The evolution of hockey in the last 30 years has elevated the importance of stickhandling.

"The way the game has changed now, if you don't have the hands, you can’t play," Jan Kascak told NHL.com.

Kascak knows a thing or two about coaching skill development as a former professional player and a British Columbia Hockey League coach and scout. He played four years at Saint Louis University and was drafted by the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association in 1974. He played one season of professional hockey, and then the native of British Columbia returned home to coach at the Okanagan Hockey School. During a three-year stint as coach of the Penticton Knights of the BCHL, Kascak led the team to two Fred Page Championship Cups. He currently serves as a scout for the Penticton Vees of the BCHL and leads their mentorship program.

"Stickhandling starts right from the basics," Kascak said. "To be a good stickhandler you have to be a good skater. You have to be able to keep your feet moving and move the puck at the same time, whether it's a saucer pass or you're putting it in your feet and kicking it out the other side, or you make that toe-drag, it's so important that you have to have that balance and coordination as a skater."

Apart from being a strong skater, Kascak believes players also need the three D's to be proficient at stickhandling -- determination, discipline and desire. As hockey has evolved, players from the top levels down have improved their hand-eye coordination and overall speed through application of the three D's. According to Kascak, if you are a dedicated hockey player, you're going to do it. Once you get the passion for it and embrace it, those are the kids who keep moving onto higher levels of hockey.

"Stickhandling is a skill that you have to practice," Kascak said. "You practice it so much it just becomes a part of you."

One of the most effective ways to practice is off the ice with a sheet of plywood, which acts as a slippery surface similar to ice. Players should practice every day, getting accustomed to the feel of the puck on the end of the stick. Practice so often that it feels like second nature, until the puck on the stick feels like an extension of your hand. You also can juggle the puck on the blade of the stick and take turns tossing it to teammates in order to increase hand-eye coordination.

The most common mistake Kascak said he has observed in his years as a coach and scout is that players easily lose focus. According to Kascak, coaches want players to be prepared to play for 60 minutes -- and good hockey players change every shift, adapting their game to play the system that their coach has implemented. This sort of focus begins in practice. Players that can focus on the importance of each drill in practice will develop better focus for game situations.

In order to improve stickhandling, it's essential for players to have the proper equipment. Their stick must have the correct lie, length and flex.

Lie: The lie of a stick is the way that you skate the blade to the ice, and should increase in number as a player grows. Most youth players should have a blade lie between 4.5 and 5.5. When kids grow, their stick is going to change, as is their style of skating, which is why you have to look at the lie of the stick.

Length: Players should make sure their stick is a length that feels comfortable. Make sure that it's not too short that you are on your toe when you stick handle and that it's not too long so you're on your heel when you stickhandle. To find the right length, players should put on their skates and stand up; the top of the stick should be even with their nose. If the stick still feels too long the player can cut it shorter. Go by quarter-inch increments to cut it down until it's the right size.

Flex: For a youth player, a flexible stick is the best option. Kids are not that strong. Don't get a 100 flex; 85 even may be too stiff. Go with a 75 flex so the player can feel the puck and as he or she gets stronger, they can increase the flex. Going from a peewee to a bantam is a huge growth jump; it's the same in going from bantam to midget, so don't rush the blade flex.

Coaches should implement skills that help to develop better stickhandling simultaneously with other fundamental skills - for example, a skating drill around cones or tires combined with a shooting drill that requires stopping and starting with the puck. Coaches can get creative, but should not forget to focus on stickhandling during the course of practice.

"Ultimately, stickhandling is like all fundamental hockey skills," Kascak said. "When you embrace something it's not work. You enjoy doing it. Hockey is a sport that kids have a lot of fun with and they enjoy it. I'm still having a lot of fun with it and I'm playing old-timer's hockey. It's something that, when it's in your system and it's in your heart, you just never let it go."

Before individual accolades and team championships at any level of organized hockey, coaches and parents have a responsibility to help instill some sense of unity and pride within the group.

Only when that foundation is achieved can a team take their goals to even greater heights. Part of building that foundation is becoming acquainted, not only via team drills on the ice, but through various exercises off the playing surface.

"One thing we always try and do is build that trust factor by doing some type of teamwork off the ice," said Jon Greenwood, the director of hockey development at the Maritime Hockey Academy in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

"Whether it's relay races or making the human pyramid, any type of thing working in a team environment is essential to building that trust and that foundation," he said. "The business world is doing a lot more of that, too. You always hear of these retreats that companies conduct outside the office. It has gone from the sports world into the business world and is extremely important."

Former NHL forward Steve Webb is well aware of the impact team building exercises might have on a team. Last year, Webb served as an assistant coach under Hockey Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine for the Long Island Royals' Under-16 Tier I National championship team.

He recalls one of the special moments his team shared following that championship season.

"One going-away thing we did was a food drive," Webb told NHL.com. "We went to three shopping centers, and kids wore their jerseys. Here they were, just having won a national championship, and two weeks later they're standing there asking people to donate.

"They would later bring the items to a food shelter in Huntington Station [N.Y.], and I think that was one of the greatest things we did during the season. It put a stamp on how far we had come as a team and the respect we had for each other."

P.K. O'Handley, the head coach and general manager of the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League, can't stress enough the importance of team-building exercises at any age of development.

"Team building is an ongoing thing," O'Handley told NHL.com. "We immerse our guys in our community and that doesn't sound like team-building, per se, but it is. It forces smaller groups to go out to people they don't know and communicate about themselves, about our program. Those are great experiences for young guys that we mandate they do. It helps our team understand the sense of pride in what they do, day in and day out, for the city of Waterloo and the community here in the Cedar Valley and the Black Hawks."

O'Handley said the coaching staff enjoys breaking the monotony of a long hockey season by having the players indulge in other activities, including paintball, meals at a teammates' house and frequent team meals at local restaurants.

"Those are things that we try to do to really give the team cohesion, but it's also good for our players to understand that this is just a stop in their career … they need to invest of themselves and in each other and rely on each other to learn to communicate, be a pro, and be a good citizen," O'Handley said. "To do all those things that are important and hopefully can come together and put you in a good spot at the end of the year."

Similar to Webb's experience with the Long Island Royals, Greenwood has also made it a habit to conduct plenty of team-building exercises for his youth teams.

"The major midget team I coach here at home had a weekend off, so we went paddling," he said. "We took the team out onto the water and had two teams of 10 with coaches on each team -- it was a paddling race.

"It's good because you get to see guys in their comfort zone and out of their comfort zone, and generally it's not the top hockey player who becomes the top paddler. You get to see different leaders step up as well. Who's going to step up in this boat where no one knows what they're doing? Who's going to say, 'Guys, let me call out the strokes' and take charge of that boat. It was fun, but you also see the competitiveness really shine."

Jim Johannson, USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, was a part of team-building exercises as a youngster growing up in Rochester, Minn.

"I recall how coaches taught you how you had to be in line with how you carried yourself," Johannson told NHL.com. "In Rochester, I remember feeling like you feared the coach, but I never had a coach who raised his voice or really screamed or yelled. They were firm, direct coaches who reminded me of my dad. I never wanted to cross my dad, but he never yelled at me. They taught you respect and to respect others while having an appreciation of all your achievements."

Follow Mike Morreale on Twitter at: @mike_morreale

A weekend spent out of town bonding with teammates at a big hockey tournament. Is there anything better than that for young hockey players? But for every fun youth tournament, there are hours of preparation that go into making sure youngsters enjoy a hockey experience they won't soon forget.

"From the pros all the way down to a squirt team, there is a lot that goes into it. A coach or a manager has to coordinate all of it so that it happens correctly. It's a big responsibility," said Dick Bertrand, a head coach for over a decade at Cornell University before becoming director of the East Grand Rapids Amateur Hockey Association. "You have to set up how you're going to get there. You want to know where you are staying." With a few helpful hints, that next youth hockey trip can be one the kids will remember for a long time.

Get organized

On the surface, a lot of youth hockey tournaments appear to come together seamlessly. But there are months of planning that preceded all those games. As youth tournaments start to get bigger, more and more planning is required. And tournaments are definitely getting bigger. Take the Bauer World Invite, which recently hosted dozens of teams and hundreds of boys and girls players in a series of games played in Detroit and Chicago.

Along with naming a final roster, coaches must confirm travel arrangements and accommodations quickly. With those crucial details taken care of, there's plenty more to account for, especially if you're dealing with a particularly young group of kids. Any activities you can organize for them between games will benefit the team in the long run by establishing chemistry while keeping the young ones busy.

"You have to keep them together. You can set up a tour someplace. If you're in Toronto, tour the Hall of Fame, go to the zoo. Just make things happen with them," Bertrand said. "Have them structured with getting out of bed or eating at a certain time. Have a meeting to get them ready for the game and tell them when you're going to the game."

Get parents involved

Obviously, not every parent will have time to contribute to the cause, but parents can prove invaluable in putting together a successful team road trip. Moms and dads can be incredibly helpful when it comes to the basic logistics, like assisting with travel, meals or even coaching. But there's so much more they can do.

"You get everyone together, which includes the parents in most cases. You just go over the itinerary and the planning," Bertrand said. "It's not just hop in a car and away you go. There's a lot of supervision that is required. Make it an experience that they may remember the rest of their lives."

Getting parents involved before, during and after these trips can help make weekend tournaments easier to navigate. If nothing else, they'll inject a family dynamic into the trip that will make it even more memorable.

Be respectful

It should be implied, but it never hurts to remind a team who they are representing when they travel. They're representing their team, their families, their town, maybe even their country. That means players carrying themselves -- no matter how young they may be -- with the right amount of courtesy.

If a team is staying in a hotel, they're expected to leave it as they found it. If they are staying with billets, then they should be gracious and kind guests. Whether they win or lose, they should project the utmost sportsmanship in their games. That attitude will enhance the overall experience and make it easier to form new long-lasting friendships.

"You're teaching them lessons. I always stress that with the coaches. There's other stuff that goes into play here," Bertrand said. "How they act at the hotel, how they act at the rink, in the dressing room, with the other coaches and players. Just sportsmanship. All of that comes into play."

Hockey being one of the ultimate team sports, there are few better opportunities to enjoy team bonding than a fun trip to a tournament or exhibition out of town. With proper planning and a good attitude, coaches and parents can save themselves plenty of headaches along the way -- and most importantly, make new memories for their kids.

Back to the Basics is NHL.com's multi-part series focusing on youth hockey skill development. During the coming months, NHL.com will feature a slate of guest coaches who will share their expertise on skill development.

Power skating may be a staple phrase in the vernacular of hockey coaches and players today, but just 40 years ago it was nothing more than a list of drills -- until long-time figure skating coach Laura Stamm took matters into her own hands.

After observing hockey for years, Stamm began to develop her own system of skating technique for hockey players to increase their movement efficiency, and the Laura Stamm International Power Skating System was born. Since 1971, Stamm not only has tutored thousands of hockey players at every skill level, including numerous NHL players, but she is responsible for introducing an approach to skating that has been incorporated into skating programs around the globe. The five-time USA Hockey Hall of Fame nominee is the veritable expert on power skating.

The philosophy behind Stamm's approach to teaching power skating is a paradox. Ultimately it's about speed, but it's as much about slowing things down -- even to a standstill -- to get to that speed. According to Stamm, coaches should do everything possible to enhance a player's speed, but it's essential for that approach to be long-term. Power skating can't be learned in a weekend clinic or in a single season; it takes a career to truly master the techniques that produce a faster skater.

"I don't believe in just teaching people to go fast," Stamm told NHL.com. "They have to go efficiently fast so that they're not just churning their legs around and trying to move fast. Technique to me is really critical because first you have to learn the technique and then you have to learn to do it faster."

Stamm's approach to power skating is unique in that she incorporates all five senses in her teaching methods in order to accommodate every kind of learner. People learn in all different ways, from hearing instructions to seeing demonstrations it to trying it themselves. This is why Stamm invented a method she calls FAST (feel, act, see and think). For example, when Stamm is teaching a basic C-cut (a term she invented in 1971), she begins by telling the skater what the movement looks like and then she shows them how it makes a C. She then has the skater visualize the movement by drawing a C in the air with his or her arm before attempting to make the cut.

"I'll have them take their hands and write a fully extended letter C with their arms in the air and then say OK, now do it with your legs and then I teach them how to feel what they're doing. Not just do it, but try to feel what [the movement] feels like."

When it comes to actually teaching technique, Stamm prescribes a six-step method for whatever movement is being taught because skating moves are not natural to the human body. Stamm's method is centered on repetition of the movement to allow players to focus on the many parts that each maneuver consists of.

Drills should be designed to practice specific maneuvers with this method in mind:

1. Correctly
2. Correctly and powerfully
3. Correctly, powerfully and quickly
4. Correctly, powerfully, quickly and with the puck
5. Correctly and under pressure in game situations
6. At the end each practice, players should be allowed to skate fast and have fun without worrying about correct technique.

Stamm suggests that coaches begin each practice with at least 10 minutes of power skating, with emphasis on a specific technique or maneuver, before moving to puck work in order to help skaters develop correct form.

"There's so many maneuvers," Stamm said. "You can't just say, 'OK, bend your knees and everything else is going to be right.' You have to push properly, you have to glide properly, everything that you have to do in hockey skating, there's so many maneuvers … you have to teach how do you actually do it, how do you accomplish each maneuver. It takes a huge amount of time over years and years and years."

It starts with individual drills created to help players break down skating into smaller parts. Each maneuver can be broken down and then practiced to help players maximize efficiency of movement. Stamm's favorite drill, "Touch-Drag," is an example of how this can be done.

"Touch-Drag teaches the forward stride and it incorporates all the aspects that we're talking about in incorporating the FAST method,” Stamm said. "In terms of execution, every maneuver is different. The principles don't change, but the actual executions do."

This drill is just one example of how to teach power skating in a way that skaters can remember and can practice over and over by breaking down each movement and doing it correctly before going back to full speed. Stamm's book, "Laura Stamm's Power Skating -- 4th Edition," offers 272 pages of techniques that can be applied on the ice.

"Technique, to me, is really critical, because first you have to learn the technique and then you have to learn to do it faster," she said. "It's a long-term process. You look at Scott Niedermayer [a former student] and it looks like his legs are never even moving. He just cruises around -- and look how fast he was. That's the kind of skater I like to try and make somebody become."

You've got a bag full of brand new equipment and you're ready to get out on the ice to show everyone what you're made of. Just one problem: your new skates are so stiff you can barely feel your ankles.

You think about returning them to the store, assuming you can find the jaws of life to get them off your feet. But there are a few simple steps to help you break in those skates.

It won't necessarily make your feet hurt less when it comes time to lace them up, but spending time making the proper selection can help you out in the long term.

While buying skates online offers great convenience, going to the store in person will allow you to try on a variety of skates. In the end, you're more likely to find the perfect fit for your foot. Some stores and skate brands also offer special inserts that can help you find the right fit.

"The fit is the most important thing. Making sure the skate isn't too wide or too short form front to back," said T.J. McMeniman, Bauer's Senior Global Brand Manager. "Some players like skates that are a bit shorter so their toes are a little crunched. You want your toe to just feather at the very tip of the skate."

If you buy your skates in a specialty hockey shop, don't hesitate to ask questions and see if it's possible to get any adjustments made. Some skate shops may even throw in free sharpenings and adjustments over the life your skates.

Heat and Bake

One of the most popular in-store adjustments involves using heat. If they prefer not to do it at the store, some people use a hair dryer, which can be applied to the boot of the skate for 2-3 minutes before trying the skate on to mold it to their foot. Some specialty shops even offer to help you "bake" your skate before you leave the store, so feel free to ask about that.

More adventurous players can even use the convention oven in their kitchen (with parental permission and supervision, of course). Start by pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Prep your skate by loosening its laces enough so that you won't have to worry about placing your foot in once you're done. Once pre-heating is complete, turn off the oven and place one of your skates on a standard baking sheet before placing it directly on the center of the oven rack.

Let it bake for six to eight minutes and watch the skate for any breakdown or splitting of the material before removing it. When you take it out, the boot should be noticeably softer when you squeeze it.

"We highly recommend when you purchase our product that you have the local retailer heat up the skate for a couple of minutes in the oven and let the skate mold on your foot for about 15 to 20 minutes," said McMeniman. "Don't walk around, you just want to sit there and let it mold to your foot to give it a customized fit."

Bear in mind that too much heat can potentially result in a premature breakdown of the boot of your skate. Some players also just prefer to break in skates the more natural way.

The Hard Way

As with most tasks, there is no substitute for hard work when it comes to breaking in new skates. There are a few short cuts, but there's nothing quite like molding a skate to your foot by simply lacing up and taking the ice, which is ideally what you want to do anyways.

The first skate will definitely be arduous and your feet will likely feel sore both during and after. But by your third skate you should notice greater ease when putting on and using your skates. By the time you've enjoying about a half-dozen skates, you should notice a clear difference when it comes time to finding a snug fit when you lace up.

However you decide to break in your new skates, you should start noticing a difference with a few basic steps. Then you can worry about more important things, like winning hockey games.

Back to the Basics is NHL.com's multipart series focusing on youth hockey skill development. During the coming months, NHL.com will feature a slate of guest coaches who will share their expertise on skill development.

Bryce Cockburn is the founder and coach of Next Level Training in Campbell River, B.C. Cockburn's hockey career started in Campbell River, where he played his minor hockey, before joining the Nanaimo Clippers of the British Columbia Hockey League. He played in the ECHL and AHL after spending four seasons with the Northern Michigan Wildcats.

He's a stickler for fundamentals when it comes to skating.

"The first thing I do in my camps is go over proper posture and skating stance so that you are starting things off right," Cockburn told NHL.com.

Proper hockey posture is the building block for virtually every other hockey skill. Not only does a proper stance propel your shot or determine passing accuracy, it can give a player twice the power on every stride. Start every ice session with a review of proper hockey stance and use Cockburn's mental checklist to help:

• Knees bent at about 90 degrees.
• Feet are under the hips. They should be roughly shoulder-width apart, forming a box shape between the ankles and the knees rather than a triangle from too wide of a stance.
• Hips are low and butt is out.
• Shoulders are back, not hunched over.
• Head up, eyes up -- younger players tend to look down, which causes them to fall forward.

"It's just like you're sitting at your chair in the classroom -- pretty much that's your hockey stance," Cockburn said. "Your knees are bent at a 90 [degree angle] pretty much, your back is straight, your head's looking forward, your chin is up, your chest is out, your butt's out and your knees are bent."

This proper stance is essential to hockey because it's important to stay low. Staying low helps a player have a better center of gravity and better balance; it also helps to give full extension on a skating stride.

"It's all knee bend," Cockburn said. "If you have your legs straight, you can only push pretty much not even half of your full stride and you want to get your full stride out.

"Get nice and low so you can get your full leg extension and then you can get a toe-flick at the end of your stride. You can't even get your toe-flick unless you do your full extension. So get your full push and get nice and low and get your full recovery, which is coming back to where your feet are under your hips. Try to get your leg at least back under your hips, maybe more, that way on your next stride with that leg you are pushing that much harder."

Cockburn also pointed out that while skating, a player's head should be still -- not bobbing up and down. This is essential because it ensures that the skater is staying low throughout his or her strides. This also applies to tight turns, where many young players have the tendency to pop up as they come out of the turn and stop skating because their knees are straight. However, if they stay low through the turn they can push through it and keep skating.

"That's how you will beat most of your defenders, if you stay nice and low and keep striding through your turn," Cockburn said.

When striding, it’s also important for a player to keep his or her arm motion going forward and backward, not side to side, just like track sprinters do; otherwise the player will slow down.

Players need to avoid pushing straight back when they stride, and instead push at an angle. According to Cockburn, many young skaters fall into this trap, which doesn't allow their skate edges to dig onto the ice when they push -- this wastes energy. Pushing slightly to the side utilizes the full skate blade, but that's possible only if the player starts in the proper hockey stance with a nice, low knee bend.

Here's some advice for any player looking to apply this skill to his or her routine:

Coaches: Develop drills that require players to return to the hockey stance over and over. For example, have the players line up on the goal line and each time you blow the whistle have them progress to the next line and do a hockey stop where they return to the hockey stance while they wait for the next whistle. Spend ample time on skating drills that involve repetition and facilitate proper striding.

Players: Constantly remind yourself to return to the hockey stance during practice. If possible, look at your reflection in the boards as you skate by or have a parent film you so you can see how low you get. Look for weak spots during practice where you tend to pop back up or have straight legs and work on eliminating those spots. At home do squats, lunges and other leg-centric drills in order to build up the leg strength needed to maintain proper a hockey stance when skating.

Hockey Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine and his son, Daniel, have a mutual respect for each other.

That's a good thing considering dad also happens to be Daniel's coach for the Long Island Royals Under-16 Midget National team based out of Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park, N.Y.

While there's no question the relationship between coach and son is never an easy one, the LaFontaines seem to have found a common ground. The results have been encouraging, too, for any father hoping to one day coach his son.

"When I became the head coach of the Royals three years ago, I had an opportunity to continue coaching Daniel, but I still asked him if he would prefer I wasn't behind the bench," LaFontaine told NHL.com. "I've always been very cautious because I try and put myself in someone else's shoes and never wanted (Daniel) to feel any pressure, although all boys want their dads to be proud. The assistants usually say something to Daniel because he only hears dad's voice when I speak."

