Dealing with the “Puck Hog”

Now, if there’s one person who is bashed often at most rinks, it’s the so-called “puck hog”.

Ya, parents can be especially tough on that guy (or little girl), which very frequently trickles down to teammates eventually mimicking their (sometimes pretty cruel) comments.

I actually find it interesting that no other skill seems to attract such scrutiny.  I mean, folks seem to admire you if you’re a good skater, they certainly appreciate it when you pass the puck (especially to their kid), and most fans even accept you if you shoot better than others.  But, just handle the puck beyond a few seconds — make one nifty move, and you’re liable to really hear an earful.

From my kzillion years around the rinks, it seems the abuse starts pretty early — with 20- and 30-something parents getting on the likes of 7- and 8-year olds.  And I have to think there’s at least a little emotional scarring taking place with those little ones.

Now, this subject gives me the chance to touch upon some (hopefully interesting) related areas, all of these having to do with fairly young guys’ and gals’ hockey…

Picture, for instance, that a young shooter throws the puck on-net with the puck ultimately hitting a flailing goaltender in the chest.  The folks go nuts in the stands, with at least someone yelling out, “Great save, Joey!  Great save!”

No!  No!  No!  First, young goalers probably cover less than a third of the net, which means there were tons of open spots towards which the shooter could have sent the puck — IF he or she had only been able to handle the puck and look-up.  Secondly, young goalies — at least usually — don’t move that well, remember:  they don’t cover much of the net, so the so-called save was only made because the shooter blew his or her opportunity.  (Oh, conditions totally change at the slightly higher levels, with smart, skilled netminders playing their angles well enough to make shots hit them — on purpose.)

In yet another for instance, a poor skating, poor puckhandling young player barely touches the puck before it squirts to someone who can skate and tote the biscuit pretty well.  The skilled youngster goes on to score a goal, which brings at least one voice from the stands (guess who) to call-out, “Great pass, Jimmy!  Awesome pass!”

Ya, right.  You know what I’m getting at here…  Jimmy had little to do with the resulting goal.  In fact, the team is probably lucky he ultimately got out of the way so someone else could put the puck home.

One quick aside here…  I’m not condoning selfishness with the puck; never have, never will.  But it’s been my experience — or I’ve mostly observed — that few kids under 8- or 9-years old have a selfish bone in them.  I have noticed some kids not able to handle the puck and look-up, which causes them to miss all the passing opportunities around them.  And I have seen young kids who had to keep carrying the puck because other mates weren’t able to keep-up or get into a proper pass receiving position.

Anyway, this line of thinking also brings me to a conversation our goalie coach and I were having one night, this obviously having to do with gifted puckhandlers.  From my side, I was sharing with young friend my experiences as a college coach, especially late in games when the outcome was still hanging in the balance.  And I was telling him that I’d been on both sides of the problem.  In other words, I’d had that good feeling late in some close games, because I knew I had someone really deadly cruising around the ice.  Oh, but I’d also suffered that sick-to-the-stomach feeling some years, knowing our opponents had their own slick guy just hanging in the weeds.  “Game breakers” I call them, or those players who just have a way of making good things happen on an attack.  And, to a man, those game breakers were always unbelievable puckhandlers.

Okay, it’s time for me to apologize if I’ve been a little cruel to those who have been at least as cruel to young kids.  But, as always, there are several good reasons I raise a given issue…

First, I need to warn parents and coaches of young ones that future coaches are going to select players who are skilled enough to compete at the higher levels.  The Jimmys of the hockey world aren’t going to make it, nor are the ones who consistently send shots into goaltenders’ bellies.  (And you can ask our goalie coach what he thinks about the chances of a goalie making it if he or she isn’t smart enough and skilled enough to play the angles well and cover a lot of net.)

Secondly, I frequently feel the need to point members towards Coach Chic’s Building Blocks Approach to Skills.  And, while my placing of puckhandling as the second most important offensive skill will surprise some, my real hope is that members understand the reasons I make this claim.  For, once you do, you’ll probably appreciate why capable puckhandlers can make better defensemen — especially during breakouts, and why a higher level coach might lean towards a number of better puckhandlers on his or her powerplay.

Thirdly, North American readers probably know that most Major League Baseball players were usually the top performers on their Little League through high school teams, and that a majority of those guys played the key positions on their younger teams, probably pitching and playing shortstop most of the time.  Only later did they end-up specializing, quite often in a very different spot.  The same can often be said of future pro football players, with the likes of many defensive backs and other skilled guys actually being quarterbacks on their high school or even college teams.  And the same can often be said about a lot of future NHL-ers who end-up specializing — maybe as defensive forwards, penalty killers, etc.  Appreciate that those lower profile guys weren’t the Jimmys in high school, college or juniors; they could play.  And, although they might not get the chance to demonstrate dazzling skills once in the pros, those guys are no slouches — as skaters, passers, receivers, shooters or puckhandlers.

Then my last two points…

I want to remind readers that this entry is really all about young kids.  I’m talking developmental ages here, or the ages with which we — as parents and coaches — can have the most impact on their thinking or outlook.

I hope I’ve also convinced my favorite hockey people that the young guy or gal currently considered a hog should probably be viewed in a different light.  For, I’ll suggest, he or she is really the model for others — to emulate or try to catch-up with.  In the long run, I think parents and coaches who deal with very young players will later be pretty glad they did that for those in their charge.