Recently, Marc-Olivier Daigle (president of Groupe Smart Hockey) invites me to be a guest coach at a development camp for U15/U18 AAA players.
After running practices alongside Tim Archambault (CEGEP St-Laurent), Zach Beausoleil (Rimouski Oceanic QMJHL) and Alexis Loiseau (Oceanic), I join forces with Tim to coach against Zach and Alexis in a two-game series.
Below are few of the things we do to ensure competitiveness and improvement in a short-term competition.
1. Use practice design to evaluate players
Since we are coming into the event with a limited knowledge of our players, we use practice not only as a way to improve their skills, but also to establish an understanding of their games.
Each session starts with a 15-minute warmup, during which we observe the skaters’ movement and fundamentals.
Each session ends with a 20-minute small-area game, in which we gauge the skaters’ tactical instincts and willingness to play inside contact.
2. Simplify pre-game meetings
Tim and I habitually use video to help our teams develop a style focused on improving the condition of the puck and on positional interchanges to close down space.
Working without audiovisual tools, we boil down our pre-game chalk talk to the following points:
Defensemen: Green light to join the rush, green light to pinch
Forwards: F3 high in the OZ to support the Ds on pinches, track the middle of the ice to take away the weak side rush threat
Everyone: Complete passes to get up-ice with control, kill plays up-ice to stay on offense, stay above in the NZ, five-tight in the DZ to take away high-danger plays
3. Increase feedback on the bench
As a counter to the minimalist pre-game meeting, Tim and I increase our in-game communication with players. Everything is timely, positive and actionable.
For a player getting off a slow start: “I want you to get involved. On your next shift, create one offensive contact and get one puck touch.”
For a center after a DZ faceoff loss leading to a goal: “I don’t want to see you shying away from taking faceoffs. Take every draw from here on in, I don’t care how many you lose. Just focus on controlling the inner third of the dot.”
After the first period, trailing 1-0: “We are playing well. If we play two more periods like this, we will be in good shape.”
4. Getting across the finish line
After winning Day 1’s scrimmage 6-4, our team heads into the second intermission of Game 2 leading 2-1.
We are out-shooting and out-chancing the opposing team by a factor of two, but one bad bounce for us or one great play for them could change everything.
I see an opportunity to share the difference in mentality between good players and closers.
“In your hockey career you’ll experience many moment such as this. We’re leading, we’re playing great, but everything can change in a hurry because we haven’t put the game away just yet. There are some very good players on the other side who are fired up right now. I’m expecting their best in the third period, so we need to be ready.
“I want us to keep having fun and enjoying our hockey, but even more importantly, I want them to have no fun. Let’s keep completing passes and pinning them in their end. Let’s have the puck the entire period and take away their will to fight.”
We hound the puck the entire period, score on a 2v0 breakaway after forcing a NZ turnover and win 3-1.
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