According to 16-year-old Daniel, that's only partially true.

"I talk to my dad a lot about easy stuff like what to do in the corners, but I talk to (assistant coach Steve) Webb more about the mental part of the game," Daniel said. "He gives me good talks and lessons. You have to keep striving for your dream for when you get older … and it starts now with nutrition and the physical work. Coach Webb started up the 'Y Athlete' website for all of us, so I'm always setting my performance goals and I talk to him about attitude and work ethic, so it's good."

LaFontaine realizes the importance of having young hockey players develop both physically and emotionally -- something he constantly stresses to Daniel.

"You have to put the fact that you are a father or mother as your top priority first and foremost," LaFontaine said. "At the end of the day, kids are pretty much going to turn out the way they're supposed to turn out whether we like it or not as parents."

Allowing your child to follow their heart is of the utmost importance.

"You want to create an environment that will give them opportunities in all types of sports and let them do what they really love," LaFontaine said. "If you want to be the coach, then I think it has to be a situation where you're the parent first before you're their coach. I would stress that because if you push them in one thing, I think you kind of force situations that never work out."

LaFontaine then recalled how impressed he was after reading the story of how NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana had hired QB coach Steve Clarkson to tutor his sons, Nate and Nicholas, on the finer points of being a signal-caller.

"What a great credit to Joe Montana, not as a football player, as a great athlete or role model, but just as a father," LaFontaine said. "He was smart enough to say, 'Listen, these are my kids, I love them, and I want them to be happy and there are other great teachers out there.' You can be their father and teach them all the things they might need to know, but I think at the end of the day, your child has to come to you to want that knowledge."

Needless to say, Daniel, who dons jersey No. 16 as his father did in his heyday, does appreciate any advice his dad is willing to share.

"After the game, he'll give me a 25-to-30 minute talk about everything I did and I like his perspective because he's not afraid to say it," Daniel said. "If I'm doing something wrong he always says, 'Work on your weaknesses.' The thing is, I like big competition, I like tournaments, I love the feeling of just going in the locker room and getting ready to play. In order to be that player, I need to listen and work hard."

LaFontaine stresses "H2R" to each of his players.

"Ask any one of our kids and they'll tell you, I always stress H2R -- to always be humble, hopeful and respectful," LaFontaine said. "If you're a Royal, you have to live by that. You're in a fortunate position and you must give it your best, but you always must remember how you got there and who helped you.

"I don't look at what the game could have given me when I retired. I looked at what the game did give me and I'm extremely grateful. Now, I just want to give a little bit back and help another generation."

The message he's provided, not only to his son, but the entire Royals' team has been positively received.

"We skate outside in the winter, and my dad will come out sometimes and we'll do quick give-and-go's and passing and that gets me motivated," Daniel LaFontaine said. "There's a little bit of pressure. When I was little, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but I wasn't really aware of what it was all about. As I got older, I started to realize how big a success he really was."

Webb, LaFontaine's assistant coach with the Long Island Royals, and another former New York Islander, feels the relationship between coach and son has been extremely positive.

"Pat's dad coached him and now Pat is giving back to Daniel behind the bench; I think earlier on when they first started out with this process it was a little tougher, but now that Daniel is thriving and coming into his own, I think he's a lot more comfortable having his dad around behind the bench and more engaged to listening," Webb said. "The relationship is a really positive one and a great example of how it should work having a father as a coach. I don't think Pat has added pressure on Daniel at all to perform. Daniel only adds the pressure on himself to be a good athlete, and I think that's been a very positive message to send people who are coaching their sons … to let the athlete dictate what they're going to be doing out there instead of trying to push them, so it's been a great experience."

Jonathan Toews still remembers the conversation with his mother well.

Just a few weeks after leaving home at the age of 15 to attend school and play hockey at prestigious Shattuck St. Mary's in Minneapolis, she wanted him to come back home to Winnipeg. Her son wasn't even old enough to drive, yet he was already living on his own in a dormitory hours away.

"She was getting pretty emotional on the phone," said Toews, the 23-year old captain of the Chicago Blackhawks who was dubbed "Captain Serious" by his teammates. "She wanted me to come home and I said, 'No, I've got to stick with this decision. There's no going back now.'"

Toews thinks about that decision now and feels like it was great for his career. Not long after, his younger brother David made the same decision to leave home for Shattuck St. Mary's. Both wound up being selected in the NHL Draft, so you could say the decision paid off in the long run.

However, it wasn't easy and Toews understands that a lot of parents probably struggle with the idea of sending their sons off to play a higher level of hockey elsewhere. For those considering it, he advises making a sound decision and taking as much time to debate it as necessary.

"(Parents) definitely have to take a lot of time to think about it and weigh the pros and cons of what they want and what their son wants," Toews said. "I was the one who made that decision. I wanted to go and I was ready to stick with it."

He's not alone among his NHL peers.

There are plenty of pros in the League who never had to live with a host family or in a dorm to play elite travel hockey, but there are also a lot who did, including Blackhawks star forward Patrick Sharp.

He left his home in Thunder Bay, Ont., at 15 to play in the Ottawa Junior League with his older brother. They stayed with a host family, the Webers, whom Sharp still stays in touch with today, and it worked out well.

Still, he said, there were rough patches to get through.

"It takes a pretty big sacrifice," said Sharp, who remembers using calling cards and arena pay phones after games to call home. "I was upset about moving away. I was excited to play junior hockey and it was always my goal to get to that next level, but you miss out on a lot of things at that age … 14, 15 and 16. Your friends (back home) are in high school and you're calling home and checking in to see how things are going. It's tough, but I was fortunate because I had a great host family and my brother was with me."

For those who don't have the option of living in a dorm, Sharp said fining a good host family is a must if a youngster opts to leave home. Concerns on the ice are secondary, he said.

"As a parent, I would want my son or daughter to be with a good family and in a good situation," he said. "It can be kind of easy to forget about a person. When they're living away, you're just assuming they're living in good hands. Most hockey programs are similar. There's good ones and bad ones, but the lifestyle off the ice is what I'd watch for."

That's exactly what Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom did two summers ago, when his oldest son Kevin, who's now 17, pushed the idea of attending school and playing in the family's native Sweden for the same club his dad played for -- Vasteras HK.

Before giving the green light, Lidstrom and his wife Annika wanted to make sure their son had the right living arrangements. In fact, the decision process even had a little to do with Lidstrom's delay in affirming his return to the NHL for the 2010-11 season, when he ultimately won his seventh Norris Trophy as the League's top defenseman.

"Kevin wanted to go play hockey in Sweden and you know, at first we didn't think it was a good idea at all -- him moving away from home and living in Sweden while we were over here," said Lidstrom, whose son now lives there with one of his sisters. "We thought it would be tough, but once we looked at the situation and figured out where he'd be staying and everything around that, we decided that if he really wants to do it we're going to allow him to do it. But it took us awhile to be convinced."

It took Lidstrom's wife the longest, mainly because Lidstrom himself did a similar thing when he was the same age.

"I moved away from home when I was 16, so I was in the same boat as Kevin," the Red Wings captain and certain future Hall of Famer said. "I think that's why it was harder to say 'No,' because I did the same thing."

Unlike his son, however, Lidstrom didn't live with extended family.

"I actually rented a basement from an old couple, so it was kind of my own space in the basement," he said. "It was hard at the beginning, moving away from home and taking care of yourself and cooking meals for yourself and making sure you're eating right. You had to take care of the studies, as well."

It's a scenario that San Jose Sharks star forward Patrick Marleau can also relate to after moving in with his grandmother in Swift Current, SK at the age of 14 to play in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League. Like most early-teens who make that kind of leap, Marleau had visions of the NHL dancing in his head.

Now that he's a parent himself, his opinion has changed a little.

"I can't imagine it," Marleau told NHL.com. "My son's 5 and to think about him leaving home at 14? What would that be, nine years from now? Wow."

Indeed, it's a tough call for parents.

That's why those who've gone through it often advise parents to really think it through before giving the go-ahead.

"I think it really depends on their situation," said Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford, who lived with a billet family for a season of Midget AAA in the Montreal area when he was 15. "Do they really need to move that far to play for a team? How far are they moving? Who are they staying with? It all really depends, but for me it was a good experience."

Viktor Stalberg still remembers the first pair of hockey pants he wore while playing as a child in Sweden.

They were just perfect, except for two little details.

"They were too big and there were no suspenders," the 25-year old Chicago Blackhawks forward said, laughing at the memory. "So, I was skating around for a full game trying to pull my pants up. My parents keep telling me that story over and over again now. It was pretty funny, I guess."

Stalberg can laugh about it now, as an NHL player who's coming into his own in his third season. Back then, it was no laughing matter – and it was even worse before he got that first set of pants.

"As a kid, I was one of the last guys to even get hockey pants," Stalberg said. "My parents wouldn't get them for me until I was like 8, for some reason. Then, I finally got them and they were too big and had no suspenders."

The Stalbergs were not unlike a lot of parents whose children take up the sport of hockey, though. It can be pretty daunting to outfit a kid with all the right gear, not to mention a tad expensive.

You've got the obvious stuff – like skates, sticks, gloves and pucks – but there's also the various padding, which makes players look like they just stepped off the set of a "Star Wars" movie before they pull the jersey over it. There's also a helmet, shin pads, face cage, mouth guard, a cup that's not exactly the Stanley variety, those crazy hockey pants and suspenders, and, of course, the giant "hockey socks" leggings taped over the shin pads.

Does that cover it all?

Probably not... and that's just a basic list for would-be skaters. Young goalies, while incredibly cute all done up in their full attire, are an entirely different situation. Yet before running out to the nearest hockey shop and buying everything in sight, the best advice might come from the hockey coach's field guide to answering questions about strategy.

Keep it simple.

"These days, so much goes into sticks and obviously the cost of them is going up, but for young kids I don't think it's that important that you always get the best stuff," Stalberg said. "Make sure you get things that you can play with, and that's what it's all about."

Just make sure they work – or in Stalberg's case, come with suspenders. Minnesota Wild forward Cal Clutterbuck agreed.

"Fit is important, but honestly, just for kids to feel comfortable when they play is the biggest thing," said Clutterbuck, who wore primarily used equipment as a youngster that was handed down or bought secondhand. "You'll see kids with beefed up shoulder pads and their gear just looks like it's way too big and they can't even move. They're skating around (all rigid). Just make sure the kid's comfortable in their gear. Safety's important, but the gear's good enough these days that if it fits them and it's comfortable, they're going to be protected."

Also, you might not need to re-outfit young players as much as you'd think – as long as the growth spurts aren't abnormally large each year.

"Equipment's changed so much, even since when I was a kid, but I never liked getting new equipment," Clutterbuck said. "I don't like breaking in new stuff, so I wore my stuff until it was way too small."

So did Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford.

Maybe it was merely because goalie gear costs a small fortune to replace, but Crawford didn't swap out new pads every year when he was young and just starting out. He, too, wore basically the same stuff – secondhand gear – for most of his youth hockey days.

That changed one Christmas when Crawford – now in his second full NHL season – was an early teen. He came downstairs and found a huge box sitting next to the tree. Crawford's eyes still light up when he thinks about the box's contents. Inside were a brand new set of Martin Brodeur model Heaton Helite V goalie pads.

"Those were pretty cool," he said. "I loved them. Those were good pads."

They were also pricey, which is something else parents ought to weigh. You want to keep the kids safe and give them an opportunity to succeed, but you also can't afford to go bankrupt doing it.

"My first pair, I don't really remember," Crawford said. "I think my dad just went to like a secondhand hockey shop and picked everything up. I also got a lot of my stuff at Christmas time. A lot of people in my family chipped in for it. It gets pretty expensive, you know? I don't imagine that parents would want to buy new gear every year or every second year."

Especially for goalies, who tend to be the most high-maintenance players on the ice. They do, after all, have pucks flying at their face – so it's understandable when they want a mask that fits or looks just right.

Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, for instance, is using a new steel mask instead of Titanium in order to lessen the amount of impact a puck striking it makes. It's an entirely different game from youth hockey to the NHL – where some players can smoke slap shots over 100 MPHs – but Miller's switch shows how interesting it can be to pick out hockey gear.

"Making sure (Miller has) the right equipment, whether it's a heavier mask or more protective mask in those situations... is the proper thing to do, but there's always a comfort factor," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "I think everybody knows that goalies alone are probably the most fickle when it comes to tweaking with their own equipment."

Not just for safety or how it feels, either.

"I think a lot of kids go for more looks," Crawford said. "The look of the pad is No. 1 for almost all kids … and even (NHL) players, I think. Sticks or skates, a lot of them go for looks first. But the better the fit, the better you're probably going to play."

Especially once you figure out how to get those pants to stay up.

By Brian Hunter
NHL.com Staff Writer

What does Dustin Byfuglien have in common with your average youth hockey player?

Byfuglien, who won the Stanley Cup last season as a physically imposing forward on the Chicago Blackhawks and now patrols the blue line as a talented two-way defenseman for the Atlanta Thrashers, has become one of those rare NHL players who shows the versatility to be successful either up front or on the back end.

But while it's usually important for a player whose talent might one day result in a professional playing career to have an idea by his teens of what position he'll be most successful at, many believe that when a youngster is just learning to play hockey that he is better off channeling his inner Byfuglien and not committing to just one position.

That was the consensus of a pair of former NHL veterans, defenseman Jamie Macoun and center Perry Berezan, who played parts of five seasons together for the Calgary Flames and teamed up again last month as part of a Canadian Tire youth hockey clinic in Calgary.

"Once you get into bantam or midget, maybe you need to get more selective and say, 'hey, I want to strictly do defense or I strictly want to do forward,'" Macoun said. "But in many of the teams, they used to rotate even the goalies in and out -- they used to do that in lacrosse, as well.

"So I think it's fun. It's all about having fun and if the kids all know that in three days or three weeks I get to go in net or I get to play defense or I get to play forward, they're going to be that much more excited to be there."

Macoun played 17 seasons for the Flames, Maple Leafs and Red Wings, winning a pair of Stanley Cups. By the end of his career he was known as a stay-at-home defenseman, but Macoun scored as many as 11 goals and 40 points in a season, and he spent time playing forward positions growing up.

"Especially at the younger ages, the person who skated the fastest had the puck -- he didn't necessarily score, he'd just run faster into the boards," Macoun said. "I would play forward, I'd play defense. Once we started playing on a traveling team I played defense for most of those years and it was strictly selfish -- I just got my math chart out right away and realized there were going to be nine forwards and four defense. I wanted to be on the ice."

Macoun also stressed that just because a kid starts out playing on defense or, say, right wing, they shouldn't feel stuck there if it's not working out or they aren't having fun.

"You can change, you can change guys even going into the NHL," he said, pointing to Byfuglien as an example. "If you're well-rounded and you've got the skill -- one thing they can't teach you is how to score. They can teach you how to try, they can teach you techniques, but you either have it or don't. But most other things you can teach. Hard work is hard work, and if that means you have to spend extra time learning how to stop and start, then you should spend that extra time."

Berezan, who skated in more than 400 regular-season and playoff games for the Flames, North Stars and Sharks, said that occasionally where a player grows up and the needs of the local team might influence the position he ends up at, but was also in favor of variety winning out.

"Goalie, that's optional," Berezan said, laughing. "For sure, it's optional, because that's real specialized. But I don't think kids should be goalies at early age and that's all. They should be playing all the different positions, defense, forward."

Berezan raised a variety of interesting points as to why it's in the best interest of everyone involved -- parents, coaches and players -- not to pigeonhole a youngster into one specific role.

"When I hear parents of 8-year-olds say, 'My kid's a centerman and that's the only place he's going to play,' that's wrong. It's wrong," Berezan said. "If he doesn't understand what a defenseman needs to do, then he's not going to be a better centerman. How do we know he's not the best defenseman if he never played there? You need to learn all the positions, understand all the positions, and then as you get older and leagues and teams that you're on need you in a specific area, then you can fall into it."

By Mike G. Morreale
NHL.com Staff Writer

Zack Wainman traveled 546 miles from Peterborough, Ont., to play goal for the Long Island Royals Under-16 Midget National hockey team based out of Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park, N.Y.

It's just one example of the sacrifices taking place on the youth hockey levels throughout North America.

"I just wanted to come down and showcase myself for a very strong team … it's not every day you get the opportunity to be coached by two NHLers [Pat LaFontaine and Steve Webb]," Wainman said. "It was hard to get used to being down here, but sometimes in life you have to make sacrifices to get to where you want to get, so I see this as a sacrifice."

LaFontaine is the first to admit that many players on his team have sacrificed plenty in order to play for one the nation's top Under-16 youth programs.

"That's one of the things I always talk about … a Royals player stands for Respect, Optimism, Youthfulness, All together, Loyalty and Sacrifices to reach those levels," LaFontaine told NHL.com. "It's a big sacrifice to leave the comforts of home and your environment, but a lot of these kids going into the next year had to make those sacrifices."

Another such player was 6-foot-3, 182-pound blue-chip prospect Justin Bailey, who was living in Buffalo with his mother, but opted to join the Royals this season.

Campbell: The first thing is, have fun. That has to be priority No. 1. It's exciting to have goals to be in the NHL or to be on the National Women's team, but you have to be there because you love it and you have fun.

"I'm sure all summer he was tugging at this and trying to make the proper decision," Webb told NHL.com. "To take the path that isn't as sexy to the outside world and might not be the quickest route with the older hockey players was obviously a family decision."

Bailey is actually living with LaFontaine during his stay in Long Island.

"It also shows he wants to improve and not just be a one-dimensional player. He wants to be the best player he could possibly be," Webb said. "He's willing to sacrifice and be disciplined and he's committed to being an athlete, and that's a great quality to have. He's someone willing to not rush the process, because the process is a big part of your overall success."

LaFontaine also mentioned forward Adam Tracey, whose regular routine includes a one-hour ride from Sleepy Hollow to Kings Park.

"I've talked about it before," LaFontaine said. "Hockey is not like football, baseball or lacrosse where your competition is in the next town, and you can play high school and you don't have to leave your city for the most part. In hockey, there are huge commitments for parents and kids having to leave home at a young age to pursue a dream.

"Minnesota is really the only state in the U.S. where high school hockey is considered to be equal to if not better than travel hockey," LaFontaine continued.

Webb, born and raised in Peterborough, recalled his traveling days in the minor hockey system there and how different it is for those parents of the minor clubs in the United States.

"We've traveled to Washington, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut and Minnesota for showcases with the Royals," Webb said. "We've been to New Hampshire and also flew into Chicago as a group. Not every parent could make it because of the cost; don't forget you also have to arrange a room and that gets costly as well. We want to make sure the kids are being viewed and that they have the best opportunity to go on to the next level and have the scouts look at them.

"The travel is far and tiring," he added. "I remember getting up at 5:15 a.m. to pick up a couple of kids for a showcase in Connecticut; some kids didn't get up until 6 a.m. We were playing Avon Old Farms near Hartford for a 10 a.m. game. So the kids are sitting in the car for two-and-a-half hours and then have to perform when they're still half asleep."

Despite the long travel on the weekends, the team is currently ranked among the top five in the nation in its age group. The club is currently preparing for states and nationals to begin in the coming months.

"It's not the easiest thing to try and get 15-year-olds to jump out of the car and be ready to play their best game in the morning after traveling like that," Webb said. "You have conversations with them and educate them on the purpose of why we've gone up there and why they're doing it … just try to get some enthusiasm into their system and some excitement prior to going on to the ice. I think that's the only way we can really get these guys prepared to play the game with the travel."

In the end, Webb and LaFontaine feel the sacrifices and hard work ultimately reap the rewards.

"If they want to play at prep school, major junior, the USHL or college, these types of trips are common," Webb said. "In Western Canada, they're driving 10 times farther and they just pop out, play the game and then are back on the bus and playing eight hours later somewhere else. You have to be prepared to deal with the travel conditions and being able to pop out and play right away, get your body up and running and awake and be ready to perform.

"Every opportunity you play, there are people evaluating and checking you out. 'How did this player perform this time as compared to last time I saw him?' They want to make sure you're making progress and if your excuse is you were tired, it's not a very strong excuse to why you didn't perform to the best of your abilities on that day."

By Deborah Francisco
NHL.com Staff Writer

Cassie Campbell is the longest serving captain in Canadian hockey history (2001-2006). She won 21 medals with Team Canada (17 gold, 4 silver) including two Olympic gold medals (2002, Salt Lake City and 2006, Turin, Italy) and one silver medal (1998, Nagano, Japan). She is the only captain to lead Canada to two Olympic gold medals. She notched 32 goals and 68 assists over a 157-game span with Team Canada. Her 100 points rank her eighth all-time with Team Canada's National Women's program.

NHL.com: How did you get your start?

Campbell: I started skating on the outdoor ponds and stuff when I was three, but I didn't play on an official team until I was seven. Actually, I started hockey in the U.S. in New Jersey. I played for the Ramapo Saints. My dad just got transferred there through work and I spent two and a half years there as kid.

NHL.com: Who is the best youth coach you ever had, and why?

Campbell: My mom coached me. She would definitely be up there, that's for sure.

NHL.com: Who was your role model?

Campbell: We didn't have any females that we knew about to look up to as far as hockey players. My favorite player growing up was Paul Coffey ... and my older brother Jeff played, so I tried to emulate him as well. Those are the two people that I tried to be.

NHL.com: What advice would you give your 10-year-old self?

