The Inside Post

Especially in the playoffs, teams and players need something that no one can practice for or anticipate: puck luck.

As the game of hockey has evolved so too have the seasons of the game. Today’s players are not only invested heavily in the game during the winter and the ‘traditional’ season, but also the second season – the summer months. To what degree a player spends time working on their game during the ‘second’ or ‘off-season’ should be driven by their individual motivation, and if they have it, there are plenty of options available.

Hockey truly is the Greatest Game on Earth. With the excitement surrounding March Madness and the road to the NCAA Final Four, the staff at Snipers Edge got together and assembled a list of why regular season hockey is still better than post season NCAA basketball.

Great players are excellent goal scorers, but the really great players are outstanding passers. The “Great One” himself, Wayne Gretzky, had 1,963 regular season assists.  It’s fun to watch a player deke a goalie, snipe one top shelf or tap one in into an open net. And while the player scoring the goal gets the spotlight, how the puck got onto their stick is often times just as impressive, if not more skillful than the goal itself.

Over the past decade I’ve had the opportunity to work with more than 1,000 players.   It’s extremely rewarding to watch them develop from a beginner and hardly able to skate and stickhandle, into reaching their full potential and as a teenager competing for a state or national championship. Each hockey player is different, both on and off of the ice. Some players just play hockey

Tryouts are a very special, and stressful, time of year. It’s a time when all of your training and hard work is put to the test, when it’s all on the line to finally reach the goals you set after last season. Most players, and parents, have their sights set on playing for a certain team, and while it’s important to have a goal, it’s also important to recognize that there are only so many spots on each team. It is however, most often the players who have stuck to their training routine that end up having a good tryout, making the top team and achieve their goal.

Here are some tips for tryouts that can help you get through the process with the proper motivation, preparation and perspective. 

One of the hardest things to figure out when it comes to coaching is getting line combinations that all click or have chemistry.  There are some player...