Clearly you’re interested in my thoughts of what Skill that a hockey player has is the most important! I’m sure you also had 1 or 2 skills crossed your mind before you clicked the link. What was it ?

Skating?
Shooting?
Accuracy ?
Stick Handling?

I guess we just need to keep reading and find out right?!

Is it Skating? We’re going to start with the obvious! You CANNOT play hockey without being a good strong, fluid, and fast skater. Spending a lot of time improving this skill will definitely help you become better and a potential stand out player. Skating allows us to move with and without the puck! Without the ability to skate we are never going to be the best hockey player on any given ice surface. Please don’t EVER stop trying to improve your skating! Clearly stating that it’s super important but….. In my opinion not the MOST!

Shooting? Clearly, a hard shot is a super important skill for all players regardless of which position they play. Having a hard shot enables a shooter to increase his likelihood of scoring on a goaltender by cutting down the time that the puck reaches him. However, without accuracy the hardest shot on the planet isn’t going to go in. If you are missing the net wide 100% of the time the puck won’t go in! A hard shot also allows good defensive plays as well; hard rims, icing the puck, and other plays in the d zone. Now shooting is a great skill in my opinion it is NOT the MOST IMPORTANT!

Accuracy? Now i just brought up a good point, a hard shot is only as efficient as it is accurate. So is accuracy the most important? Being able to shoot a puck with pin point precision. Hitting corners at will, going post and in, bar down, snipping under the arms, or even 5 hole is a GREAT SKILL to have! However, going back to the same argument with shooting, no matter how accurate your shot is, if you don’t have any power behind it a goalie will have an easier time stopping it! Defensively, accuracy is important as well. We need to be able to use the boards effectively to ice pucks, get pucks out of the zone without icing it! So yet again here we have a great skill but too dependent on other factors so still not the MOST IMPORTANT!

Stick or puck Handling ability? The ability to stickhandle in a phone booth makes you look like a superstar! You can dangle in and out of a players stick or skates, deke a tendy out of his jock strap and bury the puck in the back of the net. Sounds pretty good, but here we are still needing many other skills in order to make this the MOST IMPORTANT! Without skating ability your hands won’t be as effective. You might be able to make a defenseman miss a poke check 2-3 times but if you don’t have the speed or agility to get around him too he’ll catch up or body you right off the puck!

Now the easy answer I could give you is just “work on ALL of the skills”, “you need to be a well rounded player” “You should not just focus on 1 skill you need to work them all” Now this is 100% TRUE however. I’m still going to give you in my opinion what brings ALL OF THESE SKILLS TOGETHER for a lethal player WITH and WITHOUT the puck!

You’ve made it through this whole thing and 1 of 2 things is happening. You are completely confused and don’t know what i’m going to say or you have figured it out!

If you figured it out, congratulations! If you haven’t it’s quite alright i’m not going to make you wait any longer. Being a Coach for the past 10 years I have seen a lot of different players whether they are on my team or i’m coaching against them. The biggest thing that I notice between the Best players on the Ice and the Not so good is not based off the atypical skills that you learn from a skating or hockey coach.

The skill that sets them apart is their Hockey IQ! You know the ability for a player to know where to be on the ice in every situation during a game, what to do with the puck in every situation of the game. The ability to play offense and defense with and without the puck! How to analyze and adapt to a team/player's tendencies during the game. These players just “know” where to be in ALL SITUATIONS!

Now you may say that yes that’s an important skill but without good skating you can’t get to the right position. This is true and I'm not going to say otherwise but I am going to tell you that without Hockey IQ the other skills WILL be wasted more times than not!

I have seen it far too many times before. A player in practice or a player I coached against who has GREAT SKILLS! Good skating ability, fast, quick, a great shot, good passing ability but when they get into the game they look like a cone out there. It’s like you are playing a man down every shift that they are out there. With them not knowing where to be, they don’t know where to go to get open. They skate all over the place with no rhyme or reason. They make poor decisions with the puck during different situations of the game which leads to turnovers. When this happens, they begin losing confidence in their skills and themselves. When a player loses their confidence it can be a physical killer to their game! Regaining that confidence can be difficult! Regaining and maintaining starts by figuring out what the actual problem in their game is. Fixing it and consistently beginning to see improvements.

We need to understand what Hockey IQ encompasses and begin being a student of the game. There are so many things we can do to become a “SMARTER” hockey player on the ice, we just need to be coached to do so. Consistently be surrounded by it, talking about it with others. Stop just “watching” hockey and begin “studying the game”. This really is the most important skill a player can possess and in my experience coaching the one that gets the least amount of attention! In Practice we teach shooting, passing, skating, game play, Special Teams, Odd man rushes, breakouts. All are INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, but without the GOLD NUGGET all of your private lessons, camps, stick time hours, practices will not culminate into you being the best hockey player you can be! You will always be lacking that “X-factor”.

Now that You know this Gold Nugget, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to continue scrolling through your social feeds, sending snaps to your buddies, or are you going to go start figuring out how to improve this skill? I mean it’s up to you, it’s always up to you! Do you want to get better, earn the minutes on the ice, the extra Power Play time, be out there when the game is on the line and the goalie is pulled looking for that tying goal? Are you going to be riding the bench, and be okay with the minutes you are getting?

If you want to be apart of something more, learn these skills, and be coached by someone who wants to help you improve every facet of your game from your speed, strength and shot to helping you learn the habits of fueling your body properly? What about how to be more productive? How to handle stress whether its from hockey or school or girls or friends and family? If you want to be apart of a community of other hockey players sharing sick goals, nice plays or helping each other learn the game together!

Click the link below, fill out the application and let’s see if you would be a good fit to work with us!

CLICK HERE TO APPLY HERE

Good luck this season!
Look forward to hearing from you soon!

Coach Mike