Campbell: The first thing is, have fun. That has to be priority No. 1. It's exciting to have goals to be in the NHL or to be on the National Women's team, but you have to be there because you love it and you have fun.

NHL.com: How can coaches foster growth in the girl's game?

Campbell: Encouragement. I think there is time for teaching and there is time for discipline, that's part of playing a competitive sport, but encouragement is really key. I think encouragement goes a long way. You never know these kids, they may be frustrated with something they are not able to do and they may want to quit and then a coach's positive words may keep them in the game, so I think a No. 1 rule for a coach is to just be an encouragement and be positive.

NHL.com: How have you seen the women's game grow over the years?

Campbell: The numbers at the grassroots level, it's skyrocketed. There's so many teams. I grew up in the Toronto area and we had three teams, now there's hundreds of teams around that area. I think they are getting access to a lot more ice time and better coaching and different things, and these kids who I see coming up now to the National Program, they're 25 times better than I was at that age, so I think they're just all-around better athletes and better hockey players and they've been getting better coaching right from the get-go.

NHL.com: What is the greatest challenge you overcame in your career?

Campbell: We kind of always found that we were trying to take the women's game to the next level so we would be taken seriously, so I think that was the No. 1 challenge for us.

NHL.com: What was your greatest accomplishment?

Campbell: I kind of have two, I guess. For me it was playing the 1995 University Championships out of Ontario, and I was playing for the University of Guelph and we were playing against the University of Toronto and they had like seven or eight National Team players on their team and we just had me, and we beat them, 3-2. That was a pretty special moment for me, playing university hockey and you're playing every single day and you become kind of a family.

And of course, the Olympics in 2002, we shouldn't have won. We beat the USA Dream Team and there was so much adversity that year and there was so much behind the scenes, and I think to come out with a gold medal that year was pretty incredible if you consider everything that we went through.

NHL.com: You switched from defense to forward after the 1998 Olympics, why?

Campbell: At the '98 Olympics I had kind of a so-so year I guess, and I remember the year after the Olympics we were playing in a national championship for our club team and our coach decided to put a couple of us who were normally on defense on forward just so we wouldn't mess up the whole chemistry of our team. We weren't playing together with them all year because we were centralized just for the Olympics. And myself and Geraldine Heaney, we led the team in scoring playing forward and Tom Renney at the time was working for Hockey Canada and he didn't know a lot about women's hockey but he was in charge of ranking all the players at that championship, so he thought I was a forward and I guess he ranked me as one of the top forwards and the coaches came to me the next year and asked me if I would play forward, and being the kind of person that I am I was like, ‘Whatever you guys think is best for the team,' so that's how the switch happened.

NHL.com: When should girls think about specializing in a position?

Campbell: I think as you get 17 or 18 you should know what position you want to play, but for me, and many of the girls my age, we played every position just because we never had enough players, and I think that helped me in the long run have such a long career with the National team because I was able to play both positions and I was versatile and the coach could use me in different ways. I think at this level now you have to have something set at 17 or 18 but, to me, the best players are the ones who can adapt to what the team needs.

"We didn't always get the exposure early on and there was always a sort of attitude that women's hockey wasn't any good, so for us, we were always trying to prove ourselves," said Campbell, a two-time-Olympic-gold medalist. "We were trying to take the women's game to the next level so we would be taken seriously."

Mission accomplished, ladies.
It's no secret that the number of female players in both Canada and the U.S. has skyrocketed since the first ever IIHF Women's World Championship tournament in 1990. Since that monumental year, the number of girls in Canada has increased from 11,341 to over 85,500 while in the U.S. the number has grown from 10,000 to over 65,500 while.

As girls hockey becomes more popular in North America, it's important for coaches to focus on developing their female players. When it comes to coaching girls, there are five important things to keep in mind.

One: Always be encouraging and focus on one-on-one instruction.

According to Krista Prins, head coach of the Vancouver Girls Ice Hockey Association midget team, encouragement is vital when working with girls.

"The best coaches I've had are the ones who encourage me in the things I'm doing right, and take the time to single me out to do that," Prins said. "But they are also the ones who can then point out a few areas where I can improve and give me tips on how to do so."

Vancouver native Liz Montroy started playing hockey just two years ago, at age 14, but her skill level has improved immensely thanks to the one-on-one instruction from her high school team's head coach.

"He's probably my favorite coach I've had yet, and he always does one-on-one stuff that's very specific to what I'm doing well," Montroy said. "With everyone on the team, he's making sure he talks to everybody and making sure he points out something good in everybody that plays."

Added Campbell: "If you can get an opportunity to at least say something positive to every single player at practice at least once, I think encouragement goes a long way. A No. 1 rule for a coach is to just be an encouragement and be positive."

Two: Be mindful that with girls, the social aspect of the sport is just as important as the competitive aspect.

Girls will chat in the locker room before and after the game, and will even chat on the bench during the game. This doesn't necessarily mean they are not focused on the task at hand.

"They need to chat about their day or what's going on in their lives." Prins said. "It's not uncommon for me to hear conversations on the bench between shifts or periods about something that happened at school or on the weekend. I think most Midget C boys teams would find those chats secondary and just want to play. Relationships are key for girls, so much so that many would pass up an opportunity to play for a better team just to stay on a team with their friends. I know I've done this."

Prins hits on another important part of the social aspect which is important to girls: being a valuable member of the team.

"I love my team so much," Montroy said. "I so look forward to going to the dressing room and being with everybody and that feeling of being together and you're all working together toward one certain goal. I love that."

Three: Focus on skill development.

Obviously this is important for all players, but for girls it is especially important to work on developing their shot and upper-body strength.

"When you're a kid you just want to play games and games and games and that's really fun and it's important, obviously, but so is working hard in practice and recognizing that your skills are so important," Campbell said. "To this day, anyone who is playing in the NHL or on the National Women's team, they're always working on their skills."

According to Campbell, it is extremely important for girls to work on strengthening their forearms, arms and wrists and learning how to shoot properly from a young age. Girls should also play multiple sports, especially in the summer months when it's not always possible to play ice hockey.

"Develop yourself as an athlete and not just as a hockey player," Campbell said.

Campbell not only excelled at hockey as a youngster, she also played soccer, volleyball and basketball.

Four: Treat girls the same as everyone else on your team.

At the end of the day, coaching girls really isn't much different than coaching boys. Girls know what they are getting into when they join hockey and they expect to be challenged, so don't shy away from challenging them.

"Girls don't want to be 'babied' or treated as a weaker species when it comes to the game," Prins said. "I've played my share of hockey with guys and when they go easy on me by letting me win a faceoff or something, it makes me want to say, 'I wouldn't be here if I didn't want you to try.'"

Five: Keep in mind that many girls don't start hockey until later ages.

Even Campbell didn't start playing hockey until age seven when her family moved to New Jersey for two years. She played two seasons with the Ramapo Saints before moving back to Canada, where she continued her youth hockey career.

"The challenge I have with the team I coach is that I have a massive disparity in skill level from girls who have been playing since they were five to some who just learned to skate last year," Prins said.

This is why it is imperative to emphasize that the game is about having fun. Remember that girls only have a few options beyond youth hockey. Some girls will go on to play in the NCAA or NCIS or maybe enter the National program, but the majority will play recreationally after youth hockey.

"You have to be enjoying it," Campbell said. "That has to be priority No. 1. It's exciting to have goals to be in the NHL or to be on the National Women's team, but you have to be there because you love it and you have fun."

That being said, just because girls want to have fun doesn't mean they don't also want to win.

"I know I'm not gonna play in the gold medal game," Montroy said. "So that school championship, that becomes my gold medal game because I know I don't have very many chances. So I play to win that game."

Women's hockey has certainly come a long way in the last 20 years, and there is still plenty of room for the sport to grow. The attitude that helped women's hockey prove itself to the world throughout the 1990s is the same can-do attitude that permeates the game to this day.

So go ahead, play like a girl.

Players like Sidney Crosby, Nicklas Backstrom and Pavel Datsyuk are among the current players who rank high on the hockey IQ chart. They're almost always in the right place in all three zones, whether they have the puck or not. It's what makes them some of the elite players in the game today.

So was it a learned skill? Or is it a knack that you either have or don't?

Well, it depends who you ask.

Jim Dowd, who spent 16 seasons in the NHL and was part of the 1995 Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, said it's impossible to teach hockey sense. He now spends much of his time coaching teams his two sons, ages 10 and 7, play on in central New Jersey.

"Can you teach common sense? No," Dowd told NHL.com. "You have guys with book smarts but no common sense. I don't believe you can teach hockey sense."

Keith Primeau, who spent 15 seasons in the League and also coaches kids at various youth and high school levels, disagreed.

"Absolutely," he told NHL.com when asked if hockey sense is a teachable skill. "We're teaching situational hockey. ... You can teach them the game of hockey enough so that they know what the right decisions are, what is the right play in a certain situation."

Primeau believes hockey sense is "understanding situational play. Understanding where I'm supposed to be as the non-puck carrier, where I'm supposed to be on the forecheck. ... It's all situational play."

He believes that repetition and a precise understanding of the team's style of play can raise a player's hockey IQ.

"Can you teach common sense? No. You have guys with book smarts but no common sense. I don't believe you can teach hockey sense." -- Jim Dowd

Dowd, however, believes too much teaching can turn a player from a natural talent into "a robot."

"Hockey sense, for the most part you can't teach that," Dowd said. "You can turn the kid into a robot, but you can't teach hockey sense.

"It's either you get it or you don't."

What Dowd does with his players is tell them to watch certain NHL players, but not just for the highlight-reel plays they make. Instead, he advises them to watch their favorite players and teams, and keep an eye on the more mundane tasks players do that might help their team win, whether it's backchecking, forechecking or puck support.

"I came in one game and the Leafs had played the Rangers early in the season, and Phil Kessel was unbelievable," Dowd said. "I said, 'Guys did you watch that Ranger game? Did you see Phil Kessel play? He was the best player on the ice -- driving the net, making passes, making plays.' I find out what their favorite team is -- if they're Flyers fans, watch Mike Richards, watch Chris Pronger. If you're a Devils fan, watch Zach Parise."

Whether watching how an NHL star backchecks or supports a play in the defensive zone can turn into a natural habit for a 10-year-old is questionable. But one thing that's for sure is that players with high levels of hockey sense have a much greater chance of having a successful hockey career.

"As these kids get older," Primeau said, "what's going to separate the good players from each other -- because the playing field becomes level -- what separates is the kid that understands the game."

The benefits of youth players learning to officiate are threefold: it gives them a new perspective on the game, it teaches them life skills and it's a way for them to give back to the hockey community.

"The game needs officials, we need good officials, and those are people that often come from a background of playing, and have a desire to have a positive impact in the game," Todd Anderson, Hockey Canada's Manager of Officiating, told NHL.com.

The fact that every hockey game from mini-mites to adult recreational needs officials to oversee it means there is a great need for referees. Thus, the sport of hockey gains in two tangible ways from youth players who both serve as officials and play competitively: the need for quantity and quality of officials is met while the officials themselves expand their skill set in a very unique way.

"I don't think they can improve their stickhandling or their shooting, or that kind of thing," Anderson said. "But I always find with a lot of young individuals that it does provide them with a different perspective on the game.

"It allows them to see and develop more vision, because the role of the official is to see the entire ice surface and be aware of the play and all of the players on it."

Chris Bishop from Chantilly, VA, is one such example. After playing the game competitively for six years, he took up officiating two years ago, and his view of the game will never be the same again.

"As a ref, you want to keep the play in front of you so you can see everything that is happening … you see the game from an entirely different aspect," Bishop said.

Anderson and Bishop explained that officiating also allows players to analyze the various tactics different teams employ, it teaches a better understanding of the rules and how the game is meant to be played, and it improves skating skills. More important than the on-ice skills, however, are the life skills that officiating teaches young players.

Officials are given a large amount of responsibility and are expected to control the pace of the game, maintain safety, and communicate with coaches, parents and players to ensure a smooth and fair contest for all parties involved. Perhaps all of this pressure explains why 13-year-old Tova Schell was so nervous when she officiated her first game recently.

"When I walked into the arena, no one was looking at me, but it felt like everyone was looking at me," Schell said. "I was so afraid I was going to forget something, even though there's only like five things that you have to do to get ready. Now, I see that it's really hard to be out there because you have all those parents and you have the kids and stuff."

The enormous amount of pressure on young officials is a great way to teach responsibility, leadership, time management, communication, and decision making. Because the role of the official is to provide the best possible playing experience for everyone involved by ensuring the game is played fairly, it is also a great way to teach excellence. As Bishop explained, he wants to make sure he gets the calls right and the game is called completely fair.

"Any time that we can put officials that have a passion for the game, a desire to do the best job that they can and provide the best playing environment for the players, that is what we are all after," Anderson said.

Good officiating is essential to the growth of hockey, which is why it's so important for youth players to invest in the game through officiating.

Schell played for two years with Girls' Hockey Calgary and Blackfoot Hockey Association in South East Calgary before getting certified as a level one official by Hockey Canada. This season she will officiate over 30 games for her local hockey associations on top of her regular playing schedule.

"The girls would look up at us and you could see that they were happy to be out there and stuff," Schell said. "I want younger kids to play hockey because hockey is not just about the game but it's also about teamwork, and I've had a lot of good experiences in hockey so I want the girls that I ref for to have those experiences, too.

"Hockey has meant a lot to me, and after these girls are done playing hockey they can ref like me and give back and be mentors to other girls as well."

That is exactly the sort of recruitment and retention model that Hockey Canada hopes to develop in its aspiring officials. Age 10 is generally the minimum to officiate, and all officials must register and take officiating courses from either USA Hockey or Hockey Canada. The beginning of the registration process for both governing bodies is in August.

That team was actually the first year that The Canadian Hockey League (as it was called in those days) brought together an all-star selection of players. Previously, the teams who won the Memorial Cup were given the honour of competing on the World Stage the following season. Hockey Canada has done an amazing job developing the World Junior property. Winning Gold is burned into the hearts of each Canadian player participating on our collective behalf. With such a talented roster, it was heartbreaking to finish 3rd. Lou Holtz, the great football coach, said, “You have to have talent to win, but you can lose with talent, and that’s where coaching can make the difference.” We had one of those amazingly talented teams that never quite hit our stride.

What does the World Tournament do to and for young Junior players? For starters, before I tried out to make the World Junior team I didn’t have an agent. After I captained the team, I had every agent in the country calling. This gives you insights into the hidden back-door pressure that hides in the minds of these young Juniors. Players’ future NHL careers are enhanced or exacerbated by the way they play during this Christmas holiday tournament. I mentioned that I played with a young Wayne Gretzky. Wayne was well-known before the World Junior Tournament, but after he led the tournament in scoring as a 16 year old, he became world-renowned.

Christmas is a perfect time of the hockey season to hold such an important tournament for everyone but the players’ families. Our family found it difficult to split up at Christmas. Christmas weather is hockey weather, though, and I can recall the cold and snow of Montreal as I walked from the hotel to the Forum. The eastern weather was such a change from my Vancouver (and Seattle, where I was playing) rain that it, along with the excitement of actually competing in the World Junior Tournament, made that Christmas one that I will remember forever.

As you watch the World Junior tournament this season, enjoy the drama, but remember the person inside the player. Away for Christmas, feeling intense career-pressure at the age of 19, trying to assimilate onto a new team, sensing that Gold is the only acceptable result, these young players are learning to deal with many heavy emotions while trying to stay light on their feet. We ask these kids to grow up quickly. At the age of 53 (and still unsure of what I want to be when I grow up) when I look back on my World Junior experience, these are the feelings and emotions that I remember. At the time I thought that the scores and results were so important, but 34 years later, I only remember how I felt!

The moment it hit me, I was standing at center ice, watching 14-year-old Cheyann Newman grin from ear to ear as she effortlessly and fluidly skated around the circles in a typical cross-over drill -- each stride infused with a passion I'd never seen before.

I had been coaching Cheyann all that week at camp, and the way she lit up every time I talked to her, even to correct her on her form, was humbling. I learned that she is the only daughter of a single mom, that she plays basically every sport under the sun but hockey is her favorite, that she is the lone girl on a tier 2 rep team in Quisnell, B.C., that she makes perfect grades in school, and that she dreams of one day going to Boston University to play for the Terriers. Oh, and that she is autistic, but you would never know it.

"I've had autism all my life," Cheyann explained. "It's crazy because most autistic kids avoid sports because the majority of them are clumsy and do not have any hand-eye coordination … I'm drawn to hockey because it's a place where I can completely be myself, it takes away stress and I get to showcase some talent.

"Ever since I started playing hockey I've loved every second of it."

Cheyann's pluck and drive reminded me of the very reason I was using all of my vacation time from working as a web producer at NHL.com to volunteer with YWAM Hockey's summer camp program.

"First and foremost, it's about the kids" -- that's the mantra of Glen Beuckert, founder and director of YWAM Hockey, a Christian hockey camp based in Vancouver that emphasizes the cultivation of character, respect and integrity.

"Not only do you teach them hockey skills, but you build into their lives as well," Bueckert said.

I've spent the last two summers coaching with YWAM Hockey at its camps throughout Western Canada. Each summer, YWAM Hockey assembles a team of eight or so volunteer coaches to travel to Calgary, Grande Prairie, Prince George, Langley, Kelowna and Vancouver Island to stage week-long camps. During the winter months, YWAM Hockey also ventures to Alaska, Russia, Finland and the Far East to offer camps and clinics there.

In all of my coaching endeavors, I've worked with hundreds of kids in different cities and from different backgrounds -- and they've taught me a lot. If there's one thing I've learned about coaching youth hockey, it's this: Simply show up, forget about yourself and your life will be changed.

Just ask Shaun Comier, 19, who has helped coach the YWAM Hockey camp in Prince George, B.C., for the last three years. Shaun grew up in Prince George playing soccer, but he switched to hockey at age 10 and quickly excelled on the ice all the way to the Major Midget level. Technically speaking, he's one of the best power skaters I've ever coached with. He's also a favorite among the kids at the Prince George camp every year. He is something of a local hero, attending university and working at the nearby sports shop. He keeps in touch with the kids from camp all through the year, even running bi-monthly dry land practices just to check in on them.

"With coaching, it's seeing the kids improve; that's what brings me back," Comier said. "You see the kids each year and you watch them move on to the next level and achieve their goals in the season, you want to keep in touch with the kids and hear how they are improving."

Investing off the ice is key. How well do you know the players on your team? They have so much to teach you, if you're willing to get to know them.

Last spring I coached a squirt team for Ice Hockey in Harlem, which meant waking up at 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings -- oftentimes after working a full slate of NHL games the previous night, which meant coaching on only a few hours of sleep. But it was worth it for the opportunity of meeting 13-year-old Caroline Cabrera.

It was Caroline's first season playing hockey, but she had that desire to learn and improve that coaches love to see in a player. I helped arrange for her to attend the YWAM Hockey/ Athletes in Action camp in Langley, B.C., where she was the only American in attendance.

Caroline and I have become good friends. She is an amazing young woman who has earned my respect. According to her former elementary school teacher, he used to use her assistance in translating books from Spanish to English for his students. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe she is only 13. Although camp ended months ago, and I won't coach her squirt team until next March, she and I get together every few weeks to do homework, write letters to our friends in Canada and talk about life. I invest in her life, and she invests in mine.

Coaching youth hockey is paradoxical. Although I originally started coaching in order to give back to the community and to pass my love of the game onto others, the more I coach, and the more I get to know these kids, the more they touch my life and inspire me.

So what are you waiting for? Consider getting involved in coaching youth hockey. Your life will never be the same.

Step into an arena and everyone knows who the goalie’s parents are. The ones pacing behind the net, biting their nails or standing in the lobby as the game goes to overtime.

"Yes, my mom especially," said Olympic gold medal winning goalie Shannon Szabados. "My mom is worse than my dad, especially at the Olympics, she said she felt like throwing up."

Szabados fell in love with the position around the age of seven, at the level where everyone tries every position, and in an instant, her fate was chosen. "I think my parents were excited when they saw how much I enjoyed it and I think for them that was the main thing—having fun was the most important aspect," said Szabados.

But, it’s not easy for parents to hear, "I want to be a goalie" come out of their child’s mouth. With it comes a different set of (potentially expensive) gear, attitude towards the game and learning curve.

"Goaltending can be an expensive position, without a doubt. That said, especially in younger age groups, the cost of gear has come down substantially from what it once was and the quality has gone up...there is plenty of bang for your dollar these days and most budgets can be met," said Rod LaForme, manager at a goalie equipment store.

"Used options are there via avenues such as eBay, Craigslist and Kijiji, so if you are slightly knowledgeable and know what you are looking at, there is potential to save some money going that route. Buyers have to be careful when buying used, though...if you don’t know exactly what you are looking at, you may overpay for something that isn’t worth anywhere near what people are selling it for," warned LaForme.

The other benefit of buying new, besides having your child properly sized, is that used gear can be quite nasty. LaForme said pieces like gloves and masks can be the worst culprits with the evolution of staph infections and skin conditions.
Szabados said many minor hockey organizations now have a loaner set of gear for kids to try the position out, or there are places that will rent equipment if parents aren’t ready to fork over the money on gear.

