Ep #26 The game within 3 feet of the boards

Hello and welcome to episode 26 of the M2 hockey development podcast. We're

recording this the day of we're gonna upload it tonight or tomorrow, so February 25th.

This will be a really short one here. Me and George are gonna go in a little

detail about some rim collection and playing within the boards. I know we've

talked about those skills before. The kind of the thing is gonna be more of a

finicky episode with us talking about the actual skills and the importance of

playing with the board so within the boards and protecting the puck and

scanning all that fun stuff. So Jordan, what's new? How are things going last

couple weeks? I know you guys kind of in the playoffs right now. Is that going?

Yeah, things are good. Our teams in playoffs would be kitcheners past week and

three nothing in the consolation round. We had a tough battle against Elgin.

Brought it back to a one goal hockey game. Couldn't couldn't bury with

empty net pull to the end of the game to tie it up and go to overtime. So we were

in the consolation series. You had golf or sorry, we had Kitchener past week and

playing again Friday, Chatham Saturday. Hopefully looking to go six and

old to finish off our season when all four round robbing games and get two

games in the play down series. Hopefully go six and all if not have a really

good record and make the most of the last couple games of the season. I do want

to jump in on something here. So you guys played in a one game elimination with

Elgin here and I watched the third period too. We talked about it a bit. Pretty

heartbreaking to lose obviously, but you guys were down for nothing and made it

four three. I know it's still a loss, but you must be pretty proud of how you

guys didn't just give up and pack it in after down for nothing and they fought

till the end. All year long, we thought Elgin was a team we could be like we

played him each time and a couple penalties got us cost us on power play. We

had a couple other plays and games where like we know we can compete with the

team and going into one game play off or play in game. I think the team just

started off playing on their heels a bit more instead of playing on their toes

and we needed to put a little bit more pressure on the opposition rather than

kind of sitting back. They had two end of period goals, one shorthanded, one off

a break play that we I think we could have played defensively better, two

nothing going into the thirds a little bit different of an outcome than four

nothing and the climb was just a little bit out of reach and that's just what

it was and we've had a really good solid third period outshot them outplayed

them had our chances played really good. Earlier in the game we got

stuck into penalty trouble. I think we had seven in a row penalties to none of

theirs. Yes, we were in the box for the first period and a half and I give our

team credit like they persevered they they killed those penalties create a

little bit momentum and then it was just whistle after whistle. We were getting

another penalty on stupid stuff and not necessarily the players fault. A couple

missed calls by the officials there on both ends and a couple weak calls against

us and again you can't control the referees. You just got to play the game so I

give a boys credit for battling back and then having a great third period and

that kind of compounded bottled up and brought into our first game against

Kitchener in the in the Playdown series so we we brought that same game and we

beat them three nothing so that was a good good start to our second round of

consolation there. Yeah I think it's important to talk about that like

obviously it's a tough loss and probably not super fun to talk about but I

think people see that the boys didn't give up and you kind of know even I

noticed some of the players who they were down for nothing and they were still

given everything they had and we talked about before about that makes such a

difference like it's it's such an important quality that you can't you can't

let go unnoticed even though you guys lost by one goal I think it's still

really impressive to what I watched that through a period I was very impressed

on how the guys didn't give up so yeah absolutely in the positives and even

like if you were to ask me that three halfway through the season we go down

for nothing like a lot of times we've seen the players not necessarily give up

a kind of not face the hill to climb that's in front of them I know we've had

some tough games that were complete blowouts like a few games are down to one

going into the third period and and score ends up being 7-1 where it's it's a

little stretch where you get one shot one goal in that whole game now altars

but instead they go down to and they think I don't know if they think but the

perception of it is that they it's a bigger hill to climb now and it's a

tougher challenge so yeah they've developed they've grown and in that realm

and kind of peaking late where we kind of made a little bit more of a run if we

had to but still a lot of hockey left to play in the season hopefully some

scouts are watching and seeing some good in the teams and just for our player

development to keep working and playing every single time you're on the ice so

yeah and quick couple takeaways from obviously we've had some good feedback on our

