHA weekend” here at our school. NAPHA is the North American Prep Hockey...

We have all watched coaches over-coach. They spend far too long at the whiteboard during practice. They pull out a rink board to diagram...

If you haven’t read my blog from last week (11/12/16) it was titled “Six Reasons Why You Need to Dump the Puck in More”. The premise was...

I have been reading about advanced analytics (statistics) in the NHL lately. Next to Corsi and Fenwick (new terms for shot attempt...

Today, we have 1800 high school cross country runners competing for the All-Ontario (OFSAA) championship on our campus. My office is...

I used to dislike doing Small Area Games in practice. I think it mostly stemmed from not enjoying them as a player, which in turn was...

As coaches, we often struggle with having a fairly large gap between our top athletes and our bottom athletes. This is more of a problem...

I wanted to share one of my pet peeves about modern hockey: regular season overtime and shootouts. I remember the old days when you used...

It amazes me how much trickles down to minor hockey from the NHL from a coaching perspective. We watch so carefully how the “Ken...

I have heard the expression “earn your ice!” a few times this week and it’s brought me back to the conversation I have been having for...

I have never been a big fan of what I would call “contrived” team building activities. Taking a team to do a weekend retreat of some kind...

Mikko Leppilampi is one of Finland’s top movie and television stars. Now in his late 30’s, he has starred in over 25 feature films,...

Occasionally, I am mystified as to how tournament and league formats are set up. In my experience there are a few cardinal rules of...

I received four tickets for last night’s Blue Jays game for Father’s Day last June. I was really looking forward to both seeing the Jays...

I had an interesting conversation with the Headmaster of the high school that I work at a couple of months ago. We were talking about...

I have never played or coached football but I would expect that as a coach, “in game” decision are more important than almost any other...

We all strive to have team chemistry with our groups of athletes and what chemistry really comes down to in many ways is how tight a...