Steph comes from a typical (i.e. big) French-Canadian family. This year, on her mother’s side, 13 of us sat down for Christmas dinner. The night prior, over 50 people of all ages on her dad’s side gathered in a rented rec center in Thetford Mines, QC to celebrate.
When I first started attending these events six years ago, I was surprised to learn that not many of Steph’s relatives were avid hockey players or fans. Ghislain and Bruno played organized hockey decades ago. Christian is a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan, for some reason.
There’s also Jean, a promising minor-hockey goalie who played alongside several future NHLers. Jean still strap on the pads several times a week and recently started coaching travel hockey for his son’s team. Here are a couple of things we talked about between trips to the dessert table.
You Just Never Really Know
Jean’s former youth-level teammates included two future All-Stars in Alex Tanguay and Simon Gagné, but as teens neither were nearly as impressive as another future NHLer.
“Eric Chouinard (16th overall to MTL in the 1998 draft) was by far the most impressive player in our age group,” Jean said. “He had it all and everyone thought he was going to be a star. We were wrong.
“(Tanguay) was a really smart and shifty player, but he was always hurt! He had a number of shoulder injuries and rarely went into the corners as a result. Because of his self-perceived limitations, he adapted to become really good in space, playing between defenders. If you got him the puck near the net it was going right in. I didn’t think it would keep working at higher levels. But it did.
“(Gagné) I was really surprised by. He could do a bit of everything but just didn’t look as impressive at other top players in our age group. Funny enough I recently coached against his son, who’s the same age as mine. (The younger Gagné) moved just like Simon and was nowhere near one of the best on his team, but you just never really know…”
DZ Breakouts in Youth Hockey
Jean brought up something I often hear from minor hockey coaches: how tactical patterns such as a DZ breakout never work as well in-game than in practice.
“We sort of lost our way earlier this season by being too structured and too systems-oriented,” he shared. “In practice we could make five-man, low support breakouts through the halfwall and through the middle. And then in games everything fell apart. I started using more of a small-area games approach to get players to problem-solve the pressure and find solutions. We’ve had better results since.”
I suggested that Jean observe how good his players are at receiving passes on their backhands. At his U12 BB level almost every skater is comfortable making and catching passes on their forehands, but the same cannot be said about their backhands.
“Total proficiency on the backhand is rare even among junior and pro players,” I stressed. “Of course at those levels the bar is set much higher. We’re talking more about their ability to receive difficult passes on the move and blending that catch into their next move. At your son’s level, it’s purely about gaining control of the puck and not having the play immediately die on your stick.
“I’ve always believed that the backhand pass reception is the essential skill to master if you want to play a possession style. In practice you may be able to maneuver to your forehand side before getting a pass, and at least you know you won’t get hit or stick-checked if you take an extra second. In a game you don’t have the same luxury. If you’re uncomfortable getting pucks on the backhand, you’re in big trouble.
“Breaking out of your zone under pressure just becomes way more difficult if every pass reception is a 50/50 proposition, depending on which side the puck is coming toward. Once you get that sorted out for your players, you’ll see improvement in all three zones.”