Shoot! Shoot the Puck!!!

Remember that post I did about coaches that tell the kids to "ice the puck"?

Like, how that's among the worst coaching a youth hockey coach could ever possibly offer and I was proud of my kid for barking back, "NO!"

And then there was that other post about that opposing coach I heard calling out, "No blocked shots!" to his team as they defeated us with ease?

That was an eye-opener for me -- that dude was an AMAZING coach.

No clue who he was...but he could coach my kids any day! Coaching is so, so, so important.

So this is another of those bad coaching/good coaching posts...

I don't know too many coaches that are guilty of this one -- I haven't personally encountered one yet -- but I do know there are an awful lot of hockey parents coaching their kids to do this before, during, and after every single game.

Some folks get it but so many just can't grasp that winning is NOT the end goal in youth hockey.

Or even junior hockey, to a degree.

If you're a hockey parent that has a tendancy to yell "Shoot!" every time your kid has the puck...or even if you're not the type to yell "Shoot!" but your kid still takes a shot on every possession no matter where they are on the ice...try to curb it.

I get it -- the kids that do this score a lot of goals. They always do.

When called on it, the parents always revert back to that Gretzky (or Michael Scott) quote about "missing 100% of the shots you don't take."

Take more shots, score more goals. Makes sense on the surface, I suppose.

Now I don't actually tell kids not to shoot outloud...but I certainly think it.

See, I've lived it three times over now -- as mites, my kids were teammates with 88 different players. With the exception of one kid that's been a stud at every level, the top scoring kid on each of their mite teams, who also happened to take the most shots, turned out to be mediocre hockey player.

That's a fact.

I mean, in life, making poor choices frequently leads to rewards...and that's what keeps bad behavior at the forefront.

Being a pushy or difficult to deal with opens doors in life, it does. I'm the type of person that'd let someone cut me in line cause it's not worth the effort, or forthcoming confrontation, to stop then.

By all means, cut the line.

Or, in traffic, those guys that drive on the shoulder to pass everyone. Or weave in and out of the HOV lane.

Same deal. We're all hockey parents here with practice times starting during the rush hour -- I can't be the only one to witness that every single night driving to and from the rink.

And, yeah, there's an instant reward to doing that sort of thing. There is. They get to where they're going faster.

Vicious cycle -- it's hard to stop doing something that generates a reward.

But it's short term.

It's not sustainable.

And, eventually, it backfires.

Cheaters never win in the end.

One time at Disney World back in the 90's, we had this group cut the line -- loud, obnoxious 20-somethings. They thought they were so cool just kinda rushing past people acting like it was okay cause they "knew someone" farther up.

No one really tried to stop them -- lots of awkward and annoyed glances and things. We've all been there.

So they got to the front, got on the ride without any trouble, rode the ride -- that was the reward -- and then were told to stay on the ride to where the loading area for the next group was.

By that point, two Disney employees -- not ride operators -- had made their way over, asked them to debark from the boat in front of every one waiting to get on the ride -- the people they'd cut in line -- and to plenty of applause, they put the group through a perp walk of shame that I'd assume resulted with them getting thrown out of the park for the day.

I know we didn't encounter them again.

I didn't have kids at the time but it always stuck with me. A lot kids learned a valuable lesson that day while standing in a 45 minute line.

So, like, mites and squirts that shoot from anywhere develop a terrible habit.

I suppose "shooting from anywhere" isn't as sinister as "cutting in line"...but if they don't curb the behaviour, they turn out to be terrible hockey players.

Before long, those shots just as they cross the blue line are the equivalent of playing catch with dad in the backyard. It's not even a challenge for the goalie. Hard to even classify it as a shot on goal. Certainly not a "scoring" opportunity.

Worse, those desparation shots from BEHIND THE GOAL LINE clear the zone without a single hint of a scoring chance.

It's just terrible game play...bad hockey...turnover city...and I see it at every single youth hockey game that I go to.

Every single one.

Hockey, in the o-zone, isn't really that hard.

If you have a shooting lane and you're inside the dots, take the shot. Even as far back as the blue line.

Don't stickhandle, don't toe drag, don't try to get around another defender, just take the shot.