episode Bernzie the audio wasn't the best but we can only do so much here with

our Microsoft teams there but some great feedback from Bernzie and I think the

biggest thing that I learned too is that growing up like I always wanted to be

involved in hockey when I was done and just knowing that there's so many

different paths for so many people right Bernzie was a huge hockey fan he

loves the sport he loves the social connection he loves being a part of a

team he wasn't no offense Bernzie wasn't good enough to be a player in the

OHL professionally so but he had a passion for athletic therapy and training

and rehab and all that awesome stuff and he found a path to where now he gets

to live out one of his goals which is to be a full-time part of a hockey team

it's his job isn't it do anything else he gets to go work in the OHL and as you

guys learned and I learned to and Jordan learn it's a lot more work than you

think and it's not all fun games where he's got to do so much more than just

athletic therapy but that's the reality of working in sports and I think if

there's one take away you take is that if you like if you have a passion for

something I mean me and Jordan are still involved too and we don't play you can

still be involved in some capacity whether it's a whether it's just for fun

maybe you're a volunteer maybe you're a part-timer as Bernzie is a full-time

still gets to be in the OHL which is something that he always wanted to do

growing up yeah absolutely and and just a side note here is that like every player

regardless whether you play your best player Conor McDavid Sydney Crosby at some

point you're gonna be done playing hockey like your career is just it's gonna

end like it's you're not gonna be able to do it until you're like 80 90 years

old till the day you die like you're at some point your career is gonna end and

there's gonna have to be a little bit of an identity shift on what you're doing

now it's like okay I'm no longer a player what else can I do what else is my

passion what else do I have in front of me and obviously if you're comfortable

with the boys in the room and being a part of a team and working in a team

setting like there's so many different avenues within organizations whether

it's NHL OHL NCAA like every team has their coaches assistant coaches scouts

strength coaches physiotherapist doctors anything along that pathway so

there's always an opportunity there outside of your career when you're done

playing the sport to to stay inside the sport and in working that maybe it's

with gear maybe you're working with CCM or Bauer and being a sales rep or

something of that nature that can bring towards the sport of hockey and

develop something new and and get all these top players back on that gear and

whatever it is there's so many different avenues in the sport of hockey and

every other sport as well that you can still get into and be surrounded by

hockey when you're done playing so all those athletes that are listening that

down the line maybe the career ends short or maybe they don't make the highest

level and they have passion for the sport as well like myself in my history and

my story I'm still in the Ramofaakia's strength conditioning coach and as an

assistant coach there's a lot of hockey that can still be integrated into your

life not as a player yeah and I think the kind of what you realize is the best

part of a hockey is the social aspect in the community and the friendships you

make and I think that's kind of what I've realized and I'm sure that's another

reason Jordan's still involved is that's something you definitely miss once

you're done and now I have a team now it's just the coaching staff and then

you kind of your players are the players but now instead of being in the

dressing room with the guys every day you're in the coach's office with the

guys every day and that's how you build you get your social connections all

these coaches are friends and all that fun stuff me and Jordan get to do stuff

like this we get to talk about minor hockey and all that fun stuff on the

podcast where that's to me at the end of the day hockey is to to improve

yourself as an athlete a person learn how to achieve goals go through ups and

downs and it makes you a better human being but it's also a great

opportunity for social connection which obviously is important to to humans as

all yeah so it's really awesome now that you get to stay involved and I think

just people need to realize that whether maybe coaching isn't for you but you

want to stay involved in hockey well maybe you're a quick manager maybe you're

an athletic therapist like Bernzi and now you get to be a part of a team and at

the rink every day and it's a fun atmosphere to be in right every day every day

at the rink is a good day it's hard to remember that a lot of the times but I

think it's important to remember well I'll just say this post my hockey career I

would have never met you if I didn't get into strength conditioning for sure

would have never met him if I didn't go into strength conditioning work to a gym

own a gym trained mat as a as a player and then from there look with that

brought like him being one of my athletes that I used to train and up coaching

with him and I'm too in hockey development now we're running a podcast that

you're listening to now you're one of my best friends yeah based off of me

going outside of my career in hockey into something else passionate still

being involved in hockey so a lot of stuff out there for you guys I know we want to

