The first wave of shooters sprinted through center ice and began peppering John O'Malley, the senior goalie and co-captain, with slap shots from just above the slot area with pinpoint accuracy and speeds reaching nearly a hundred miles an hour. Calmly, John directed each shot safely to the corner of the rink, making sure there were no dangerous rebounds left in front of the net.
After five minutes had passed, Collins blew his whistle once more, waving everyone to center ice. "Guys, I'm pleased to see you're skating hard, but I want you to think about why I had you do this drill."
"John, you had no problem handling any of those shots. If you were coaching the forwards on how to score, what would you tell them?"
"Well, for one thing, our forwards were interested in seeing how fast they could slap the puck, rather than trying to get off a quick wrist shot. A quick wrist is much harder to stop for a goalie because it's sometimes difficult to predict direction and usually has better accuracy."
"Great point. Anything else?"
John thought for a moment. "Another thing, . . . they didn't try to find ways to change the shooting angle. I didn't have to move much and only had to square myself to the shooter. If they had moved a little left or right, I would have had to change my angle and that might have given them a better chance to score . . . not that I would have let them," he added with a smirk.
"Okay, John. Shot selection and getting your opponent, especially the goaltender, to move are keys if you want to increase your chances to score. All right. . . . Let's set up to do some three on twos. Line up on the far goal line. Wingers on the far boards, centers in the middle with the puck. Defensemen on the blue line. On my whistle, begin."
For the next ten minutes, waves of three forwards attempted to move the puck against two defensemen. With each attempt, the defensemen stayed equally spaced in the middle of the ice and easily broke up the play before the forwards could get a quality shot on net.
Coach Collins blew his whistle again and called everyone to center ice. He turned to one of the senior defenseman. "Jimmy Dergona, from a defensive perspective, what did the forwards do that made your job easier?"
Jimmy looked up with a speechless, puzzled look on his face. The concept of a coach asking his opinion caught him by surprise.
The uncomfortable silence ended in a few seconds when Tommy Smithers, a senior forward and the other co-captain spoke up. "Coach, one of the things the forwards could have done is to spread the offense out so that the defensemen would be forced to make a decision on how to play them. The forwards stayed in their lanes and didn't try to draw a defenseman towards them. We made it way too
easy for them. When the defenseman is forced to move over to play the shooter, the other forwards need to move to an open space so we can look to get the puck to them and put a good shot on net."
"Yep. Great point, Tommy," Collins replied, "It shows you're thinking. Moving to create space, which again is the concept of getting your opponent to move and finding the open man are two things that will make this team better immediately.
"Let's run this drill again. Forwards without the puck, look to jump your lane to create space by getting a defensemen to commit to playing you. When they do, that will open up space on the ice and then whichever forward is free, needs to get to that open space for a pass and look to put a quality shot on net."
Using the comments supplied by Tommy and Coach Collins, the forwards did a better job of creating open space and the results were immediate with a number of great scoring opportunities being generated.
Finally, the coach blew his whistle once more and the team huddled.
"Nice job guys. Your passing and shooting selections were much better as the practice progressed. This is not a static game, meaning you have to move your feet to create opportunities, but I want you to remember why we do these drills.
"I'm sure all of you have heard coaches say you practice like you play. Who can tell me quickly what that really means?"
John blurted out his answer. "Well, Coach, I think it means you try to do things pretty close to how you would do them in a game, so come game time, you're better prepared."
"Excellent, John. You do these drills to practice good habits so that when the
game is played, those habits become automatic. Remember, life in general and hockey specifically, is about doing the little things well. When you do, the big stuff will take care of itself.
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