If you don't have a shooting lane, are outside the dots, or you're already drifting beyond the goal line...make a play. Move the puck.

And that doesn't mean "throw it at the net".

That stuff stops working at squirt.

Problem is -- so many 18 year olds are still doing it.

Every possession.

I get it, though -- how do you tell the parent of the leading scorer that their kid is doing it all wrong?

Especially when your own kid isn't scoring at all... I'm that guy.

And how do you tell the parent luring their kid with rewards for scoring 6 goals per game that it's not going to end well?

The answer is...you don't tell them.

And it sucks...cause there are some really good players with really high ceilings playing their way OUT of the game.

I can't claim to be the best hockey parent around, not for a second.

Have I lost my mind on the kids on the car ride home before? You betcha.

Have I uttered, "Do you know how much time and money this is costing us?"

Yep, done that too. I think we can all confess to that one...

But there is one thing I mostly accidently did right. I never told my kids they had to score. I never instructed them to pad their stats. I never lost my mind when they went for a shot and completely whiffed on the puck.

And that last one turned out to become huge.

As a mite and squirt, my kids would routinely just "lose" the puck. Stickhandle, stickhandle, fumble. Or they'd line up a shot and completely miss the puck. It happened at least once per game -- and people noticed.

It was like an inside joke on the team -- when Duncan would just miss the puck with his stick, everyone would have a laugh..."there it is!"

(I say "everyone" but was always keen to the fact that some parents questioned why he was even on the team with his tendancy to just seemingly "forget" the puck.)

Deep down, though, I knew exactly why it was happening.

Sure, he was absolutely a terrible stickhandler at those ages...but it was because he was never looking down. Ever.

Having been a team photographer at the professional level all those years, I take pictures at most of my kids' games too -- it was really apparent, really early, that he played with his head up.

That's why he lost track of the puck with such frequency. He didn't look down. Blessing in disguise.

Fast forward ten years, still not looking down, but having improved steadily on stickhandling by feel for a decade -- well, it's a huge advantage over the kids that could stickhandle like Pavel Datsyuk as mites that are still, to this day, looking straight down the entire time.

Great hands were a huge advantage at mite.

Great vision is a huge(r) advantage in juniors.

Like so many things I've experienced as my kids get older, the tables start to turn.

If the vision thing hasn't been refined over the course of a decade -- you're not catching up. You're getting left behind.

The top players don't look down.

My middle one still has a tendancy to, not miss passes, but make a poor first touch on receiving them. Like, the puck will hit his stick and he can't control it cleanly so it gets away from him sometimes.

Same deal -- he's not looking down and he's misjudging the angle or velocity or something. He's also cursed with stone hands too.

Now, I know in baseball they tell you to follow the ball all the way into your glove. Hockey's not like that...though I'm sure some parents think the two sports correlate.

They don't.

But I'd bet in another year or two of having passes bounce awkwardly off his stick and out of reach, it'll start to stick like velcro.

Youth hockey is about getting better year over year, consistently.

It's not about scoring the most goals this season.

Circling back to the folks that yell "Shoot!"...

We've all been to a professional game where one team is on the powerplay and a bunch of dolts are repeatedly calling out to them to "Shoot!"

I've written a few posts about that type of fan or parent. They confidently think they know what they're watching...but they really don't know what they're watching at all.

There's a reason NHL players don't shoot the puck. It's cause the opportunity to score isn't there.

If more kids could figure that out in youth hockey -- and more parents would refrain from encouraging their kids to shoot at all the wrong times -- there'd be a lot more goals and wins in your player's future.

My kids score more goals now than they did as a mites. It's supposed to be harder to score goals as they get older, right?

I don't think it's a coincidence...

It was never about the shots or the goals...it was about everything else...and that's why hockey is seemingly getting easier for them when it's supposed to be getting harder.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know -- I love the feedback from all angles!

Chris Rutsch

Hockey Dad

Year round, I spend a significant amount of time and money transporting my three boys to and from freezing cold ice rinks. Not because I expect them to make it to the NHL but because I know the rigorous youth hockey experience will serve them well in the future.