Category: Coach’s Handbook

The NHL playoffs are known for their intense and grueling nature, pushing players to their physical and mental limits. But it’s the longest overtimes that truly separate the best from the rest. These marathon games can last for hours, testing the endurance and determination of both teams. In honor of the NHL’s best, we’re taking a look back at the most unforgettable longest overtime matches in history. These games have gone down in hockey lore, with players and fans alike enduring nail-biting tension until the final buzzer. Let’s lace up our skates and dive into the top 5 longest overtime games in NHL history.

Modern hockey coaching has changed drastically over the years, shifting away from the traditional approach of benching players in order to discipline them. Today, coaches focus more on building a positive environment and developing their players through teaching and support. In this blog post, we’ll explore how youth hockey coaching has evolved from benching to building, and why this shift is essential for the success of young players.

The debate between individual vs team, skills coach vs head coach has been a controversial one in the hockey world for years. It seems that many players are leaning more towards individual skills with the help of their skills coaches, leading to some believing that these coaches are making players more selfish than ever before. This begs the question, are skills coaches really making players more selfish than ever? In this blog post, we will explore the relationship between skills coaches and team play to see if there is any truth to this claim.

Hockey coaches have begun to utilize a new strategy for player development: Skill Stacking. This approach focuses on breaking down individual skills into smaller, more manageable tasks and then combining them together into one cohesive sequence. It is designed to create a more efficient, effective practice that can help hockey players hone their skills and become more successful on the ice. Skill stacking is quickly becoming the go-to technique among hockey coaches, and it promises to revolutionize the way players are developed.

As a Hockey Coach at the grassroots level, it can be difficult to get your players to engage in pre-game talks. Despite our best efforts, many of them are more concerned about a birthday party or something else entirely. While it may seem like rousing speeches are necessary to motivate them, the reality is that they’re simply not listening. It’s important to get to the point quickly and keep their attention – otherwise, all that effort is wasted. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why it’s important to prioritize engagement over rousing speeches in youth sports.

As a hockey coach, you have an important responsibility to help develop a growth mindset in your players. This means avoiding praising their ability, and instead commending them for their efforts. According to Carol Dweck in her book, Mindset, this is the best way to nurture the growth mindset that can lead to long-term success. As a hockey coach, it is up to you to cultivate an environment where players can learn, improve, and develop both on and off the ice. In this blog post, we will explore why praising ability won’t cut it and how to foster a growth mindset in hockey players.

As parents of young children, we understand how quickly time passes and how soon our kids are growing into independent adults. One of the most challenging tasks we face is knowing when to step back and allow our children to take the lead in the hockey dressing room. In this blog post, we will provide helpful tips to guide parents on how to best support their young athletes in a hockey dressing room setting and encourage them to flourish.

As an experienced junior hockey player, I learned first-hand the importance of accountability. Every week, we would have a Kangaroo Court which allowed us to hold each other accountable for our actions, both on and off the ice. Through this experience, I gained insight into the art of accountability and want to share these lessons with others. In this blog post, I will explore the valuable lessons I learned from participating in a junior hockey Kangaroo Court.