dive into some board play with hockey what it is you look at hockey games now

there's a lot of play on the boards probably about 90% of the game is either

battle board battles picking up pox off the boards making plays off the boards

in ozone D zone so we want to dive into that a little bit mules I'll let you

start that one off and so the biggest thing to realize if you take one thing

away from this podcast is 80% of the NHL hockey game is played within three

feet of the boards so extend three feet out from the boards and do a full lap of

the rink 80% of the game is played within those three feet so as as important

it is to work on shooting and skating full speed down the ice with the puck

and tight turns and all that fun stuff 80% of the games played within three

feet of the boards so I think that's something too that people have a bit of

an adjustment when they come to m2 that aren't used to the style that we take

is that a lot of our drills are right along the boards whether that's rim

collection with which I think is other than passing other than passing is the

most undervalued skill in today's game and you can tell a big difference when

you actually watch for it who can do it and who can't and I think if you can

collect a puck off the boards get it out get it protected like a Nikita

Kutcher off the best example that NHL that gives you such an advantage over

everyone from being able to do that simple skill that's not fun it's not

necessarily a sexy skill that you can post on Instagram and look really cool

doing but that is a massive skill in the game because 80% of it is played so I

think the biggest thing to realize is that when you're doing your training when

you're doing your strength training off ice training on ice training everything's