"Once the season starts, the pressure is going to be on the goalie, that is why I suggest playing goalie in the summer and go out and have fun with it. Parents can enroll their kids in goalie school in the summer to get some basic instruction. That is exactly what I did and the same summer goalie camp where I learned, I now teach at. I think having that experience when I was younger helped me, tremendously," said Szabados.

She has had a string of success between the pipes from the AJHL to playing with the Tri-City Americans in the Western Hockey League. Her first game was against the Vancouver Giants with Carey Price of the Montreal Canadians as her backup. In 2010, she joined Team Canada and helped them to a gold medal, shutting-out the Americans, 2-0.

"I think it’s the most unique position. It’s a pressure position and some kids like being that last line of defence and being the difference maker in a game. I also feel its also the most athletic position," said Szabados.

Every player, at every age, reaches their next level of competition based primarily on their ability to skate. I am not diminishing the other 100 plus skills that players must master, rather I am certain of the fact that your player’s ability to skate needs to be your first focus.

Remembering waaaaay back to the days I played minor hockey (just this side of the Ice Age), I realize now that my parents did so many things right. Both my Mom and Dad loved the game of hockey, and my father coached or managed most of the minor hockey teams that I played on. Back in those days we didn’t have “Power Skating.” My parents were very progressive, however, and they encouraged me to take several years of figure skating lessons.

I will never forget our teacher. She was strict and came across a little grumpy, but boy did she teach me to use my edges! Of all the fun things that we did to improve our enjoyment of the game of hockey, this single recommendation by my folks turned out to be the most important.

At its highest levels, hockey is now, more than ever, a game of speed. My generation of NHL player got really good at holding up, or interfering with, our opponents’ ability to generate speed. It wasn’t that we weren’t able to skate well; it was that the rules of the game allowed us to reduce the importance of this factor. Not any more! Now, more than ever, the game is fast and furious. So, let’s spend a minute thinking through the elements that will help our players increase their ability to skate.

1- Time on Ice
Players in my day didn’t have the skating coach resources that we have today, but what we did have was time. Many of my colleagues taught themselves to skate by playing pond hockey. Hours and hours of doing can create expertise.

I was a different duck. Because I grew up in Burnaby BC where we had no outdoor ice (only rain), I found unique ways to get more time on the ice. I would get my Dad and Mom up very early and ask them if I could get to the arena early (4:30 am!!!) because in those days they would let us skate before the ice-man needed to Zamboni a fresh sheet of ice for our 5:30 am practice.

Today’s minor hockey players fight for ice time. As our hockey population increases and our arena capacity remains the same, we try to do the same with less ice time. Many minor hockey practices are on half-ice as a result. Try to spend any extra team budget resources on finding extra ice time or plugging into a power skating resource for the players on your team.

2- Technique
Most people new to the higher levels of hockey in general, and skating more specifically, do not recognize the strong connection between a good skater and great leg strength. Technique is certainly important, but it must be combined with leg-strength development to optimize the skater’s speed.

Parents, do this for me: Right now, walk over to the nearest wall, spread your legs slightly, lean against the wall with your back, and then slide down the wall until your legs are at a 90 degree angle. Hold this sitting position for 50 seconds (the length of a shift). The more quickly your legs burn, the more quickly your legs straighten up, and the more quickly you lose skating effectiveness and speed. Great power skating instructors will ask your players to bend their knees not their backs. To maximize the technique grow your leg muscles.

Technique can be taught, but leg-strength must be developed!

3- Timing (Hockey Sense)
Often players are not actually slow, but they look slow because of their timing. Timing is everything in the game of hockey! If players constantly get ahead of the play, they must decrease their speed to avoid going offside. Players breaking out of the zone can play too close to the puck-carrier, or crowd a teammate’s space, and get slowed down. Timing, how to hit holes with speed, is an essential element which is often under-appreciated as we look at a player’s ability to generate speed.

Mature hockey pundits commonly speak of “hockey-sense.” In fact, they are often referring to a player’s sense of timing. A good understanding of timing can make your player look faster.

Finally, over the past 45 years that I have been directly connected to hockey, I have noticed that some players pay less attention during the portion of practice that is dedicated to skating technique. The best in the world, however, pay attention! NHL and AHL teams hire skating experts (our Abbotsford Heat team has one) to focus on building this critical skill in players who are the best of the best. So, the simple message is that it’s never too late to work on becoming a better skater.

John Wooden, the “winningest” basketball coach in NCAA history, said, “I don’t worry too much about winning or losing. I focus a lot on practicing the details that give us the win.”

That is the perfect mantra for minor hockey coaches, players and parents. Are we practicing the details: more time on ice, better technique, and enhanced timing? Practicing those details will increase our players’ skating proficiency while at the same time optimizing their enjoyment of the game - a win-win!

Lebeau played seven seasons in the NHL, winning a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, and finished his playing career with six seasons in Switzerland.

He registered 277 points in 377 NHL games despite lacking size because Lebeau relied on his guile to become an effective player, one that notched a career-high 80 points in 71 games with Montreal in 1992-93.

Upon his return to his home to Sherbrooke in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, Lebeau coached at the Junior AAA level with Champlain College Lennoxville, the Major Junior level with the Victoriaville Tigres in the Quebec league, the Midget AAA level with the Magog Cantonniers and finally at the prep school level where he currently coaches at Bishop's College School in Lennoxville.

On top of that, Lebeau has a son that just completed his first season of Pee-Wee AA hockey, so it would be fair to say he has a certain degree of perspective on how hockey is being taught at the youth levels in Quebec.

And what he has seen from some of his fellow coaches bothers him, because he feels they don't allow kids to develop a love of the game in its purest form.

"I loved playing hockey as a kid because at the time, thankfully, the parents who were coaching me didn't really know much about the game," Lebeau said. "It allowed me to just play, it allowed me to make mistakes. Systems came later, so when they came I was able to apply the creativity and imagination I developed as a kid just playing the game."

This freedom that Lebeau credits with giving him the ability to reach the NHL is what he feels is lacking in minor hockey coaching today because of the emphasis on competitiveness and skill development in practice at a very young age.

That emphasis, he says, should be placed on making that learning process fun and engaging for players, as opposed to the military-style drills often seen in youth league practices.

"We always hear people say that the most important thing is that the kids have fun, but that's not always applied," he says. "What's fun for a player is not necessarily the same as what's fun for a coach."

Lebeau's emphasis in his practices is placed on the development of hockey sense, and he does that by trying to re-create situations that can develop skills that can be applied in a game.

One example he provided is a passing drill where a player waits his turn in line, passes the puck to a coach, takes the return pass and shoots on net. Instead, Lebeau tries to add a hitch where the player is forced to make a decision during the course of the drill, like if his coach's stick is not on the ice, then the player is not supposed to pass it.

That one little hitch to a time-tested drill, Lebeau says, is part of an overall philosophy of forcing players to make decisions on the ice in practice to develop their hockey sense, something that many people see as being innate, but which Lebeau feels can be nurtured and taught.

And this decision-based practice philosophy, as Lebeau calls it, ultimately makes practice more fun for kids because it provides them with a mental challenge and not just a physical one.

"I feel that from age 5 to 12 coaches are largely wasting the kids' time because we underestimate them," Lebeau said. "I want a player to be his own coach; I want him to be able to evaluate his own game. At the end of a practice I'll usually ask my players what they felt they did well and what they need to improve. They're often shocked because I'm challenging their brains, but it forces them to think the game."

This mental engagement by the player in his own development, Lebeau feels, heightens the desire to improve while at the same time enhancing a player's decision-making ability that will be useful when the speed of the game makes hockey instincts something that can separate the average players from the elite.

"It emphasizes the fact we're playing hockey. Playing golf is not just going to driving range and hitting balls, you need to go to the driving range with specific things you want to work on that you can bring with you to the golf course," Lebeau said. "It's the same thing in hockey and it makes the kid have fun, because it makes them want the puck, it makes them want to get a breakaway, it makes them want to score a goal. It makes them want to do the things that make hockey fun.

"But you get there by allowing a kid to make mistakes in practice, by allowing them to explore their creativity and their decision-making. You shouldn't tell them what to do, you should just allow them to make decisions and try to guide those decisions. I don't see myself as a dictator as a coach who tells his players what to do and when to sleep and when to go to the bathroom. I see myself as a guide."

Whether it's for occasional games of pickup hockey, serious practice for your hockey enthusiasts or just casual Saturday night skating parties for family and friends, a backyard hockey rink is the perfect way to bring hockey and skating closer to home. So, this year it's time to grab your Mastercraft tools and get to work!

To help you along we consulted with the NHL® ice experts. Here are their "Four P's" (Plan, Preparation, Patience, Play On) of building your very own backyard rink:

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(Please note: the amount of boards and plywood required depends on the dimensions of your rink.)

22 - 2"x6"x8' pressure treated wood boards
22 - 2"x4"x8' pressure treated wood boards
8 - 4'x4' sheets of ½" plywood

To start, place a 2"x4" on its edge and make a pencil mark 12" from the end of it like this. It is easiest to do this on a level surface, like a cement floor, but it can be done outside on the ground.

Take a 2"x6" on its flat, place it on the top edge of the 2"x4" at your pencil mark so it looks like this. Make sure the edge of your 2"x6" is flush with the front face of the 2"x4".

Now, drill the 2 1/2" screws (approximately 16" apart) along the bottom of the 2"x6" into the top edge of the 2"x4" like this.

Now you should have the two pieces of lumber attached, making one L-shaped piece. Flip it towards you 45 degrees so the 2"x4" is flat on the floor and the 2"x6" is upright on its edge. This is how it will be used on the ground.

Drill 2 holes on the top of the 2"x4" - one 16" in from the end and the other one 16" from the opposite end.

Hammer two 12" spikes into the holes, in as far as the width of the 2"x4". Now repeat the steps above 17 times with 2"x4"s and 2"x6"s. When you are done, all 18 pieces should look the same.

Take all your L-shaped pieces to your rink area and lay them out on the ground around your stringed-off area used to mark your rink base. Remember, the 2"x6" should be facing in and up on their edge. You should have four L-shaped pieces at each end of your rink, and five pieces along each side.

The four pieces used in the corners for both ends should be placed on an angle to simulate the appearance of an arena's ice surface - preventing pucks from staying in a squared-off corner and keeping them in play. The sides and ends will run in a straight line in and out of the angled corners.

The pieces should now all fit together like a puzzle.

Take your 2 1/2" screws and attach one end of a 2"x6" into the 2"x4" end of the next piece until you have gone all the way around the inside of your rink.

Corners will be placed in like this. You'll need to slope these screws to hit the 2"x4" on the next piece – both going in and coming out of the corners.

Spread out the tarp inside the rink area and secure it around the edges of the framework (on the back side of the 2"x6") with a staple gun. The tarp will help protect the grass from ice damage and gives the rink a flatter surface. Ensure you have left enough slack on the tarp to lessen the tension and allow some give when the rink freezes.

If you happen to get a tear in the tarp, don't worry. Just use the duct tape to seal it up.

Cut 1' off along one end of each of the 4'x4' plywood sheets to create the side boards and the end boards.

Use 1'x4' plywood sheets for the sides, and the 3'x4' plywood sheets for the ends. You should have eight of each. Secure them to the front of the 2"x6" framework with 1 1/4" screws.

To give the plywood rink boards more support, you can cut the leftover pressure treated wood boards and use them as braces. Do this by fastening them to the back of the rink boards and framework with screws.

1. On the first pieces of 1'x3' side boards and 3'x4' end boards, you should round off the corners with a saw to eliminate any sharp corners.

2. Then open the slit and place the 3/4" pipe foam along the top edge of the rink boards for safety and to complete the look of your rink.

Now you're ready to make the ice surface. Remember, it's always a good idea to number your framework and rink boards to know how to assemble them next year.

1. It is best to start your rink with thin layers of water using a fine spray nozzle.

2. You should spray 0.5cm layers of water at a time and let them freeze in between. (This is done because water freezes from the top layer down).

3. Thin layers avoid air pockets and give you a smoother surface.

4. The spray process could take two to three days and several layers to build a good rink base.

5. The warmer the weather, the finer the spray and less water you should use.

6. If you get a few cracks it is better to fill them in with snow rather than water.

1. Have fun, play safe and enjoy your backyard rink.

2. Sweep the ice around the perimeter with a stiff bristled broom to prevent a high ridge from developing.

3. To clean the surface of the rink, scrape the ice with a sharp steel flat edge on a wide snow pusher.

4. To keep your rink smooth, spray it with a fine mist of water every few days as needed.

Your backyard rink can be whatever you want it to be. Before you sit down to draw up your plan or race off to pick up your materials, there are some things you need to think about first. Here are some thought-starters and general tips to ensure you get the most out of your rink and your rink-building experience.

Size matters. How big is your yard? Can it accommodate the 24'x46' dimensions outlined in our build instructions? Do you need one that big? Do you need it to be bigger? How many people do you expect to use your rink? Do you want it just for some one-on-one shinny or a whole game with two teams? How old are the hockey players and skaters?

Whatever you choose, just remember scaling the size of your rink up or down will affect your material costs, planning, time to actually build, and time spent maintaining the ice surface.

Check out your backyard and decide where you want to put your rink. You need to choose a relatively flat surface. Make sure it is level—you can't have one end of your rink significantly higher or lower than the other. Look for rocks or roots that might tear the liner.

If your rink is just for pleasure skating, or very young children pushing the puck around the ice, you may not need to invest the time, energy and finances required to put up boards. The frame will do just fine. However, boards have real benefits.

• They form a natural enclosure to your rink and keep snow from drifting across the surface

• They stop you from having to chase pucks after every wild shot

• They make your rink look like the real thing!

When it comes to planning the boards, are you fine with 3'x4' end boards and smaller 1'x3' side boards? Or do you want to increase the height with 4'x4' boards? And do you want them all the way around the perimeter?

If you go for higher boards all the way around, you'll need to think about creating an access door to allow skaters on the ice, and for you to easily take care of snow removal and moving the nets for flooding.

Our instructions leave a few pieces of lumber left over to help support the end boards. However, to save a few bucks you can also attach metal L-brackets to the back of the 2"x6" base pieces.

This along with the 12" spikes and freezing water over the bottom edge of your plywood boards inside the rink area will make it strong enough for most hockey games. You can also backfill the back of the boards with snow and ice for extra support.

Think about the longevity of your rink.

If you're just building your rink for this year for example, you can buy a painters tarp to line the rink. If you are planning to build for several years to come you may want to invest in a stronger vapour barrier, which comes in a range of thicknesses.

It really is best to use a liner. If you don't, you'll need a lot more effort and water to soak in and freeze the ground before you flood.

• A plastic liner or tarp acts as insulation between the ground and ice sheet

• It traps melting water so when the air temperature drops below zero, you still have ice to skate on

• A liner makes maintenance quick and easy and makes clean up in the spring much easier

If you're going to build a rink again next winter, where will you store your rink boards? Remember, labeling all the pieces 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C… will help save you time.

When it comes to creating your ice surface patience is more than a virtue.

• Take your time (it can take two to three days and many layers to build a good rink base)

• Routinely flood the rink to build up the ice thickness and maintain a good, even surface by spraying a fine mist of water every few days as needed

• Begin at one end of the rink and move slowly across the ice, creating a ripple-free pond of water

• Best time for flooding your rink: late evening when there's no wind or falling snow

If you try to put down too much water at once it may not freeze all the way through. There have been stories of impatient people filling their liner with three or four inches of water, only to have it run into their basement or a neighbour's basement, depending on the grade of the yard. So, take the time to flood often and do it right.

Some people use hot water to flood because it freezes faster; which is fine. But ask yourself this: Do you want the additional water heating costs on your winter bill? That's just something else to factor in when figuring out your overall budget.

And on that subject, you can also make your rink better with add-ons like chain-link fencing over the end boards and additional lights, but this will, again, cost you more.

Whatever you plan to do, make sure you're up for the task. As we said at the beginning, your rink is what you make it. Take the time to do it right and make sure you enjoy it.

But before hitting the ice, it may be time to upgrade your skates, replace that old tattered helmet or treat yourself to the latest and greatest one-piece stick.

The general trend in most equipment categories continues to be towards lighter, faster and stronger. More protective is also an area of increasing focus, particularly in helmets, as a number of high profile incidents in the NHL and elsewhere have everyone thinking "safety first."

Helmets continue to evolve, with top end helmets offering the best combination of protection, light weight and new technology. However, the most important aspect to consider is proper fit. The highest tech, highest priced helmet will not function safely if it does not fit snuggly. Chip straps must also fit snuggly and cages must be properly matched with the helmet size.

All minor hockey players must wear facial protection on their helmets. The most common type is a metal cage, which typically feature chrome, black or white coatings. Some players prefer a bubble style cage, made of clear plastic material. Again proper fit is the key to safe performance.

Age, size, frequency of play and level are all important in deciding which product may best suit you or your child’s needs. Paying more doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get more protective or durable gear, either.

With fit being the primary focus, cost is a secondary consideration. All helmets regardless of price must be certified by the Canadian Standards Board to be legally offered for sale in Canada.

Price does not always translate into the most durable piece of equipment when looking at hockey equipment. Lighter materials, particularly in skates and sticks sometimes sacrifice durability as a trade off for enhanced performance. This performance premium is probably not worth the extra cost for a beginning or a typical adult rec player.

So there you have it kids – and moms and dads. More expensive isn’t always the way to go. With skates and sticks being the key performance tools for hockey players, innovation in these product categories is paramount.

Skates

With skates, emphasis continues to be on a skate’s ability to shape or mold to the player's foot. Every year, manufacturers release more models that fit and feel better both out of the box and after being heat-molded. The break-in process of skates today is almost non- existent, providing players with more comfort and better performance from the very first wear. At the same time, skates are also getting increasingly lighter, taking advantage of new materials such as composite boot forms, and advanced manufacturing processes such as single-piece construction to provide unmatched weight, fit and performance.

Sticks

In sticks, the one-piece category has dominated for several years, but still continues to see new innovation. Carbon, graphite, Kevlar and other composites continue to be the most prevalent materials, but using more fiberglass has allowed manufacturers to produce sticks that can be sold at lower prices, may weigh a little more than the top end models but which also may be more durable. In fact, sub-$100 models have been among the most popular one-piece sticks for the last few years.

Wooden sticks are increasingly rare at pro and even adult rec levels, but are still a good choice for kids just starting out in hockey, and they’re great for street hockey as well, and they're by far the most cost effective choice available. Today’s wood stick manufacturers also manufacturer sticks with narrower shafts which make the sticks lighter and far more user-friendly for kids with small hands.

Goalie

For the masked men in the crowd – goalies – this equipment category is trend-driven. For example, over the last year or so, there's been a resurgence of the "old school" or vintage lines – such as the traditional tan pads as seen on Carey Price, Rick DiPietro and Marc-Andre Fleury, as well as the old waffle-board blocker, as worn by Jonathan Quick in games last season when the Los Angeles Kings wore their 1970s purple and gold uniforms.

New technologies include the introduction of the soft flex pad, going back to the traditional three-knee roll for more flex and increased mobility.

Custom pads are also hot today, allowing goalies to customize their colors, flex, stiffness, amount of breaks, strapping system and even adding the players name and number. Manufacturers have increased their customizable options and have reduced the lead-time to produce the pads, making this a very attractive option.

Again, the sky is the limit for the high performance goalie, but like most other types of hockey equipment sold today, starter sets at the lower price ranges still offer tremendous improvements in fit, protection and performance compared to the equipment available when today's parent was a kid.

Wayne Karl is a journalist in Toronto. He can be reached at wkarl@rogers.com

Wayne Karl's Hockey Now column focuses on the business of hockey. A long time industry insider, Wayne comments on new equipment, player endorsements, sponsorship and related behind the scenes aspects of the hockey world.

Every training camp feels exactly like you are interviewing again and again to make the team. Some players get comfortable “trying out,” many players get nervous before every camp, still for others, nerves affect their game so much during camp that they don’t get a chance to return. Without a doubt, though, every player at every level experiences that “first interview” feeling.

Great pro players heading into camp develop inner game strategies to help them alleviate this making-the-team pressure. The first key is to get their minds off what they might do wrong today and instead keep their minds on what they desire to accomplish during training camp.

In the early 1950’s Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. On her first attempt she had been swimming for hours and was getting very near to the English coast. That’s when the seas turned much colder, heavy swells developed, and a dense fog settled in.

As Florence’s pace slowed and energy drained, her mother called out to encourage her through the fog from one of the small boats following behind, but Florence was exhausted and couldn’t go on. After collapsing into the boat Florence felt defeated and was heart broken when she realized how close she’d come, later telling the media, “I think that I could have made it if I had been able to see my goal.”

On her next attempt to swim the Channel, Florence developed a powerful mental image of the coast of England, memorizing every coastal feature and replayed those images again and again in her mind. This time she encountered the same discouraging conditions as before, but her vision saw her through to success. When you have clarity of vision (of where you want to go and what you desire to accomplish) your mindset stays focused on all the little details that give you your desired result.

The second Inner Game strategy that successful players apply during training camp is best illustrated in a real-life story that I call “One-eye Motivation.”

When I played for the Montreal Canadiens during the 1980’s and 90’s, one of my favorite people in the world, Claude Ruel, used to run a pre-camp skate during August. We would all skate as Claude ran us through various drills, and at the end of the hour Claude would stand in the middle of the ice, facing towards one end, and blow his whistle. This signified that all of us would skate one hard lap, before slowing down. Of course he would have us repeat this multiple times as a way to get us into shape.

