Perfect power play

If you didn't see this at Puck Daddy, here's an awesomely executed power play in Finland in which all five players touch the puck before the goal. It's one sweet pass after the other.

As Puck Daddy alludes, a lot of teams have trouble with the power play -- so much so that some would rather just play 5-on-5 instead of watch things go horribly wrong and surrender a shorthanded goal. The problem: getting the puck to the open guy.

--S.H.

Well said, Terry Murray!

I was doing some light grazing this morning on the cliches and quotes that dominate LAKingsInsider.com, when I came across this gem from Kings coach Terry Murray on his team's 6 to 1 drubbing at the hands of San Jose on Monday:

MURRAY: “We weren’t in positions. Whether it was on the checking part of the game, without possession, or if we had possession we were not in the proper lanes. Our centermen were not there, our wingers were not in position, our defensemen were looking up and they’re almost seeing the seat of the pants. There’s no way to get the puck up the ice, unless they get their feet going and get to the red line themselves. It got a little bit better in the second half of the game, but early, my goodness, structurally we were really broken down.”

This sounds like some of the guys on my team -- including me -- when we pick apart our latest defeat or narrow victory. It's refreshing to see we're not the only ones to fuck up the breakout, which has often been the bane of our existence.

I particularly like the "seat of the pants" part. That's one of our common mistakes: the centers and/or wings don't put themselves in good position to take a pass. Oftentimes that means coming back toward the D instead of skating to the other team's blue line and waiting for a long stretch pass that will never arrive.

Here's a website with animations of a variety of breakouts. Some of them are probably beyond the abilities of a novice or beginner's team -- but they seem worth learning and trying. 

--S.H.

My guide to captaining a lower division beer league hockey team

I'm on the verge of celebrating my one-year anniversary of being captain of a lower division ice hockey team in Pasadena.

That encompasses three 12-week seasons at our local rink here in Pasadena, CA, and it's utterly amazing to me that I've survived this long. In the past year, I've gone from having no clue about what I'm doing to having mostly no clue about what I'm doing.


Me being me -- that is, having quite low expectations -- I am pleased with this progress.

Especially since personally I am coming off the single worst season ever played by a recreational league hockey player in the history of man/woman-kind. Here's how one popular blog posting about beer league personalities characterized the role I play on a team:

The Organizer – This guy is absolutely brutal but since nobody else could be bothered to do all the paperwork and collect the money he gets to play. Is frustrating to play with because they can barely skate let alone take a pass but nobody gets mad at him cuz he’s a really nice guy. Is often heard in the dressing room saying ‘Sorry guys, that one was my fault’ and if he’s lucky somebody will chip in something like ‘No worries Donny, it’s a team effort.’ What everybody is really thinking is ‘Hey Donny, my grandmother is a better player than you and yes you are right, that was your fault.’ If you are lucky the Organizer is usually smart enough to take himself off the ice in critical situations.  

Yep, that's me! Nonetheless, I have learned a few things, so here are a few tips to those putting together a beginner's or lower division team:

•Build around defense. A good defense coupled with a decent goalie will more often than not give you a chance to win games or at least keep games close. Sure, you can put all your talent on offense -- but what happens when they come up against a good D and goalie and get shut down? You're going to get spanked harder than Tiger Woods in a Texas whorehouse. Defense isn't sexy. Most guys would rather play on O and score, allowing them to pleasure themselves while admiring their statistics online. My tip: find guys who see value in D and want to play it and make them the foundation of your team.

•Get two or three guys who have played rec league hockey before. Just because you can get everyone to show up for a game doesn't mean you know jack shit about actual hockey strategy. I'd go after guys who are maybe a little older who don't want to play in the more advanced divisions and have a little hockey wisdom -- the ability to put a 12 to 0 loss to an all-girls team in correct perspective. In other words, get a couple of Yodas that have been skating for 700 years or so.

Notes from the beer leagues

As I've written before, this blog isn't the place for me to delve too deeply into issues concerning my team -- in particular the play of individuals. So I like to write around it and speak generally.

So, generally speaking, a few random thoughts about my team's 4 to 3 loss yesterday in our league semifinals (note: there are only four teams in the league, so everyone qualifies for the playoffs):

•Our opponents had some fast, younger guys with a good first step -- and they deployed them well. It felt like whoever had the puck for our team was often surrounded by a triangle of opponents and that they had even less time than usual to make a good decision.

•It still feels to me that the best way to mitigate for a speedier opponent is to know good positioning inside and out. If there are two or three guys covering whoever has the puck, that leaves two or three opponents covering our other four guys. On the really good teams, players know where everyone should be on the ice so they can pass the puck when they get in trouble or cornered or whatnot. Half my team is fairly new to the game and positioning hasn't become second nature -- like it needs to be.

•The sweetest play of the game for my team was when one of our third-line wingers picked up the puck in the neutral zone, got in trouble and then dumped it into the other team's zone. In a footrace, he out-hustled an opponent to the boards, got the puck back, and wrapped around the post and was able to just nudge the puck in for a goal. It wasn't the prettiest of plays and the other team's goalie came within an inch of stopping it -- but in this case hustle was rewarded.

•As for me, I've been tempted to write another edition of "hockey crimes and misdemeanors," and I probably soon will. But I really don't know what to say; I feel like my individual mistakes have become one big mistake. While I feel like a few of my hockey skills have improved in recent months, you wouldn't know it from this past three-month season. Outside of a few good shifts here and there, I basically did nothing and was a non-factor. At game speed, what limited skills I have are falling apart.

I'm not really sure what to do about it. Well, I know a few things I'd like to do about it -- like grab my stick and bash the crap out of this laptop/a wall/anything that might break. Joking aside, it feels like it's time to reevaluate how to learn to play the game.

--S.H.