good to touch on but if 80% of the game is played within three feet of the

boards shouldn't you be doing 80% of your training within three feet of the

boards or we definitely don't do 80% of our training within three feet of the

boards but I'd say a good 3040% of the training is within three feet of the

boards whether that's working on cutbacks protections rim collections and if you

go into the finer details too on all the little things where something that a

lot of minor hockey and even junior hockey I really started thinking about it

until my last year of college hockey is me and my teammate my teammate kind

introduced it to me is can you control the spin of the puck and how do you

want the puck to spin off your stick right so the puck's always spinning a lot

of times on the ice and you don't really think about it as a hockey player you

just think of stopping the puck carrying it on right but there's different

ways whether it's going toe-to-heel heel-toe even kind of doing a side

swipe of the puck to dead still it it gives you a much better advantage to

then make an accurate pass to the next guy it's not spinning on you so is

that something you practice do you get I know something we do with our defense

and errors we don't do this isn't off the boards necessarily we do do tons of

rim collections and most teams in our league have rims and weak sideouts as a

part of their systems we do where I'll send a crazy spin at their their

stick while they're skating then they have to dead still the puck and then

make an accurate pass back so if you're able to acknowledge the spin of the

puck dead stop it and then while quickly passing it back your likelihood of

that past being accurate to the next person is way higher which is something

that I never really thought about it I'm guessing most people listening or

players have never thought about unless you're at the high level but being able

to control the spin of the puck on the boards and the open ice is a huge

detail that I want to talk about this podcast yeah 100% and even going a step

further like we've obviously incorporate weight shift into our training a lot

whether it's in the gym whether it's on the ice and deception goes right into

that too if you can deceive somebody off a board rim so if you let a board the

puck slide by you on a board rim and you're still going the opposite direction

you quick punch turn out of it I will offer a weight shift to then pick up that

puck now the oppositions on the other side of you and you have free lane to go

not all it is is a weight shift while being able to receive a puck off that

rim and the spin on the puck is a big thing too I know Kutra of us talk

about that a lot when he's explaining why he does so much stuff on the boards

and collecting pucks and how much extra reps he does when everyone else is off

the ice of just picking up pucks off the boards because it makes a huge impact

it makes a huge difference if you can control where that puck is and and make

an educated second pass or second play off of that collection too many times

if you're in your D zone and you pick up a puck off the boards and you make a

pass that gets turned over well now they have an opportunity to score right

there in the D zone offensive zone a little different because there's a lot of

other variables played into consideration on the on the back checking on the

transition but in your D zone if you're capable of receiving that puck getting

it to where you want it to be in the position you want to then go and make a

play with it you're going to be exiting the zone pretty cleanly and you're

gonna be able to get down to the happy end of the ice and play more hockey where

you want to play more often so so a lot of that goes into consideration when

you're training to understand what's needed in those board battles what's needed

in those plays and we can dive into a little bit more off the boards off of

D zone plays offensive zone four checks stuff like that how the board's coming

to play with that and can also talk about how it's utilized as a tool in your

game to be able to make plays and how that's going to establish more hockey

IQ in your game yes it's such a tool and it goes directly to hockey IQ but the

biggest thing too is not the biggest thing one thing to know that if you're

someone who hasn't necessarily skated with them too is most players at the

young age are talk to pick the feet pick the puck up with their feet turn

your back to the boards if you can I'm painting the picture if you can

visualize it back against the boards you kick it up to your stick and you make

the pass or their foot is right beside their stick when they pick up the puck

on the boards so what you actually want to do and what we're kind of referring to