Now one thing that you might not know about Claude is that he had vision in only one eye due to a hockey accident. All of the players knew this and even the young rookies and prospects soon caught on to this fact. I used to pay special attention to these younger players to see if they would take advantage of Claude’s ability to see only one-half of the ice. Think about it! If a player wanted to cheat, he could skate hard on the side that Claude was watching, and coast down the side that Claude couldn’t see.

During my time with the Canadiens there were a few young players who cheated Claude. Do you know what is amazing? None of them ever made the team.

Training camp is a time where everyone in management is watching your performance, but you can’t be motivated to play because they are watching. You must be inspired to play your best because of something much deeper inside of you. People who only perform when the Boss is in the room don’t last long.

In fact, training camps (and job interviews) increase our anxiety when we focus on the wrong things that might happen or on the people watching. This same anxiety is conquered when our desire to compete comes instead from our personal inner drive.

Over my 15 NHL training camps, and many Junior and Minor hockey camps before those, I watched talented players continually miss making teams because they didn’t develop this inner drive or the mental toughness skills to get their best game on the ice. Yes, mastering these simple concepts is essential for players to get their best games on the ice during training camp, but the great thing is, they become pretty good life strategies too.

Ryan Walter played and coached for 17 seasons in the NHL and is now President of the Abbotsford Heat, the AHL affliliate of the NHL's Calgary Flames.

We see it night after night in the NHL: The attacking team works the puck into the corner in order to set in motion the most commonly used offensive tactic in the game today – the cycle.

So it should come as little surprise that as the Stanley Cup Final begins, we will get to see two of the players considered by many to be the very best at it.

That would be Henrik and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks.

"A good cycling team is usually a highly skilled team," New Jersey Devils assistant coach and Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson told NHL.com. "The Sedins probably cycle the puck as well as anybody. They have good size, good skill and they know where each other is at all times."

When Robinson was a youngster growing up on a dairy farm outside Ottawa, he was an excellent basketball player in addition to his obvious abilities on a hockey rink. That's why it's no surprise to see Robinson use a basketball analogy to explain why cycling the puck is such an effective offensive strategy in hockey today.

"What you're trying to do is keep possession of the puck, because that is key in the offensive zone, but you're also trying to get the other team to start running around," Robinson said. "You can almost create a pick situation because the defense is running around so much. It's like a set play in basketball where you're trying to create an open shot."

Robinson's NHL playing and coaching career has spanned nearly 40 years, allowing him to watch the development of the cycle game from an era where it wasn't particularly given much thought, to one where the way the game was played made it almost useless, to the one today where the NHL's crackdown on obstruction has not only made the cycle useful, it's made it essential.

"You can cycle today because there's no grabbing and no interference," Robinson said. "Before you didn't do it because you had two guys hanging off of you, and also you could practically intentionally pick a guy, so you didn't really need to cycle."

Unlike shooting and passing, the ability to put together an effective cycle is more of a team ability than an individual one. While players with size and skill will excel in a cycle, as Robinson pointed out is the case with the Sedin twins, the members of an offensive line need to become accustomed to each other's tendencies in a variety of situations. If a winger tends to break toward the net once his defender overplays the cycle, it won't do much good unless his center carrying the puck knows to hit him with a pass when that happens.

Similarly, defending the cycle is also based on an ability to anticipate a play happening before it actually happens.

In a word, for both the offensive and defensive players, the cycle is all about reading the play.

"You have to be in a position where you can react to the other player, it's a read," Robinson said. "It's a very instinctive game."

Robinson says the Devils conduct a cycle drill at nearly every practice, thereby developing those instincts for players to use in game situations. He says to keep things fresh the Devils mix it up with 2-on-2, 3-on-3 and finally 5-on-5 drills for 45 seconds or a minute at a time, the length of a typical NHL shift.

Aside from the benefits of getting the players ready for game situations, Robinson says the added bonus is that the players really enjoy it. And he sees no reason why the same thing shouldn't be done at the minor hockey level.

"At the younger levels it's great," Robinson said. "You can't practice it enough because it not only develops skills, it also develops reads and it's also great for conditioning. So it's a great drill."

Robinson says that cycling drills should be conducted in a very confined area of the ice, like one corner for example, and that getting the players to buy in to the competitiveness of the drill is important. Equally important, he says, is the coach doing a read of his own on how tired his team is and "where its compete level is at," because the drills are very taxing and may not even be necessary if a coach feels his players have been playing with a lot of intensity.

But considering how integral the cycle game has become in hockey, throwing it into a young team's practice routine as often as possible would not be a bad idea.

That definitely applies to what they put in their bodies on game day.

Take Montreal Canadiens rookie Lars Eller, who has a pretty well-defined game day eating plan that he can reel off with ease, largely because he's gone through it countless times.

First thing in the morning, Eller will have a whey protein shake before heading to the rink for the morning skate. Once there, he'll have two eggs with some fresh fruit and oatmeal before jumping on the ice.

Afterward, he'll have spaghetti with meat sauce, "maybe" a chicken breast and "maybe" a salad for lunch before taking a nap.

Then have a sandwich or some yogurt with cereal about three hours before game time.

And in that whole routine, there is one aspect Eller refuses to waver from.

"The breakfast is the most important part," Eller told NHL.com in March. "For the rest of it, as long as I get the same amount of food it's not that I necessarily have to have, say, a chicken breast, or a specific kind of pasta. It's more the amount of food."

Eller comes from a hockey family -- his father Olaf coaches semi-pro hockey in his native Denmark and all three of his brothers played the game at a high level.

So it should come as little surprise that Eller's choice of religious game day breakfast routine is just about perfect, at least according to Montreal-based nutritionist Pearle Nerenberg.

Nerenberg played varsity for the Cornell women's hockey team while studying nutrition at the Ivy League school, and she attended Montreal's McGill University to get her Master's degree in nutrition. Now that she has her own consulting company, Nutrition Athletica, Nerenberg has focused a lot of her work on youth hockey and is currently working on a nutrition guidebook for hockey parents.

She says that the final meal before a game is the most important of the day, but the process of building the energy required to play hockey at a peak level begins at breakfast.

"You have to think of yourself as having battery packs, and you want them to be as full as they can just prior to the game," Nerenberg said. "So, if you start to fill your battery at breakfast, you don't rely so much on that last meal before a game. If you rely solely on the pre-game meal you probably won't have enough time to fully charge, because the more stressed you are about the game the slower you'll digest food."

Nerenberg says that the standard pre-game meal for hockey players of pasta and chicken breast is ideal for loading up on the carbohydrates necessary to get through a game. During a hockey game, she says a player's energy comes 80 to 90 percent through burning carbohydrates, whereas during a regular day that ratio is more like 60 to 70 percent.

This is why she focuses a lot of attention when working with young players on being able to identify which foods are high in carbohydrates and other nutrients, so they can properly plan their intake throughout the day.

And the process begins with breakfast, because having an inadequate meal to start the day can have consequences right up until puck drop.

"There is a domino effect, or a yo-yo effect actually, in that you're creating a hole that you need to fill the rest of the day," Nerenberg says. "If you don't start your day with a proper breakfast, your energy is lower and cravings are higher throughout the rest of the day."

Nerenberg suggests an ideal game day breakfast would consist of carbohydrate-rich whole grains -- ideally a bowl of oatmeal -- the fiber found in fresh fruit and some protein like eggs, dairy products, or even adding protein powder to your oatmeal.

So basically, she's telling Eller not to change a thing, and young players would be wise to follow his lead.

I went to the boy’s side of the game based on several factors, not the least of which was a simple circumstance of the lack of a girl’s team in my community. I don’t regret the decision to play with boys and later with men, as my experience was that it elevated my game in various ways. In fact, I often sought out men’s teams as I went further in my career in order to hone certain aspects of my game. However, many girls these days head directly into the girls dressing rooms without much thought about playing with boys. I am happy that today it is an option for young girls coming into the game to do either, but it is precisely that – an option – a decision to made with many factors to consider.

The female hockey purist would of course say that females should play in female hockey for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which that in order to solidify the female game we need the best female players playing in female leagues, which will then attract the best coaches. While I agree that is important, and is an uphill battle in the female game, that alone is not reason enough to make the decision to enroll your daughter in a female league.

The ability to choose opens a world of opportunity, but it may also cause anxiety for families trying to make that decision. As a parent, I can relate to only wanting the best for your child and if I had to make the decision, here are some of the factors I would consider.

Your local community/league/MHA – From an absolutely practical standpoint, if there are not enough female players in your community for your MHA to form a female team, don’t let that discourage your daughter from playing hockey. I played with boys my whole career until I joined the National Team and think that despite some bumps and bruises I am a better player for it.

Your child’s emotional maturity – Some girls are emotionally mature enough to handle all that could come with playing with the boys and some aren’t. Will your daughter be the type to never hold back her game and stand up for herself when she is perhaps teased by her teammates? I was relentlessly teased not just by the boys, but harassed by parents. While at times it was a challenge, it also taught me phenomenal life skills such as resilience, pride, self-confidence, etc. However, if your daughter is more on the timid side and likely to hold back or sit back on a bench full of boys, then perhaps you should consider an all-girls team.

The skill level of your daughter – Some girls may not be physically able to keep up to the boys due to great differences size or physical strength, and having them play with boys may become discouraging and perhaps even dangerous. The younger and more ‘beginner’ she is, the less that this is a real consideration. It does, however, become more and more of a factor as your daughter gets older and is playing in the higher divisions. The magnitude of this consideration is totally one that is on a case-by-case basis and depends more on skill than on physical size.

On the note of skill, if you are hoping for a more elite hockey future for your daughter because she is quite skilled, one thing you should not be worried about or consider as a factor is exposure to coaches or scouts. If your daughter is good enough and skilled enough to be getting notice from elite coaches and scouts, playing on a female team or a boy’s team is irrelevant to those that are watching.

Your child’s wishes – If you are making this decision this season for your daughter, I would implore you to instead make this decision with your daughter, rather than for her.

Where does your daughter want to play? While you as a parent can provide her with information about both possibilities, if she’s comfortable and happy playing on either side does it really matter, as long as she is playing the game and drawing benefit from the experience?

Also remember, particularly if your daughter is just starting her hockey experience, that once a decision is made that it need not be a life-long commitment. Your daughter can start off playing in one direction, immerse in that experience, and at a later date make the decision to play the other. What matters more is her decision to be headed to the dressing room to get into the game at all.

I think it’s wrong to force girls to play with girls and boys to play with boys. The bottom line is that players should play where they feel the most comfortable and where they get the amount of ice time, skill development and exposure that they are looking for – wherever that might be.

Hayler Wickenheiser is a four time Olympic medal winner with Team Canada’s National Women’s Team. She is arguably the most respected and recognized woman player in the world. She has been a regular contributor to Hockey Now for several seasons. Follow Hayley at www.facebook.com/22wick

We all know that coaching tyke is much different than coaching Bantam AAA. In fact, coaching at each level of our game creates its own set of unique challenges, differing needs, and diverse responsibilities. While we consider the various preparatory needs of coaches at each of these levels, let’s not take for granted the one common thing that all coaches need, regardless of level – ENERGY! Be well-rested coaches, because coming into the August/September/October sprint you will all begin to empty your energy tanks.

It has been my great pleasure to coach our three sons at every level of minor hockey from stem to stern. I have been both an assistant coach in a support role and a head coach who is ultimately responsible for creating the atmosphere for players to have great and memorable seasons. From my “three times through minor hockey” I found that preparation was extremely important but did not need to take up crazy amounts of time.

Sometimes it can be fun to start with all of the parts of your season that you coaches can give away! Here is a short list of things you can ask your manager to focus on:

Delegating these tasks allows your focus, heading into the season, to start with the end-in-mind. What will a great season look like? How many tournaments do you want to participate in? What “values” will you operate under? This long-term thinking/planning provides the foundation for your team to build upon.

Another key element to your planning process will be your seasonal plan. This should lay out your skill-development, system-teaching, player conditioning, and other important elements that you want to plan to implement throughout the season.

The seasonal plan can plug into the schedule also. On-ice is the easy part. Your off-ice schedule may want to include:

- Off-ice conditioning
- Player Leadership Development sessions
- Team Building sessions
- Parent-involved fundraising
- Tournament committee planning

One area that I loved to plan out with my coaching staff was the “system of play” for our team. I agree that coaches should build their system around the skill level and type of player that ends up being on the team, but…

I believe that, as in most areas of our lives, the 80-20 rule applies here too. 80 % of the system that your team will play under comes from what your coaching staff desires. Only 20 % of your system will be shaped by the skill and talent of your team.

Finally, within this brief overview of coaching preparation, I saved the best for last. As a coach, I always liked to have the first 5 or 6 practice plans in place as we headed into the season. In other words, our coaching staff would prepare the 6 or 7 drills to be run at each practice, its emphasis, conditioning elements, and teaching points.

I’m not sure why this is, but we coaches love drills. We love building them, borrowing them, and implementing them. Maybe we love them so much because when we are on the ice running the players through their drills, this means our summer planning can finally come to an end.

Ryan Walter played and coached for 17 seasons in the NHL. He is now President and CEO of the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Heat. Click on the Fundraising tab at www.hungryfuellingyourbestgame.com to find out how Ryan’s newest book can raise money for your hockey team.

One of the most important things is that you enjoy your child’s experience in the game and that you show them that you are having fun. Hockey is all about having fun, making new friends and creating a positive family experience. As a parent in the game make sure you play a lead role in creating the fun environment that is so important. Enthusiasm, positive energy and a sense of excitement will all help create a fun atmosphere.

Like anything we do, being good at it makes it more enjoyable. Hockey requires special skills that are unique to the game. Skating, stickhandling and shooting are the key ones. So, one of the most important steps for your son or daughter is to learn the basic skills of the game. Encourage them to listen closely to their coaches as they are taught the basic skating, stickhandling and safety skills while on the ice. Emphasize to your kids the importance of these skills and support your coaches as they give your young player the tools they need to enjoy the game and stay safe! Encouraging street hockey, in-line skating and even a game of mini-sticks in the rec room are other fun ways for the kids to improve some of these important skills.

As a parent you should also learn the rules that young officials use to officiate as your kids progress into playing hockey games. Rules give structure and safety to games and it is important that parents respect the rules and the officials as they enforce these rules on the ice. Remember, that young officials are learning too and it is important that you respect them as they grow as officials in the hockey system.

Finally, we would not be completing the picture without talking about RESPECT in the game. It is imperative that all involved play a role in ensuring that respect is an integral part of hockey regardless of the level. As parents you play a very important role in helping to maintain respect in today’s game. Talk to your kids and let them know they're expected to respect other players, their coaches, the officials and all the other volunteers that deliver this great game. By you as a parent taking on a lead role we are one step closer to the fun, safe, respectful environment we all want to be involved in.

Have a great season and remember, enjoy the experience and take away the many positives that it generates!

Files from Hockey Now and Hockey Canada. For more information on Minor Hockey rules, training and Hockey Canada’s development models, visit www.hockeycanada.ca.

It might be a favorite player scoring a couple of goals or making the big save, or just the bonding experience with family members. It could involve the first glance of that great sheet of ice or the blare of the horn after a goal is scored.

In addition to great entertainment, though, there's plenty an aspiring youth hockey player can learn just from watching the pros compete. Studying the game at the NHL level offers ways to develop your game, learn new techniques and concepts, and become a smarter player.

One of the biggest things former NHL players Jamie Macoun and Perry Berezan highlighted that would be important to observe is how the various players position themselves on the ice.

"I think the obvious thing that they should be looking at if they don't realize it is positioning -- keeping in good position, keeping your head up -- and the effort that's out there," Macoun said. "Even though some guys are exceptional and make it look so easy, most people have to be trying to make it look easy. You have to be skating."

While it's easy for any fan attending a game, much less a child, to get lost in the brilliant saves or highlight-reel goals, Berezan pointed out that hockey can always be broken down into the simple plays which, through repetition, have been part of the players' routines for ages. There are plenty of little facets to the game an accompanying adult can point out to a child -- though Berezan said there's no rush in turning a leisurely afternoon at the local rink into a clinic.

"Probably at the earliest of ages, just enjoy it. When they're 10, 11, 12, you can point out positioning, you can point out passes, simple parts of the game, because at the highest of levels, they practice the simple parts of the game over and over and over again," Berezan said.

"You can point out, 'See how the defenseman gets it and moves it to the winger,' point out the way somebody skates -- 'That's the way you skate, you skate just like that.' Simple things. And then of course as they get older and older, kids will pick up what they want to pick up because it's important to them."

Macoun echoed those sentiments when it comes to other aspects of the game such as skating, which might go unappreciated by young players.

"A lot of that stuff that you see in the NHL, a guy gliding but he's gliding so fast, he's honed his skills in thousands of hours of practice. He's got to that point," Macoun said.

Above all, going to watch a hockey game should be about experiencing the joy of competition, something players like Macoun miss more than anything once their playing days have ended.

"The NHL's fun," he said. "When you're out there playing hard, you're having fun, and guys can be mad afterward, but I used to love to get up and get ready for that game, the challenge, the opportunity to prove ourselves again."

This is where the dreaded coaching colloquialisms of "No pain-no gain," "Players are made in the off-season," and all the rest, come in. As much as I used to despise these sayings, I think the people who preached them may have been right, especially for the older players.

During hockey's off-season it is important to gear down, rest, and re-energize, but there is a balance to strike, because it’s also the time where players build off-ice habits that create separation in their on-ice play. In fact, it amazes me how far training and its sophistication has come. During my junior and NHL years off-ice training was part of our daily routine but still evolving. When I turned 16 years old and was playing Junior Hockey in Langley BC, my teammates and I were never quite sure what to do to increase our on-ice strength and speed. We had to allow common sense to take over in May, June and July.

Early in our off-season training we thought up an idea to strengthen our legs. My two training buddies and I used to take turns putting my old pickup truck in neutral. One player would steer the truck while the other two, with the good hockey form of bent knees, pushed the truck around the parking lot after school.

Of course, off-ice training is quite different these days. Today's player has better technology, coaching and incentive. One more season for an average NHL player can puts many more millions of dollars into their bank account, much different than in the "old days" of our game. So, what do NHL players do differently today than back when I played?

1- Get a Coach
Almost every top player that I know works with a strength and conditioning coach. Certainly age and cash and other factors are at play here, but whenever possible, players train with someone who knows what they are doing and will hold them accountable. Coaches help create consistency in how much you work out, and guide your balanced approach. Most players love to throw around the iron and forget to stretch, for example. Trainers or coaches remind us of exactly what we need and when.

2- Be Specific: Train for Hockey
A balanced approach is absolutely important, but players today focus on why they are training. If you are weightlifting to show your biceps at the beach, you probably won’t score many goals on the ice. Train towards strengthening the areas of your body that give you the best return; the core comes to mind here.

Also, I used to use a little trick to keep my mind on the game. While doing aerobic conditioning, I would watch video of past games. While lifting weights, you can take your hockey stick and a truck ball-bearing, and stickhandle between sets. As a player of today, you need to know what you are doing, and for what reason.

3- Today's Players Train to their Strengths
Throughout my career I had the opportunity to play with many amazing players who were smaller in stature. Some of the smaller players thought they had to bulk-up to compete with the new larger generation player. Sometimes this distracted them from their core strengths.

Cliff Ronning was a good example of a smaller player who trained towards his strengths. Cliff’s forte was quickness and turning. He needed a core level of strength to be able to battle for and win pucks. He didn't need to bench press 400 pounds in order to fight the other team’s tough guy. Cliff understood his strengths and trained to enhance them.

4- Always find ways to make it FUN
According to recent research it takes 10,000 hours of specific practice to be best-in-class. Off-ice training counts here too. To be one of the top 700 professionals in the NHL you must train like one of the top 700. This commitment is arduous and draining, so individuals must find ways to make it FUN. I like to learn, read, and listen to audio-tapes, so I very seldom ever ride the stationary bike without my iPod. Many players find different ways to distract their minds away from the grueling training regime and on to something a little lighter. Discover what makes it fun for you!

Remember, when I played, off-ice training was much less sophisticated. We ran and sprinted and did pushups and crunches, things today's players do as the first part of their warm-up! The difference is the technology, the intensity of the workouts, and the expectations of the teams. Over my NHL seasons in Washington, Montreal, and Vancouver, I loved our summers. In the latter two places we enjoyed our backyard pool. I used to view summers as: all of our winter weekends put together in one-long-2-month period. From September to (hopefully) June, an NHL player has no weekends off, so summers were and are for 2 things; staying in shape yes, but also for catching up with the people we care about.

If you are Canadian, you have kids playing hockey, and you let your mind wonder just a little bit, I am 99 % sure that at one point you have thought: “How could I help my little Johnny or Suzy make the NHL (I mean make the rep team) in September?”

Ok, maybe it's not the rep team; maybe it's the very worthy goal of helping your kiddos enjoy the next hockey season a tiny bit more. Well, you've come to the right place… I humbly suggest that now is the time to start thinking about this. Focusing on two general areas will get you moving in the right direction.

The first is the area of SKILL development. The second is the area of WILL development. Young hockey players are the same as old parents. People can force their desires and ideas on us for awhile, but at the end of the day, to really make it work, we have-to-want-to-do-it!

The SKILL development side will be no surprise to you. At every level of the game, if you want to increase your son or daughter's experience, increase their ability to skate. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as power skating lessons. My folks had the foresight to suggest that I take 2 years of figure skating (you heard what I said). This developed my edge control, helped me to better understand how to power out of turns, and, in the end, improved the most foundational part of my game.

When you can skate you have a chance to improve everything else. Puck-handling skills are important, feel for the game is important, overall strength and conditioning is important, how to take a check is important, but you see where I'm going, everything else takes a back-seat to increasing your player's ability to skate. So, off-season hockey schools can be fine, but be sure to ask the question: which coach or instructor can best improve your player's ability to skate?

The second focus should be on the WILL development side, increasing our players' enjoyment of our great game. Over the past 5 years a number of great books have been written about how to coach people's best. (Go to my blog at www.ryanwalter.com for a list of my favourites). Recent research indicates that:

1. Becoming an expert in any field takes 10,000 hours of practice. Daniel Coyle goes further in The Talent Code to advocate that
2. Becoming an expert in any field takes not only 10,000 hours of practice, but more specifically, focused “Deep” practice.

Here's my point: your little Johnny or Suzy has to WANT to practice, might I dare say, LOVE to practice, because 10,000 hours of “deep practice” takes quite a commitment!

Developing the WILL side of your little players means that they need time off to refresh their WANT. Diversity of sport and time away from the 24/7/365 day-a-year Hockey Industry helps freshen their spirits and refocuses their hockey energy. I give my Dad and Mom a lot of credit as I look back on how they developed this in me. I would gladly have played hockey every day, all day, but they recommended that I play Lacrosse in the spring and take fishing holidays with our family in the summer. WILL development comes by balancing our approach and renewing the INNER energy and is as important as SKILL development.

Here's why: Before coaching at the NHL and National Women's Team levels, like many of you, I coached our children through minor hockey. As I observed minor hockey players on the ice, I could tell you whether it was their dream to play or their Dad's dream for them to play. When the puck went into the corner, even with a player size differential, the player coming out of the corner with the puck proved to me that it was his or her dream to play.

Secondly, I would listen to players' vocal and body language. Did they have to be at practice or did they want to be at practice? These simple indicators revealed whether the player had the WILL to get themselves and their skills to the next level.

Over the years when I was playing minor hockey, I noticed other players with more external skill than me who didn't continue to play. They had highly developed SKILL, but an under-nourished WILL with which to implement it. It takes INNER energy (WILL) to play and to maximize our personal enjoyment of our game.

There are some things you, as a parent, can do to increase your young player's enjoyment of the game. It might be a fun exercise to ask your child which teammate he or she respects most. From this you can develop a conversation around the bright spots of character your player is observing in that person and may wish to adopt.

Another tip is to use your driving time to build your relationship with your child. My wife and I found that there was no time like driving time, to and from games and practices, for conversation with our children. Whether it's a 5 am practice or an 8 pm game, you can use your before and after time to ask good, relevant questions, provide positive feedback, and emphasize fun. Current research tells us that we should be providing 4 positive comments for every negative one. To maximize your young athlete's ability and mindset, the ratio moves up to 6 to 1, so do your best to focus on some of the great things your child is doing and watch their WILL flourish.

The WILL can be manufactured or boosted by parents for a little while, but over the long term it must come from deep inside your young player. Come September, refreshing your players' WILL may be the best way to improve their SKILL.

Courtesy Ryan Walter & Hockey Now

Ryan Walter is a regular columnist with Hockey Now, an author, and motivational speaker. Ryan Walter is a Stanley Cup® winner played and coached for 17 seasons in the NHL and is now President and CEO of the American Hockey League's Abbotsford Heat. His new book on leadership will be published this summer. Check www.ryanwalter.com for more information.

Hockey Now is Canada's most widely distributed hockey publication. With a focus on hockey development, Hockey Now produces separate editions for British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Visit Hockey Now at www.hockeynow.ca

However, some parents end up doing the opposite when they allow their fun to turn overzealous.

When parents get upset over something regarding their kids' sports experience, the target of their ire usually becomes the coaches. And for veteran youth coaches like Bob Nielsen, it's become a frequent headache.

The majority of parents, he says, are well-behaved – but as with anything else, one or two bad apples can spoil the bunch.

In his years as a coach for youth and high school-age hockey teams in the Philadelphia area, Nielsen has dealt with a few unruly parents. Most complaints from parents involve playing time, and Nielsen's answers vary depending on the age of children involved.

"Every situation calls for a different approach," Nielsen told NHL.com. "If you're dealing with a parent who's out of his mind over little Jimmy only getting 12 minutes of ice time while the other kid got 15 minutes of ice time, the first thing that hits me is this (parent) is sitting in the stands with a stop watch.

"If you're at a level, say AA hockey, and a parent is asking you that, as a coach you can say for the first two periods of the game I'm trying to let every kid play as much as possible. As we get to the middle of the third period, I want the better players on the ice and if little Jimmy isn't one of the best players, he knows it. They know who the best player is and who the weaker player is. And he doesn't want to be on the ice if he's a weaker player. Part of the coach's responsibility is to not put a player in that position where they could be embarrassed. Those kids in the middle, the sixth-best player versus the fifth-best player, maybe there's an issue. But if Jimmy is the 15th-best player and the parents want to live through the kids, it becomes difficult."

Brian Yandle, who runs Global Hockey in Boston, also approaches things differently depending on the ages of the players involved.

"The 8-year-old and the younger kids, we're trying to encourage them to play in all situations," he told NHL.com. "There will be that certain time depending on if you're playing AAA elite-level hockey where a kid might get left on the bench or miss a shift, and that's a conversation I try to explain to the parents and let them know and be up front with it."

Yandle said at Global Hockey, he's instituted a rule where parents are barred from talking to a coach for 24 hours following any contentious game or practice. He said this cooling-off period has resulted in a fairly smooth relationship between coaches and parents.

"After a game, when things may have gotten heated and something might have happened and little Johnny might have missed a shift, you're not allowed to approach the coach for 24 hours so tempers calm down," Yandle said. "It's a good way to relax. Send an email the next day or make a phone call and work things out. A parent is upset their kid didn't get out to play, it's upsetting to them and the kid. And the coach may have just lost a close game and the kids played their hearts out and his emotions are running high, too, so take 24 hours, sit back and then talk things out when tempers have cooled.

"We try to enforce that rule, but we still have incidents where parents are approaching coaches, but you try and step in and defuse the situation and talk things out. Let's trade an email the next day or a phone call, or meet for a cup of coffee when things are settled down."

Yandle also tries to manage parents' expectations. He played in the AHL and ECHL before getting into coaching, and his brother, Keith, was a first-time All-Star for the Phoenix Coyotes this season and is among the candidates for this season's Norris Trophy. Brian said his parents never put pressure on him or his brother to excel at hockey, and he tries to remind parents involved with Global Hockey why their kids are playing the sport.

"It's a tough situation because these parents are paying a lot of money, and they want to see results with their kids," Yandle said. "What I try to do is meet with the parents and talk to them about the pressures of playing. I was just reading an article on my brother and he said he never felt pressure growing up. I think now parents are putting too much pressure on kids. I think it's because my parents never really pushed us too much. They guided us and went all over all different situations with us. We never felt like, 'You need to get a scholarship and you need to play pro hockey.'"

Global, like other youth organizations, requires parents to sign a code of conduct that governs the behavior of parents. And for the most part, the majority of them are able to abide by the rules. Everyone has a meltdown at times, though, and Nielsen said sometimes the best cure to the situation is letting that parent just get their issue off their chest.

"I think if you confront the situation from a mature standpoint and talk about the skill level and the ability of that one child you have a better chance," Nielsen said. "I think every parent wants to know they were heard. You'll hear, 'I don't think you're right but thanks for talking to me.' That's OK."

And at the end of the day, sometimes parents need a simple reminder of why they got their child involved in hockey in the first place.

"It's a fun thing to do, and that's the message I try to relay to my parents," Yandle said. "This game is supposed to be fun. These are the best friends they're going to have for the rest of their lives. That's what hockey is really all about."

By Brian Hunter-NHL.com Staff Writer

Perhaps more than in any other game, sportsmanship and hockey go hand in hand.

Never is this more evident than at the end of a series during the Stanley Cup® Playoffs, when players from opposing sides who have battled one another fiercely for up to seven games in the pursuit of glory go through a line, shaking hands and wishing each other well.

While those few moments might not resonate in the mind of an impressionable young hockey fan in quite the same way as the goals, hits and scraps that preceded it, there's an important lesson to be learned: The sport, particularly at the youth level, is meant to be fun, and the best way of accomplishing that for all involved is to foster a sense of sportsmanship and respect among all the players.

According to Jamie Macoun, a two-time Stanley Cup®-winning defenseman who spent 16 seasons in the NHL® playing for the Calgary Flames®, Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings® and has gone on to coach youth hockey, it's not only an important task but a sometimes difficult one.

"It's an uphill battle, because one of the things in the NHL® is you want guys to be tough, you want them to be fearless, you want them to be tenacious, but here, they've got to have fun, they've got to want to stay," said Macoun, who took time out from a Canadian Tire youth hockey clinic in Calgary back in February to talk to NHL.com. Macoun was joined there by former teammates Lanny MacDonald and Perry Berezan. Children attending in the clinic participated not only in on-ice drills that emphasized skating, shooting and stickhandling, but spent time in the gymnasium at the Don Hartman NE Sportsplex working on team-building activities.

MacDonald, a Hall of Famer and 500-goal scorer, assisted in one such session with Larry Pearson, whose three-plus decades of experience in coaching and education include working with Roger Neilson's Hockey Camp, in a series of games designed to stress teamwork and good sportsmanship.

Campers broke into groups and worked together to complete the various tasks -- including moving a tennis ball from on top of one cone to another via strings attached to a metal ring on which the tennis ball was balanced -- while MacDonald walked around providing guidance and frequent praise. ("That is awesome, you guys!")

"You first of all have to build trust in each other," MacDonald said, "and so when all of a sudden you're taking some of these skills and you all have to lift up a ball together and walk over to the next station and set that ball back down without dropping the ball or working together in a pipeline to get it to the far end and into the cup, those are awesome drills and it's so easy for kids to understand."

Showing the campers his hand, Pearson ended his session by stressing to the campers "lots of thumbs up" to show support for their teammates. Gesturing with his pointer finger, he said that when times get tough or someone makes a mistake, you don't single them out for criticism. ("On a real team, you don't play the blame game.") The ring finger symbolizes the commitment required to be a winner, while the pinky finger is a reminder to always watch out for the little guy and be there for players who might not be at the skill level you are.

"These lessons are transferrable to school, playing sports or going out into the workplace," Pearson said. "It's like that old saying: 'Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.'"

Kids will be kids, of course, and whether out of frustration, willfulness or sheer rambunctious nature, unwanted actions and outbursts are bound to occur. How do you handle an incident of unsportsmanlike behavior in a young player? By addressing it in a timely fashion and drawing clear guidelines as to what will and won't be accepted on a team.

"It's no different than parenting," Berezan said. "If you let your kids get away with stuff that you don't like for a long time and then you try to curb it, it's difficult. Early on it's easier. If a child is disrespectful, if the behavior of a child is selfish, all the things that have to do with teamwork, if that behavior is not right, fix it. Acknowledge it and do something about it.

"And if you do it in the earlier years and you get at it, make sure it stops, it's pretty easy to break kids [of bad habits] when they're young. If you let it go along until they're 13 and then you try to fix it, forget it. It's done."

Byfuglien, who won the Stanley Cup® last season as a physically imposing forward on the Chicago Blackhawks® and now patrols the blue line as a talented two-way defenseman for the Atlanta Thrashers®, has become one of those rare NHL® players who shows the versatility to be successful either up front or on the back end.

But while it's usually important for a player whose talent might one day result in a professional playing career to have an idea by his teens of what position he'll be most successful at, many believe that when a youngster is just learning to play hockey that he is better off channeling his inner Byfuglien and not committing to just one position.

That was the consensus of a pair of former NHL® veterans, defenseman Jamie Macoun and center Perry Berezan, who played parts of five seasons together for the Calgary Flames® and teamed up again last month as part of a Canadian Tire youth hockey clinic in Calgary.

"Once you get into bantam or midget, maybe you need to get more selective and say, 'hey, I want to strictly do defense or I strictly want to do forward,'" Macoun said. "But in many of the teams, they used to rotate even the goalies in and out -- they used to do that in lacrosse, as well.

"So I think it's fun. It's all about having fun and if the kids all know that in three days or three weeks I get to go in net or I get to play defense or I get to play forward, they're going to be that much more excited to be there."

Macoun played 17 seasons for the Flames, Maple Leafs and Red Wings, winning a pair of Stanley Cups®. By the end of his career he was known as a stay-at-home defenseman, but Macoun scored as many as 11 goals and 40 points in a season, and he spent time playing forward positions growing up.

"Especially at the younger ages, the person who skated the fastest had the puck -- he didn't necessarily score, he'd just run faster into the boards," Macoun said. "I would play forward, I'd play defense. Once we started playing on a traveling team I played defense for most of those years and it was strictly selfish -- I just got my math chart out right away and realized there were going to be nine forwards and four defense. I wanted to be on the ice."

Macoun also stressed that just because a kid starts out playing on defense or, say, right wing, they shouldn't feel stuck there if it's not working out or they aren't having fun.

"You can change, you can change guys even going into the NHL®," he said, pointing to Byfuglien as an example. "If you're well-rounded and you've got the skill -- one thing they can't teach you is how to score. They can teach you how to try, they can teach you techniques, but you either have it or don't. But most other things you can teach. Hard work is hard work, and if that means you have to spend extra time learning how to stop and start, then you should spend that extra time."

Berezan, who skated in more than 400 regular-season and playoff games for the Flames, North Stars and Sharks, said that occasionally where a player grows up and the needs of the local team might influence the position he ends up at, but was also in favor of variety winning out.

"Goalie, that's optional," Berezan said, laughing. "For sure, it's optional, because that's real specialized. But I don't think kids should be goalies at early age and that's all. They should be playing all the different positions, defense, forward."

Berezan raised a variety of interesting points as to why it's in the best interest of everyone involved -- parents, coaches and players -- not to pigeonhole a youngster into one specific role.

"When I hear parents of 8-year-olds say, 'My kid's a centerman and that's the only place he's going to play,' that's wrong. It's wrong," Berezan said. "If he doesn't understand what a defenseman needs to do, then he's not going to be a better centerman. How do we know he's not the best defenseman if he never played there? You need to learn all the positions, understand all the positions, and then as you get older and leagues and teams that you're on need you in a specific area, then you can fall into it."

So realistic, in fact, that some players and coaches have started using video games as teaching tools.

Younger players have gone from trying to imitate the moves they see Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin or Pavel Datsyuk make in highlight videos to trying to create them on games like NHL2K11.

"My son scored three goals this weekend with a move I've never seen him do," said Craig Wilson, a youth hockey coach in Maine who operates Maine Blizzard Hockey. "I asked, 'Where did you get the move?' He responded NHL11, when he practiced it on screen in the shootout."

The usefulness of video games as a true teaching tool is limited. It won't help a young player skate faster, pass better or shoot harder. However, vision, understanding of the game and creativity are among some of the things it absolutely can improve.

"I don't think it's something (a video game) has anything to do with skills," Bob Nielsen, a long-time Philadelphia-area youth and high school hockey coach and operator of the coaching website IceHockeyDrills.info, told NHL.com. "If it has a benefit, it's maybe teaching systems and defensive-zone coverages, from looking at things from a higher perspective."

The default view for most video games is vertical, from a high perspective. It allows the player to see the entire width of the ice, as well as from above the blue line down to the end boards. Seeing more of the ice can allow a young player to see how action develops away from the puck-carrier.

"Maybe if they're running the power play on the game, you can see how the game goes for the four guys you're not controlling and see how the flow of some plays work," Nielsen said.

Nielsen also said the ages of the players changed what level of information they took from the games.

"The older players seemed to feel that they learned things about how the spacing on a power play works because they see the action from a high perspective," he said. "They had a better idea of the way a forecheck works and things of that nature.

"My surprise came with the younger players. A few of them told me that they learned moves from playing the video games. One player even discussed a specific move he makes often and said he picked it up playing one of the NHL2K-type of games. A few others said they have tried things on the ice in practice that they learned on a video game."

That level of creativity is one that should be cultivated, says Brian Yandle, a youth coach who operates Global Hockey in the Boston area. His brother, Keith Yandle, is an All-Star defenseman for the Phoenix Coyotes®.

"I encourage it and tell them to be creative," Brian Yandle told NHL.com. "We'll be doing a shootout at the end of practice, and I'll say where'd you learn that, and they'll say I did with it a certain player in a shootout, picked it up on my stick or went between my legs."

It's all about finding another way to keep kids having fun and staying interested in the real game of hockey on the ice.

"Our players play against each other on NHL11 on PS3," Wilson said. "They play in between tournament games at the hotel. They play as a team and talk about the game as it's occurring on screen as if they were actually on the ice. The kids yell cycle, get on the post, behind the net, D-to-D pass and more."

"People once they play the game, watch the game of hockey, they gain respect for what these guys do," Yandle added. "I've heard from a lot of different kids, the one cool thing with the video games is they can go online and play against their friends. You might have somebody that's not that big as a player or somebody who plays it for fun and isn't that serious into it, but they're playing their buddies and finding competitiveness. They're gaining a knowledge of the game and it excites them a lot."

As the pressure of the playoffs increases, different people (players and coaches) react in different ways; some can easily hijack their hopes for playoff success. Coaches must not only develop tactics and processes relative to their opponent, but also manage the emotions of their team members to entice their players' best game. To help coaches maximize their playoff success, I recommend that coaches focus on 5 areas:

1- Tendencies & Tactics
Coaches ultimately must sell their team on a system of play that players will believe in. Players are looking for a practical systemic team approach to beating their opponent. As each round of the NHL playoffs concludes, coaches are looking closely at the tendencies of their potential (they may not be sure of who they will play next) opponents and solidifying the tactics that will create maximum impact against them. Coaches particularly examine areas of the game like controlled forechecks, breakouts, faceoff losses and wins, and the variety of ways each opponent likes to execute every area of their game. The fun part of coaching is to play the chess game of matching their tendencies with your team's response.

2- Players under Pressure
Most great playoff players and teams learn how to handle the pressure through the crucible of past failures. The Oilers lost to the Islanders in the early 80's, but learned what it took to win by losing... and went on a pretty good streak.

I have seen particular coaching personalities pull in the reins and tighten the rules as pressure mounts. General Tiny Freyberg articulated one of my favorite thoughts regarding this reaction: "You can't treat a man like a butler and expect him to fight like a warrior." Players need to learn and grow, and this takes a mature combination of challenging performance and emotional support.

3- Refocus on Team Values
The fire of increased pressure will always challenge coaches to question or forego our personal or team values. We must always resist this tendency, and instead keep these values before our team!
Reminding the team who they are and what they stand for is important re-grounding that players need during pressured times.

4- Pull Together Instead of Apart
Guard against the emotional lows that can creep into playoff thinking: "Oh well we have already had a pretty good season." Or, "If we lost now it would not be the end of the world." The mind can play terrible focus-tricks especially when groups of people get tired. The battle for teams is to pull together mentally and emotionally, focus on each other's strengths, and not allow their thinking to separate them. Pressure can glue people together for life or pull people apart. Don't let the latter happen.

5- Focus on the Process, Not the OUTCOME
Finally, this is a very important aspect of winning in the playoffs. John Wooden said, "I don't focus on winning and losing, I focus our team energy on practicing the details that give us the win." Well said. Successful playoff teams focus more on the process of getting their best game on the ice and less on: "Oh no, we are down 3 games to 2." Coaches must help their players re-focus on the process that produces the desired outcome.

These 5 areas of focus work incredibly well for minor hockey coaches also. As you prepare for your next season, find your own ways to implement your system of play, which includes: tactics and tendencies, helping your players learn to play under pressure, finding ways to focus on team values, encouraging your players to stay together, and teaching your team to work the process instead of worrying about the outcome. These 5 focus points work equally well during the playoffs and throughout the regular season!

But making that discovery isn't always easy, and it can be even harder when that goalie is just starting out in the game.

"When I played, I just wanted to win -- win the game, that's the goal," Al Jensen told NHL.com.

Jensen played eight NHL® seasons for the Red Wings, Capitals and Kings, and shared the 1984 William Jennings Trophy. He's currently the top goaltender scout for NHL® Central Scouting, as well as a youth hockey coach for his kids.

"You're not going to get the winning goal of the game, but you can keep your team in the game," Jensen said. "Your team may be playing against a really good team and you can keep the game close and all of a sudden your team gets a goal and wins and it didn't maybe deserve it, but you win and that's a huge positive feeling for a goaltender."

Keeping a young goalie confident and enjoying the game is the biggest part of coaching that position.

Jeff Reese, the goalie coach for the Philadelphia Flyers®, told NHL.com he believes part of that confidence comes from having proper equipment.

"Equipment is very important, especially for the young kids, (ages) 6-10," Reese told NHL.com. "A lot of times their parents might go out and buy them brand new equipment that's too big and want them to grow into it and (the kids) get frustrated and they can't move in the gear."

Rather than spend on new equipment -- which for leg pads, blocker, catching glove, shoulder and chest pads and mask can be expensive -- Reese suggests finding used gear that fits the young goalie better. Also, new pads can be stiff; used equipment generally has been broken in and will be easier for a young goalie to move around in.