this in weight shift is be a couple feet off the boards with your weight towards

the middle okay so then you're able you give yourself some arm room to

comfortably pick up the puck and if someone is trying to hit you or pin you or

if it's non-contact right they're just trying to rub some light physical

contact to get the puck you are then strong on the outside well also giving

your hands enough room to get the puck stop the spin make the play as opposed to

if you're close to the boards are using your feet that opposing player can come

at you with their stick and just pin you to the boards very easily so I find

that's actually you need to be able to weight shift properly to do that so

that's why as we talk about we talk had a whole episode on weight shift weight

shift builds into everything in the hockey game in my opinion other than

straight line skating which isn't very high it's a pretty low percentage of how

you actually play the game weight shift with the puck is huge so you need to be

able to weight shift but they also need to be able to give yourself the

appropriate space even if that means getting contacted earlier by an opposing

player if that makes sense little hard to paint the picture yeah 100% if you

want to dive in a little bit more in terms of where else in a game is there

boards being played I remember obviously the majority listeners if not

everyone watched the candy us gold medal game and I think every dump in to

break out from the opposition team they just went with a strong side rim the

majority of the time or find a weak side rim the odd time based on where the

pressure is coming from and all that is is making a play off the boards coming

out of your D zone and more times than not you're picking up that puck you're

either using the boards to chip it out or you're picking up that puck finding

middle guy coming through and then they're carrying it outside towards the

boards as well to use the boards as a leverage to make the next play in their

game whether it's a cutback whether it's another chip in a hard rim all the way

around for a dump in they're utilizing the boards and being able to play off

the boards is a huge aspect of the game that we haven't really dove into too

much just yet but on the other side of things when you dump in a puck in the

offensive zone the board or a tool you can use like mules just said to pin a

player against so a lot of four checks especially in playoff hockey you want to

eliminate that defender as a as a four checking player you want to eliminate

that defender from the play I'm going to cut you off quick I'd say 90% of

D zone structures in the geo geo geo excel are all based off getting pins so

when you're when we're in the D zone all we want is a pin and then we react

from there then pretty much all teams are like that in our league and even the

OHL yeah it's a hidden pin and then your support guy comes in takes a loose

puck and makes a play with it and that's essentially in the offensive zone

same thing when you're going to dump in a puck on a four check you want to

eliminate that defenseman out of the play so that you have odd numbers

down low with the opposition in a transition part of the game so if I'm a

four checker going in I want to hit pin let my second support guy come in grab

that puck make a quick play for a shot with the other two forwards there in a

quick transition even if it's not a quick transition you still want to be able

to eliminate that player when I pin somebody I am now separating that

defenseman from the net the the offensive net for me so if there is a rebound

or anything like that that comes out I have a step ahead of the defenseman

that I just pinned to the boards and I can now make a play with the puck before

that defender that's on me can make a play on me so a lot of it is based and

tooled off the game off those boards and you've seen a few times now with

touch up icing especially in the GOHL a lot of the plays are if you have a

fast forward you can ice a puck that forward can be lined that puck is going to

bounce right off the boards for a forward skating full speed to not pick up

with an easy shot on that I know air did that a few times last year with a few

players that had some wheels in the front end and they made a couple

goals couple score opportunities just based off that play D zone faceoff they

win the puck back they ice it that winter blows the zone right away

puck comes back one touch icing I got minor hockey you won't see it too much

but one touch icing that guy gets the puck almost on a partial breakaway makes

a play if not now they have always own pressure or zone time to make a play

easy breakout for their game there so if you're a if you're a player if you're

a parent if you're a coach do you know how to properly pin does your player

know how to properly pin does your team know how to properly pin that was

something we kind of learned in air this year where we were pushing for pins

but who works on pinning people like they just go board battle right okay well

do you know where your stick should be where is his feet then your stick should

be on the appropriate side to where their feet are pointed where do you

want the opposing player to go this isn't something that we can tell you

necessarily how to do over a podcast but it's something that the whole point of

this is to reiterate the importance of learning these skills and it's not

all just about playing with the puck or even the rim collections are super

important what about when you don't have the puck can you appropriately pin the

guy can your secondary support scan pull the puck out and make an appropriate

play these are all things that are very important and I think the main reason

we want to do this podcast is to just let everyone know how important this is

and how much of a difference it can make in your game even if then even if

someone doesn't go all this guy doesn't dominate well I don't know well he

makes all these awesome pins he pulls the puck out he turns the puck up if

you're a D do you pin every single every guy every time and your team gets

the puck well it's a pretty valuable player in my eyes I don't have much else

to add George if you know not much else just from the from the IQ standpoint

you've seen McCarr do this a bunch as a defenseman walking the line sometimes

on the power play where if he's getting pressure from one side he'll actually

go throw the puck against the boards on the opposite side of the ice to then

go skate on it but if there's hope and ice available that way it limits the

opportunity for the defender to make a play on the puck and make the play on

the man and he now has more area space and time just by throwing it cross ice

off the boards in the direction he's going to now go pick up you've seen a lot

of times with cup backs players that are I want to say presenting the puck are

facing the net on a zone entry they'll go and use their stick and bounce it

behind them off the boards to make a play instead of doing a cup back so that

way their vision is still ahead on themselves on the ice and you can see what's

in front of you the board are a great tool to use as a player obviously when

you're a young player you always here chip it out throw it off the board chip it

passed the defenseman again another great play for another player to come out

easy out now they have to go in transition to get back into the zone so

understand the importance of board battles of retrievals off the boards off

hitting and pin utilizing the boards as a tool and look to develop a little bit

more of your skills doing that over the next couple days or next couple months

next couple days doors next couple months the hundred percent next practice if

you're doing you're right you're right practice every day like there's always

I start going on so next couple days if you're a practice and you're doing board

battles to pay a little closer attention and see how your skill is and what you

need to develop more on I know when we ran the skate the other day a parent

reached out to us and said hey can we practice some board battles like my

kids and development on that so we did do that and there's a lot of

difference probably apparently listen to the podcast and now they got the answer

there so yeah understand the importance of it own it be the best off that you

can be yeah and just the last thing here as the season some seasons are starting

to wrap up right I think we always talk about maybe take with tryouts in late

april mid april make sure to take maybe if you're done in the next month take a

week or two off the ice but make sure you get into the gym right whether an

LPT or at home so Jordans I don't PTs on Instagram you can find it like

obviously we were kind of hand in hand on these skills that we think are really

important to the game and believe it's important to make the next level so make

sure you take maybe a week or something off the ice once you're done and then

make sure you're getting into the gym getting stronger and faster and then as

we kind of get through trials we'll start talking about our off even a little

bit before we'll start talking about our offseason programs with the gym in

skate so stay tuned for that and good luck to everyone in the playoffs and we're

looking forward to as much as it sucks once the seasons done that's M2 and LPT

time so we're looking forward to the offseason but our main season so good luck

everyone and we'll talk to you soon