"The best way to go is lightly-used gear that fits," Reese said. "It's a lot cheaper for the parents, and the kids can move better. Not just pads -- upper gear, even sticks. ... I think equipment is very important. For the kids, I would look at slightly-used gear."

Jensen said one of the most important pieces of equipment for him is finding good-fitting skates. Skates are the foundation for every hockey player, and the theory of a coach putting his worst skater in net has become an anachronism.

"One of the biggest misconceptions is, and this might be dating back, is they don't have to be good skaters," Reese said. "I disagree. A goaltender needs to be a good skater and move well in the net and recover well and have some athleticism. You throw a guy in that can't skate that well because he doesn't have to move all that much, but if you look at the best goalies in the League, they all move well."

Practice time for a goalie also is important, because it's radically different than what the regular skaters are doing. And if the team is going through a special-teams drill, all the action could be at one end of the ice, leaving one goalie standing and watching. At the youth level, that's wasted development time.

"When I watch young goalies in practice, there's a lot of standing around for drills," Reese said. "It's not the coach's fault, they have to look after the 14, 15, 16 other kids on the ice, but there's a lot of standing around. During that time they should be doing movement in the net."

Jensen believes footwork drills are the most important thing for a goalie to work on.

"With their feet, with their recovery," he said. "Recovery is huge. It's balance, it's the proper C-cutting, proper leg pushes, getting up on proper legs. Not playing soft -- playing hard and strong. Those are the drills. I really work on technical stuff with the kids. I really work on their footwork and recovery and body positioning in the net. Those are the most crucial things for a young goalie."

Reese believes stickhandling for a goaltender also is a crucial trait for a young goalie to develop.

"After age 10 the puckhandling is something they need to work on," Reese said. "Coaches can do that with breakouts -- get the goalie involved in breakouts. When they're standing there doing nothing, coach can do shots to the glove, drop it and put it back. Grab a puck and start fooling around with it."

When Reese was the goalie coach in Tampa Bay, he said Mike Smith often could be found working on his puckhandling skills. He's regarded as one of the better in the League at that skill.

"Mike Smith grabs a puck when we're skating around and starts playing with it, stickhandling and shooting," Reese said. "That's an area scouts will look at. It's a dimension that got (Rick) DiPietro drafted first overall. He wasn't that big, but the dimension that threw him over the edge was the puckhandling. That's another area they need to learn how to do. It's very important."

Also important is off-ice work. Reese recommended yoga.

"If I was starting again, I would get into yoga," he said. "I watch yoga, do a little bit now. Yoga is strength, flexibility and concentration, and that's goaltending. That's where I would go if I was really serious about it. Probably at 12, 13, 14, that's one area that I would really get serious about. If I knew about yoga then, that's something I would have looked into."

Jensen said anything to do with hand/eye coordination is vital to a young goaltender.

"I played racquetball a lot," he said. "It helped my leg drive and leg strength. Ping pong, any racket sport, tennis. ... Those are very important, hand/eye coordination and strength in your legs."

While the physical aspect of the position is important, developing the mental side also is essential.

"One thing that can be said to (young goalies) is your teammates are all watching you," Reese said. "You need to be the one that's under control and they're going to read off you and how you're acting in the net. If you let a goal in and sulk, your team is going to be nervous. It's important to be a leader on the ice and very positive. When you let a goal in, skate over to your bench and say we're going to be all right. Just have a positive outlook. These are all things that you really notice."

The one thing playing goal has in common with the other positions on the ice, however, is making sure young goalies learn to have fun with the game.

"It's fun because you're part of the team," Jensen said. "I see the teammates tapping my daughter on the pads, on the head, after the game. They're all happy, regardless of whether they win or lose."

So what can parents and coaches do to ensure that fair play and good sportsmanship are understood by children? Plenty! Players need to understand how to conduct themselves on the ice. And the key to that is to understand the following principles of fair play.*

• Safety comes first -- the safety of the other players in the game is always more important than the final score.
• Coaches deserve respect -- the contribution of the coach in developing the players’ talents is key, even though we may not always agree with their methods.
• Officials don’t make the rules -- they only apply them so treat them fairly. Of course, officials are ultimately responsible that the game is played in a safe and fair manner for all participants.
• Children learn from adults – parents behaviour should reflect what we want children to learn.
• We’re all still learning – players, coaches and officials are often still learning the game, and mistakes will be made in the learning process.
• Cheers not jeers – we may not want to cheer for the opposition team, but we shouldn’t cheer against them or verbally abuse them.

Remember, one of the biggest reasons players quit the game is abuse. So let’s keep it clean, safe and encourage respect between players, coaches, parents and officials. After all, respect leads to good sportsmanship, which leads to enjoyment. Whether you’re a player, coach or parent, make sportsmanship the top priority of your hockey experience.

Winning is not always an option. But demonstrating a great attitude, and respect for others is! Here’s what parents should know about helping their children understand the principles of good sportsmanship.*

• Take it easy – it's never a good idea to force children to participate in hockey or any sport.
• It’s about them – children play hockey for their enjoyment, not ours.
• Playing by the rules – children should be encouraged to always play by the rules and to resolve conflicts without resorting to hostility or violence.
• Do your best – solid effort and doing one's best is as important as winning. Plus it takes the sting out of defeat.
• Everyone's a winner – kids should be offered praise and made to feel like a winner every time just for competing fairly and trying hard.
• Stay positive – it's important to never ridicule or yell at children for mistakes or losing a competition.
• Set the right example -- be a good role model. Children learn by example. So show them how to practice good sportsmanship by not always expecting to win and by applauding the performances of both teams!
• Officials need respect too – never publically question an official's judgment or honesty.
• Be an advocate for good behavior – don't just model good behavior, actively support efforts to remove verbal and physical abuse from children's hockey activities.
• Show thanks and appreciation – volunteer coaches give of their time freely to provide hockey experiences for our kids and we should show our appreciation and thanks.

Remember, parents shape how their children feel about hockey. The game is meant to be one of the most enjoyable parts of your child’s life, providing enduring life lessons and golden memories. When you approach the game with a positive attitude and emphasize fair play and sportsmanship, your child will follow suit.

Kids don't have the longest of attention spans, something to which any parent will unhappily testify. That short attention span even affects sports, which requires a fair amount of focus.

As a result, the challenge youth coaches face is designing practices that not only teach the proper skills but keep the interest of the kids for the entire session. Whether the coach is a kid's parent or a Stanley Cup champion, the challenge remains the same.

Former New Jersey Devils center Jim Dowd coaches his two sons, ages 10 and 7, in the central New Jersey area. Not even his NHL pedigree -- 16 seasons and the honor of being the first New Jersey native to have his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup -- is a lock for keeping the attention of young hockey players.

"I'm always pumping them up, making it fun for them," Dowd told NHL.com. "It's a tough balance (but) that's your job -- keep it fun and make them come back, but keep the hard work."

Bob Nielsen, a long-time coach for youth and high school-age hockey teams in the Philadelphia suburbs and owner of the coaching website IceHockeyDrills.info, said quick drills and constant movement is the key.

"Keep them busy," Nielsen told NHL.com. "When they play with their friends, they're not standing there looking at the shot they're about to take, they're moving and stickhandling. The big thing is to keep them busy, don't let them stand around."

Dowd said he does that by quickly jumping from one drill to the next, and since the 42-year-old still has his skating legs, he demonstrates the drills himself rather than draw them out.

"My theory is, you usually only have an hour of ice and an hour goes quick," he said. "I never go to the (dry-erase) board. Just skating drills -- skating, passing, shooting, just do drills. ... Ninety-nine percent of youth hockey, you have an hour of ice. If you go to the board 5-6 times, you could waste 10 minutes."

Keith Primeau, who captained the Philadelphia Flyers to the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals during his 15 NHL seasons and now coaches two youth teams and a high school team in southern New Jersey, said he avoids the board at all costs, as well.

"I don't use the dry-erase board ever," Primeau told NHL.com. "They're in front of a chalkboard all day at school. I want to challenge them verbally instead of visually."

"My philosophy from the first day I walked into the rink was I want the kids to say I can't wait to come back." -- Keith Primeau

Dowd said one of the keys for him is keeping things as simple as possible. Not because he works with young children, but because he believes coaches at all levels sometimes can make the game harder than it needs to be.

"If I hear the word system ... that's my least favorite word," Dowd said. "That should never be used in youth hockey. Just go out and play the game. Teach them different positions. It should be all skills that you work on and competing. Drills where you're competing -- throw the puck in the corner, battles."

Dowd said he also ends every practice with a game to reinforce the skills they've been working on.

He also said he makes sure to spend as much time with his less-talented players as he does his top kids.

"Work with your least-talented kid as much as you do your most-talented kid," Dowd said. "The most important thing is to get everyone thinking they're important. Just keep reinforcing how good they can be. ... Include everybody and you make everybody feel like they're as important as the best player on the team. Give them extra attention."

And make sure they're having fun while learning.

"My philosophy from the first day I walked into the rink," Primeau said, "was I want the kids to say I can't wait to come back."

Cathy Williamson, HBA, RHN
Sports Nutritionist
Hockey Player
Hockey Mom

The following list of Nutrition Tips for Hockey Players highlights the key areas that all players should focus on to ensure they are properly fuelled:

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
Proper hydration is critical. Drink water before, during and after a game or practice. Playing in a dehydrated state will have a negative impact on an athlete's performance.

2. Eat Healthy
The cumulative effect of healthy eating will benefit an athlete's overall health and hockey performance. Wholesome, healthy foods are minimally processed, have very little packaging, few ingredients, and are low in sugar, salt, fat, additives and preservatives.

3. Eat a Healthy Breakfast
A healthy breakfast kick-starts our metabolism, providing the body and brain with much needed fuel. Muscle energy stores are used up during the night. A nutritious breakfast ensures these energy stores are restocked. Be sure to include fruit, a source of protein and some whole grains.

4. Quality Carbohydrates for Energy
Carbohydrates are an athlete's energy food! Focus on fresh, wholesome, colourful foods that are nutrient dense, such as fruits and vegetables, 100 percent whole grains, and legumes (beans, peas and lentils). Milk and yogurt are the only two animal foods that provide a good source of carbohydrates.

5. Eat a Healthy Pre-Game Meal
The meal before a game should consist of 75 percent carbohydrates, along with a source of lean protein. Think of the dinner plate as being divided into four quarters: half of the plate is vegetables (salad, steamed vegetables, or beans), one-fourth is whole grains (rice, pasta, barley etc), and one-fourth is protein (chicken, fish, or lean beef).

6. Minimize Junk Food
Avoid or reduce the three junk food villains: sugar, fat and salt. They will drain an athlete of energy, both mentally and physically. The main culprits are highly-processed foods such as junk food, fast food, candy, and soda.

7. Rehydrate and Refuel
Water and a healthy snack or meal after a game or practice will ensure that an athlete's energy stores are replenished and muscle tissue is repaired. Consider snacks like fruit, raw nuts and seeds, whole grain sandwiches, fruit bars, or dried fruit.

Over the coming weeks and months be sure to log on to the Canadian Tire Hockey School website where I will expand upon each of the above tips and provide you with great information to ensure that your athlete is properly fuelled.

To be an effective coach, you need the tools to help you organize your team, create drills and track your players' progress. Simply download the cards you need to guide your team from practices to playoffs.

Drill Template

Mock up drills that include notes and key teaching points for quick reference before and during practices.

Practice Plan

Prepare a practice ahead of time by planning drills and a schedule that efficiently develop skills that you want to focus on.

Pre-Game Preparation

Channel your thoughts before the big game by outlining your game plan, line-up strategies and notes.

In-Game Adjustments

Make changes on the fly as you track your team's performance.

Game Summary

Quickly review the game with this reference card for player statistics, period analysis and comprehensive game notes.

I have always found that equipment that fits properly is the most comfortable as well as protective. As players get older, hockey gets more physical. This does not necessarily mean you need bigger equipment. Skates are the most important piece. For the best protection and on ice success, find a pair of skates that fit well, are supportive and protective as well. I like them at least one size smaller than my shoe size, but everyone is different! Lastly, your stick is also a big part. The length is always your choice, but know that in most cases, short sticks are good for puck handling and long sticks are better for shooting.

Always remember that small goals every day will add up to long term improvement. If you find that a drill seems pointless, work on your skating. If you are in the corner waiting for your turn, try some fun stick handling moves! It is good to practice with positive reminders, for example, 'Today, I am going to stick handle with my head up' or 'I will work on my crossovers.' Don't get frustrated if you don't notice changes right away. Keep working hard and keep that positive attitude!

The mental aspect of hockey is very important. You must always THINK you can play well before you actually do. To do this, find a way to feel happy and light-hearted. I like to listen to 'feel-good' music, or watch a funny TV show. Then I think about how hard I am going to work, and that it is ok to make mistakes. This takes away the pressure, and the better I play, the more fun I have!

Jonathan Toews – A Life on Skates (From Winnipeg to Winning the Cup)

You could say that Jonathan Toews was born to be on ice. The future Stanley Cup^® winner was feeling his edges and mastering the blades around local rinks as a kid. Since then, he has gone on to become one of the NHL’s most celebrated players.

Born on a chilly day in St. Boniface-Winnipeg on April 29, 1988, Toews was destined to spend his life on the ice since the moment his father put his first pair of skates on him when he was just three years old. When he wasn’t at his local arena skating, he was tearing up homemade ice in his backyard with his dad and his younger brother, David.

It wasn’t long before Toews showed a gift for Canada’s national sport. By the time he was in his teens he was gaining the attention of hockey scouts who could see that this kid had a talent for the game. In high school he’d been drafted #1 by the Tri-City Americans, but chose to play for his high school instead, a pretty brave move for a kid with the world being offered to him.

He grinded his way through NCAA hockey at the University of North Dakota and as a result was noticed by scouts. He was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks^® in 2006, made the NHL^® in 2007, and that’s when his life on ice really began to pick up speed. In no time, he went from talented newbie to assistant captain and by 2009 he was named captain of the Chicago Blackhawks ^® at the tender age of 20 – the third youngest in NHL^® history.

The best was yet to come, as 2010 became a golden year for the young star. First, Toews was picked to play with Team Canada in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games where they achieved gold medal glory by defeating Team USA. If that wasn’t enough, he led the Chicago Blackhawks^® to Stanley Cup^® victory – their first win in nearly 50 years!

The kid from Winnipeg came home a hero when 15,000 folks lined the streets to see Toews bring home Lord Stanley. The young man with the gift for the rink even saw the arena where he learned to play named after him – the Jonathan Toews Community Centre – where his accomplishments are sure to inspire future hockey stars today and for years to come.

Across the country, hockey would not survive without volunteers. In fact, the game would never have blossomed into a symbol of our nation without people donating their time—even if only to clear frozen ponds of snow so players had a place to play. Today, volunteering is an absolutely vital element of our game. Those who donate their time and energy make it all possible.

Volunteering can take many forms. It supports kids who otherwise could not afford to play, and supports tournaments that further develop the skills of so many young players. Simply offering to carpool a player to and from the rink can make all the difference for a family trying to cover the ongoing costs of playing hockey.

What can you bring to the game?

The average hockey team has numerous opportunities for volunteering; from behind the bench to organizing a fundraising barbeque, there are many skill sets that can be applied to volunteering.

It all counts—and it’s all necessary to allow the puck to drop. It can be as simple as opening and closing gates for little skaters, or offering to step on the ice for practice to collect pucks and set up pylons.

For anyone looking to volunteer as a coach, think of joining Hockey Canada’s National Coach Certification Program, a competency-based curriculum that builds coaching tools and knowledge of the game. You can start slow and then gradually build game skills and experience.

Hockey teams and leagues also require trainers who help prevent injuries through proper training techniques, assist when injuries occur, and ensure that all equipment is in proper condition. As in coaching, the opportunity exists for accreditation in this field, through the Hockey Trainers Certification Program.

Contributing off the ice

You don't have to know how to skate to help a team in a very big way. Strong administrative or managerial skills can make a huge difference in a team’s front office. There's the need to manage the money, communicate game and practice times to parents, and arrange for ice time and other team events. Every hockey organization can use someone with business savvy—and every team can benefit from those organization skills to keep the team running smoothly.

Around the rink there are also many ways volunteers can give back to hockey, both inside and outside the dressing room. Helping kids with their equipment—like tying up skates—is one way parents can donate their time and effort to a team. So is volunteering to be a game’s timekeeper or scorekeeper, or by bringing drinks and snacks for the team.

Every volunteer makes a difference

When it comes to volunteering in hockey, no gesture is too small. It’s the collective effort that makes the real difference, helps develop our great young talent, and makes our sport the greatest game of all. And you’ll find that, as a volunteer, you're able to share in more of the magic team moments that happen on the bench, on the ice and in the dressing room.

BACK CHECK – When a forward checks the other team’s player(s) while skating back to his defensive zone.

BACKHAND – A shot or pass using the back of the stick blade.

BENCH – The area where the team and coaches stay during a game, when not on the ice. The team benches are sometimes positioned on the opposite side of the ice from the penalty boxes and scorekeeper’s bench.

BENCH MINOR – A minor penalty given to a team and usually meant for an infraction by the coach, such as having too many players on the ice at one time.

BLADE – (a) The shorter, curved end of the stick or, (b) the sharp metal edge under the skate.

BLOCKER – The large padded glove used by goalies to hold their stick and block shots.

BLUE LINE – The blue line that separates a team’s defensive end from the neutral zone.

BOARDS – A wooden or fibreglass wall surrounding the rink, below the shatterproof glass.

BREAKAWAY – When an attacking player has possession of the puck and skates in alone against the other team’s goalie.

BREAKING PASS – A pass to a teammate who is attempting a breakaway.

CATCHER – The glove used by goalies to catch the puck, also called a trapper or a mitt.

CENTRE – The player in the forward line who usually plays in the middle of the ice and takes most of the face-offs. The centre can also help any other player at their position.

CENTRE LINE – The red line midway between the two goals that divides the ice in half, also called the red line.

CENTERING PASS – A pass from an attacking player to a teammate positioned in front of the opposing team’s goal.

CHECK – When a defending player tries to take the puck away from an opposing team player.

CHERRY PICK – When a forward player positions himself outside his own defensive zone, behind the other team’s defense, waiting for a breakaway pass.

CHIP IT IN/CHIP IT OUT – To flip the puck up in the air and over the blue line, either out of your defensive zone or into the other team’s end.

CHIPPY – A player or game that is very rough.

CLEARING THE PUCK – Getting the puck safely out of your defensive zone.

CLEARING THE ZONE – When an attacking player skates out of the defensive team’s zone to avoid being called offside when a teammate carries or passes the puck back into the zone.

COACH – The person who trains and prepares the team, and makes the player selections for each game.

CROSSBAR – The horizontal bar across the top of the net, attached to the top of the goalposts.

DEKE – A deceiving motion where the puck is stick handled around or past a player or goalie.

DEFENCE – Two players who play more in their own end and who are the most responsible for helping their goalie stop the other team from scoring.

DEFENSIVE ZONE – The area closest to the defensive team’s goal that spans the ice from the end boards behind the goal to the blue line, also referred to as a team’s end or a team’s zone.

DELAY OF GAME – A minor penalty given to a player who purposely delays the game by sending the puck out of play or dislodging the goalposts.

DIVE – Falling down, pretending to be tripped. Players do this hoping the referee will give the other team a penalty, but the player who dives can receive a penalty for “unsportsmanlike conduct”.

DROP PASS – When a player leaves the puck behind for a following teammate to pick up.

DUMP AND CHASE – To chip the puck into the other team’s defensive end zone and then go after it right away.

ELBOWING – A minor penalty given to a player who strikes an opposing player with their elbow.

EMPTY-NET GOAL – To score on a team who has pulled its goalie.

END BOARDS – The boards at each end of the rink behind the two nets.

EVEN STRENGTH – When both teams have the same number of players on the ice.

EXTRA ATTACKER – The player who is sent on the ice in place of his team’s goalie, who has been pulled.

FACE MASK – Protective gear worn by every player to guard the face area.

FACE-OFF – When the puck is dropped between two opposing players to start or resume play.

FACE-OFF CIRCLE – Various areas on the ice where face-offs are held, also called face-off spots.

FAN – When a player misses the puck while attempting a shot or a pass.

FIGHTING – A five-minute major penalty given to any players engaged in fighting.

FIVE-HOLE – The open space between a goalie’s pads.

FORECHECK – To check against a team at their end of the rink.

FOREHAND – A shot or pass using the front of the stick blade.

FORWARDS – The three attacking players (centre, left wing and right wing) who play more in the other team’s end and are usually responsible for scoring goals.

FREEZE THE PUCK – Trapping the puck in order to stop play.

FULL STRENGTH – When a team has all six of its players on the ice at one time.

GLASS – The name given to the clear plastic wall or shatterproof glass above the boards.

GOAL – (a) When the puck completely crosses the goal line or, (b) another name for the net.

GOAL CREASE – The semi-circular area in front of the net, usually painted blue, where the goalie is able to play without being obstructed by an opposing team player.

GOALIE – The player who guards the net and is most responsible for keeping the puck out of the net, also known as the goaltender or goalkeeper.

GOAL LINE – The red line between the goalposts. The puck must completely cross over this goal line to count as a goal.

GOALPOSTS – Attached to the crossbar, these vertical bars create the sides of the net. Also called the posts or the pipes.

HALF-BOARDS – A space along the boards, between the hash marks and the blue line.

HAND PASS – Using your hand to pass the puck to a teammate; this is only allowed in your own end.

HASH MARKS – The straight lines that stick out from all face-off circles, where left and right-wingers line up before a face-off.

HAT TRICK – When a player scores three goals in a single game.

HIGH-STICK – Either hitting a player above the shoulders with your stick, or hitting the puck with your stick above your shoulders.

HIP CHECK – Using your hip to hit a player; a legal play.

HOLDING – A minor penalty for grabbing an opposing player and impeding their progress.

HOOKING – A minor penalty given to a player who uses his stick to slow an opponent down.

ICING – When the puck is shot from one side of the centre line past the other’s team’s icing line, and the opposing team touches it first.

ICING LINE – The red line extending from the goal line to the two sideboards.

LEFT WING – The player on the forward line who mainly plays on the left side of the ice.

LINESMAN – An on-ice official responsible for most face-offs, making icing and offside calls, and occasionally advising the referee regarding penalties.

MAJOR PENALTY – A five-minute penalty given for serious infractions of the rules; these penalties last the full five minutes even if the opposing team scores during the power play.

MAN ADVANTAGE – When one team has a penalty and the other has more players on the ice; also referred to as a power play, the opposite of playing shorthanded.

“MAN ON!” – A warning given to a teammate that an opposing player is coming up from behind to check him.

MINOR PENALTY – A two-minute penalty given for minor infractions of the rules; if the opposing team scores during this power play, the minor penalty ends immediately.

NET – The area a puck must enter to count as a goal. The net opening is 4 feet high and 6 feet wide, with netting on the back part to trap the puck.

NEUTRAL ZONE – The area between the two blue lines.

ODD-MAN RUSH – When a team enters the opposing team’s end with more attacking players than there are players defending in the zone.

OFFICIALS – The team of on-ice officials includes the referee and two linesmen. There are also several off-ice officials, such as the timekeepers, goal judges, scorer and statistician.

OFFSIDE – When a player skates across the other team’s blue line before the puck crosses it, or when the puck is passed across two lines.

ONE-ON-ONE – When an attacking player has the puck and there is only one defending player between them and the goalie. ONE-TIME – When a player receives a pass and shoots the puck without stopping it first.

ON-THE-FLY – To make player substitutions while play is underway.

OUT-OF-PLAY – When the puck goes over the boards, over the glass or into one of the team benches.

OVERTIME – An additional period of play used when regulation play ends with a tied score.

PADDLE – The wide part of a goalie’s stick.

PADS – The large padded leg protectors worn by goalies.

PLAY – The action when the hockey game is going on, which always begins with a face-off.

PASS – When one player uses his stick to send the puck to another player on the same team.

PENALTY BOX – The area where penalized players are sent for minor, major or misconduct penalties; also known as the penalty bench.

PENALTY KILLER – A player who specializes in defending when their team is playing short-handed.

PENALTY SHOT – A free breakaway and shot (with only the other team’s goalie protecting the net), awarded to a player who has been tripped or held during a breakaway opportunity.

PERIOD – One of the three timed parts that make up a game, usually 20 minutes in length each.

PINCH – When an attacking player, usually a defenseman, skates along the boards from the point to keep the puck in the defending team’s end.

POKE CHECK – When a player uses the blade of their stick to poke the puck away from another player.

POINT – The left and right end areas just inside the blue line of the defensive zone.

POWER PLAY – When one team has a man advantage because the other team has taken a penalty, the opposite of playing shorthanded.

POWER-PLAY GOAL – A goal scored by the team playing with a man advantage.

PUCK –The frozen six-ounce hard rubber disc used to play hockey.

PULL THE GOALIE – When the goalie is taken off the ice and replaced with an extra skater. This usually happens in the final minutes of a game, if a team needs to get a goal to even the score.

REBOUND – A shot that bounces off the goalie’s equipment providing the attacking team with another chance to score.

REFEREE – The chief official who makes sure all rules are followed during a game.

RIGHT WING – The player on the forward line who mainly plays on the right side of the ice.

RINK – The ice-covered playing surface.

ROUGHING – A minor penalty for pushing or shoving an opposing player.

SAVE – When the goalie stops a shot from entering the net.

SCORE – To get a goal.

SCOREKEEPER’S BENCH – The area between the penalty boxes where the scorekeeper and other off-ice game officials sit.

SCRAMBLE – When several players from both teams fight for possession of the puck.

SCREEN SHOT – A shot that the goalie can’t see because his vision is blocked by his own teammates or opposing team players.

SHADOW – To closely follow another player on the ice and prevent him from making plays.

SHAFT – The long, straight part of the stick.

SHIFT – The time when a player is on the ice to play.

SHORTHANDED – When one team has taken a penalty and has fewer players on the ice than the other team, the opposite of having a man advantage or being on the power play.

SHORTHANDED GOAL – A goal scored by a team while killing a penalty.

SHOOT – A scoring attempt using a backhand shot, slap shot, snap shot or wrist shot.

SHOOT-OUT – A breakaway competition used in a tied game to determine which team wins the game.

SHUTOUT – When the goalie has not allowed the opposing team to score any goals in a game.

SLAPSHOT – A shot in which the player raises his stick up to shoulder level or higher on the backswing, before swinging it forward and connecting with the puck.

SLASHING – A minor penalty for swinging the stick hard at an opposing player.

SLOT – The 30-foot area directly in front of the net; a prime area for scoring goals.

SPEARING – A major penalty given to a player who jabs or attempts to jab an opposing player with the blade of his stick.

STICK CHECK – To steal the puck from an opposing player using the hockey stick.

STICK-HANDLE – To control the puck with both the front and the back of the blade.

SUDDEN DEATH – An overtime situation in which the next goal wins the game.

TOP SHELF – The top part of the net just above the goalie’s shoulders.

TRAILER – The player skating behind a teammate to be in position to receive a backward or drop pass.

TRIPPING – A minor penalty for using the stick to trip an opposing player.

UNDRESS – To deke around a player skillfully, especially in a one-on-one situation.

WHEELS – A term used to describe a player’s speed; someone with “great wheels” is a fast skater.

WRAPAROUND – To skate behind the opposing team’s net and wrap the puck around the farther post and into the net with the stick before the goalie can move across the goal to stop it.

WRIST SHOT – A shot made using the wrist and forearm muscles, to create a strong flick of the stick to propel the puck forward.

ZONES – The three areas on the ice made up by the two blue lines: the defensive zone, the attacking zone and the neutral zone.

Although there is still debate over how the game of hockey first started, it seems to have its roots in the ancient games of our First Nations peoples.

Many countries lay claim to the sport and its exact origins are impossible to verify, but a version of the sport we now call hockey appears to have been first played in Canada almost 200 years ago. At the time, the game involved a ball, an ice surface and just a few pairs of skates—but it soon evolved to be more like the game we know today.

When the first formal hockey rules were published in Montreal in 1877, the rule-makers decided to replace the ball with a puck made of wood. Hockey has continued to evolve, and even though today's game is very different than it once was, it has kept its roots as a game played on ice.

The playing surface

An ice hockey rink is divided into three parts: the middle section, called the neutral zone, and the two ends. Each team protects the net in their end—their defensive zone—and tries to score a goal by putting the puck in the other team's net at the other end of the ice—the attacking zone.

The equipment

As hockey is played on ice, every player needs a pair of skates along with their stick. Hockey is a fast game, using a hard rubber puck, so the more protection worn the better! If playing in an organized league, you'll be required to wear equipment that protects from head to toe, including a helmet with face guard, neck protector, shoulder pads, a chest protector, elbow pads, gloves, hockey pants and shin pads.

The players

In the beginning, hockey rules called for nine players on the ice for each team. These days, a team has six players on the ice—one goalie, two defense and three forwards—who concentrate on specific areas of the ice.

The players on defense cover one half of the defensive zone each, either the right side or the left side. The three forwards, meanwhile, play either on the right side (right wing), the left side (left wing) or in the middle (centre).

Additional players wait on the bench for their turn to play. These players join and leave the play of the game in shifts according to direction from their coaches. It's part of the coaching staff's job to ensure the right players are on the ice at the right time.

The periods

Today's professional hockey game is 60 minutes long, as it was back in the 1870s, and is broken up into three parts called periods that are each 20 minutes in length. In some leagues, if a game is tied after 60 minutes, an additional period, called overtime, is added. This period is often played under sudden-death rules, meaning that the first team to score in overtime wins the game.

The penalties

To make sure the players and coaches follow the rules, referees and linesmen are on the ice overseeing the play of the game. If a rule is broken, the referee or linesman may just stop game play, or give a team member a penalty or a game misconduct—depending on the severity of the infraction. A penalty will remove a player from play for a set amount of time, ranging from two to five minutes. A game misconduct will remove the offending player for the rest of the game.

If a team player receives a penalty, his or her team must then play short-handed for a certain period of time, while the other team plays with a man advantage—also called a power play. If the infraction is minor, the penalty lasts two minutes unless the other team scores while on the power play, in which case the penalty ends immediately. If the infraction is major, the penalty lasts five minutes and does not end if the team on the power play scores a goal.

The flow of the game

The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team. The game starts with a face-off at centre ice when the puck is dropped between two opposing players. At this point, it's up to the players to advance the puck into the other team's defensive zone, using their sticks to carry the puck and/or passing it back and forth.

When passing the puck, an attacking player cannot cross the blue line before the puck or the play will be called offside once they touch it, play will stop and another face-off will take place, this time in the neutral zone or where the pass was made. A play will also be under a delayed offside if an attacking player is in the opposing team's defensive zone before the puck enters the zone and will be stopped once that player touches the puck or it is determined by the referee that they will not be leaving the attacking zone.

Play will also stop when one team ices the puck; this happens when the puck crosses from the team's side of the red line (or centre line), ends up past the other team's icing line. At this point, the play is stopped and another face-off takes place, once again in the offending team's zone near the goalie.

The goals

Play also stops when one team scores a goal, which is accomplished when the puck completely crosses the goal line and into the net. Sometimes, it's not always clear if a goal has been scored, particularly if the goalie and/or other players are blocking the view of any part of the goal line.

This where goal judges come into play—it's their task to determine if a goal has been scored, which is sometimes not easy to tell from their off-ice seat behind the net. At the professional level, there are video goal judges who review disputed goals on video taken from different camera angles.

When a goal has been scored, play restarts with a face-off at centre ice. As in countless other sports, the team scoring the most goals wins the game.

First ensure that your young player is properly outfitted with equipment that protects them, but allows them to be comfortable and move freely. Watch this (video) for equipment requirements and how to dress for the game. It’s also important to understand the basic rules of the game. The game can confusing for beginners, and can lead to some frustration if a player does not know why the referee has stopped play. Start with understanding the basic positions, where they line up, and where on the ice they are supposed to generally play. Then go over some of the basic rules such as offside and icing, and how players are allowed to safely use their sticks.

Getting started in hockey

Of course it’s perfectly acceptable for beginners to play the game and sign up for league play, even if they are just learning how to stand up on skates. But you may also want to develop their skating to a reasonable level before signing them up for league play. The best way to make this happen—and enjoy wonderful family time—is to attend the public skating at your local rink. There are also many learn-to-skate programs that concentrate solely on skating. You will also find many hockey schools for every age and level of development.

If you’re lucky enough to have natural ice, such as a frozen pond or river, this may be the best skating experience there is. Just ensure that the ice is at least six inches thick, and bundle up to avoid frostbite.

As for equipment, it’s not a bad idea to have your beginning skaters wear hockey gloves or thick gloves that will help protect them from falls—falling forward or backward is a natural part of learning to skate. Elbow pads are also a good idea, and hockey pants or snow pants will help protect their tailbone and posterior. As always, make sure that everyone is wearing a helmet.

Relax it’s just a game.

Don’t push too hard. Let the players enjoy the game at their own pace. Some young players just can’t get enough ice time. Others just want to attend the games and enjoy the team experience. To a degree, let them decide how much additional ice time they want. That said, if they’ve committed to a team but don’t want to attend the scheduled practices, gently explain to them that it’s important that they attend practices so that they can all increase their skills and learn to play together as a team.

In the end, it should be the child’s decision. Many parents will tell you stories of kids who’ve been pushed too hard, and simply have walked away from the game. On the other side, many will tell stories of kids whose interest builds gradually as they learn to appreciate and enjoy the game. Try to keep a positive attitude and celebrate every success and improvement.

At games, keep emotions under control. At many rinks, the parents seem to worry more about wins and losses than the kids. The kids can quickly brush off a loss, but parents can add to the stress and concentration of winning and losing. Let the kids enjoy the game. They’ll win some and they’ll lose some. Also, hockey is refereed in the early years by young inexperienced referees who are going to make mistakes. Kids watch and learn from the parents in the stands. So try and control emotions when the referee makes an error—it happens. Let it go, and let the kids enjoy the game in a stress-free environment.

Get fuelled for the game.

Make sure that your child has the nutritional energy needed to play the game. This requires the right amount of food energy (calories) and liquids. Keep in mind that players should not eat a large meal within an hour or two of game time. Pasta, rice and other carbohydrates consumed a few hours before the game offer the energy and calories that allow them to play a full game with lots of energy. Players can get dehydrated quite quickly, so have them drink 10-12 ounces of water and/or juice a half hour or so before the game. It is important to hydrate (drink) before the game, as well as having sufficient fluids during the game, so equip your young player with his or her own water bottle—sharing among team mates can spread colds and other ailments.

It's more than just goals and penalties.

To get the most out of the game, it’s important to remember that in addition to providing exercise and skills development, hockey equips kids for life in more important ways. Hockey, as a team sport, promotes cooperation and collaboration—the major elements of teamwork. Learning to work as a team, and as part of a team, is a skill that they will learn and apply to everything they do, from school to other organizations and eventually their working lives.

As well as celebrating the collective effort, a hockey team is also an environment that supports individuals to push their own limits and achieve their own goals. Every team wants a 50-goal scorer, but no team can win by solely relying on that player. Hockey’s continual encouragement to better the self, within a unified group, is one of the greatest gifts that the game has to offer kids and parents. Remind your child of the contribution that they are making, and the important role that they play on the team. Again, celebrate all of their personal contributions, big and small. And also recognize and celebrate the contributions of other teammates. Encourage your young player to compliment their teammates.

The physical benefits of playing hockey are many, but the social and psychological gains made by players are probably even greater. It’s one thing to develop a healthy, strong body, but it’s another thing to develop healthy core values, strong bonds of friendship and camaraderie. Luckily, hockey delivers all these qualities in generous amounts.

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Along with patience, understanding and a love of the game, every coach can be a better coach with the essential tools.

On-Ice

“I think for any new coach starting out, I think the most important thing is to get yourself a good drill book to start the beginning of the season. What you want to try and do is document each practice. It’s very important that you go into each practice and each game with a game plan, especially practices. A couple of hours before you go to practice, I like to sit down, go over the drills, put them on drill sheets, come to the rink prepared, show my assistant coaches exactly what we want to incorporated, what we want to do on the ice, go over the drills in the dressing room with the kids five minutes beforehand so we’re not wasting any time on the ice. Then we get on the ice, the kids know what to expect and we’re ready to go. That drill book, I think, is very very important. And it’s a great tool for any new coach.”

“I think the most important pieces of equipment are, number one, a good whistle. You know you have to have a very good whistle to control the drills and it certainly helps everybody, it helps the practice run that much smoother. Second piece of equipment would be a very good white board or rink board, and again, this can be used in the dressing room beforehand, can be used on the ice, and it just helps any new coach prepare for practices that much better and practice will go a lot smoother for you.”

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The pre-season is a hectic and exciting time for coaches. There are practices to plan, games to schedule, paperwork to complete and equipment to purchase. Yet, on top of all of that, the pre-season adds one additional wrinkle – coaches must be ready to make quick and early assessments of their team's talent in order to best tailor their hockey teaching and the drills to be used.

If you coach at a professional level, your pre-season evaluations include medical reports, scouting reports and player assessments based on highly competitive drills and scrimmages. If you coach at the house league level, especially younger players, your pre-season may involve evaluating more basic player skills, such as whether or not your players can actually skate well. Not only that, you will certainly have some players just learning to stand up on the ice, while others are already flying around the ice and doing some wonderful turns and stops. In that case, you will have to tailor some drills for the less advanced players.

Assessing skating

Skating is the most important skill in the game of hockey. It's where it all starts. If a player does not have balance on their skates, they won't be able to take a shot. If they can't move very fast on their skates, they won't be able to get to the net to score a goal. It all starts with basic balance and then being able to move forward, then turn and eventually – stop.

And of course, it's not difficult to quickly get a sense of your team's and players' skating levels. As soon as they step on the ice you'll be able to see if they can stand, and then create some form of forward motion. From there you can have them skate around the face-off circles to measure their ability to turn. And of course, then have them come to a complete stop. From there you'll know how advanced your players are in basic balance, form and speed.

Here are some drills that will help assess their skating levels:

A slow skate around the ice, skating behind the nets Skate to centre ice, stop at centre, skate back to goal line Skate forward to centre ice, stop, skate backwards to goal line The Figure 8 – Forward skating around face-off circles performing crossovers The Circle Pivot – Forward skating, pivot to backward skating at the top of the face-off circle and backward to forward skating at bottom of face-off circle Skate the Circles. This drill combines a combination of crossovers and turns around pylons. Shown as forward skating, but you can modify the drill to have your team do it backwards Race to puck around pylons placed at the blue line. The winner of the race gets the puck and gets to take a shot on goal

Assessing game skills

Of course, pre-season drills may also include those that can help assess a team's strength in other aspects of the game, like puck control, passing and shooting. These simple drills will help you develop and assess their puck control abilities.

Stationary Passes – Passing while standing still. Here, the players simply pass the puck back and forth, in pairs. Have them start close together, and then have them move back as their ability improves Man in the Middle – Five players standing on the face-off circle attempt to pass to one another as another player within the circle tries to intercept the pass Give And Go Passing – Players skate up the ice, receive a pass and then pass to another player back and forth before driving to the net to take a shot on goal

Assessing game savvy

Your pre-season assessment can also include evaluating your players' "Hockey IQ" – their knowledge of rules and strategies. It's always essential to work on game strategies and positional play as well as skill development. The more the team can play as a team, the more fun they'll have, and the more successful they will be.

Jonathan Toews, Founding Member of the Canadian Tire Hockey School and Captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, takes us on a journey back to his hometown of Winnipeg to share some of the experiences that have made him the Canadian champion he is today.

Listen to JT's mom, Andrée as she shares personal insights into how JT has learned to stay focused and deal with the pressure of competitive play.

Every parent dreams of seeing their kid succeed. For Bryan Toews and Andrée Gilbert, watching their son Jonathan lift the Stanley Cup® was a truly great experience.

In this exclusive video, JT tell us about his trip to the 2011 All-Star Game in Raleigh and all the behind-the-scenes excitement.

Get into the head of a Stanley Cup® champ and feel the rush of victory. Watch our exclusive new video of Jonathan Toews talking about what it felt like to win the final game.

8 year old Cole, whose Mom was the $25,000 Dream Contest winner, does a stellar job interviewing Jonathan Toews.

8 year old Cole, whose Mom was the $25,000 Dream Contest winner, does a stellar job interviewing Jonathan Toews.

In this video, Jonathan reflects on his past coaches and the valuable lessons they taught him on and off the ice.

Here Jonathan talks about hockey as a lifestyle - and how even outside the game - you get back what you put in.

Whether you're a goal scorer or a playmaker, Jonathan Toews offers advice on picking the one that's right for you.

In this video, Jonathan explains the benefits of using his favourite method of getting the puck past the goaltender, the wrist shot.

It's always a great idea to end a practice with a fun drill such as this four-player race for the puck.

In this drill you'll learn how to pick up the puck in the corner while fending off the defender.

In this drill, players focus on getting rid of the puck away as quickly as possible – in passing and shooting situations.

In this passing drill, players learn how to pass and receive the puck while in motion.

In a game situation, positional play rules. This drill teaches a set play on how to get the puck out of your own end.

Learn a varierty of shots and the key points behind basic techniques.

Learn the basics about skating to get a great start.

Learn how to properly execute a 2-on-1 from the offensive and defensive perspective.

Learn how to properly execute a 1-on-1 from the offensive and defensive perspective.

Jonathan Toews welcomes you to CTHS

Learn the techniques and fundamentals of Backwards Skating.

Learn how to properly crossover to improve your skating ability.

The game of hockey requires all players to be protected head-to-toe, and there’s a piece of equipment for every part in-between.

Communicating effectively with your players is as much about how you say something, as what you say.

Teach your players the proper techniques for handling their sticks with a series of drills and plays that will help them coordinate skating, control, passing and shooting.

Taping your stick is very much like tying your skates – once you learn how to do it, you’ll only do it your way. Here are some tips to help you tape your stick.

Teach your players the basics of stopping and starting techniques on the ice, proper posture, crossovers, how to handle their stick, and puck exercises to improve their game.

Tying skate laces can be hard to do at first, but once you get used to it you’ll never want anyone else to do it for you again. Learn to tie your skates like a pro!

As a hockey coach, be prepared to be an influence far beyond the bench and way outside the dressing room.