Thursday, May 13, 2010

Montreal and the Penguins

Wow watching last nights games I was sure that Montreal could not win another game 7 on the road, but they did it again and were the better team. Pittsburgh came out so flat in the 1rst period as if they felt they could just show up and win the game. As goal after goal got scored against them there just did not seem to be any urgency. Finally in the second period they started to play like NHL champions and after cutting the lead 4-2 Montreal looked like they were faltering. But both teams played even in the third period, and so Montreal won. As a hockey fan I am exciting on several levels, having a Canadian team in the mix, and having a shot at having 3 of the Original 6 teams in the conference finals, if Boston can beat Philly. However for the growth of hockey for casual and non-fans this was a debacle. No Crosby, No Ovechkin, and a Canadian team means bad ratings for the NHL. Montreal seems to be a team of destiny this year, and I am also glad that a new team will be in the finals, no more RedWings or Penguins, which is also a good thing.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Montreal defeats the Capitals

It is still amazing to me that Montreal defeated Washington. Ovechkin is a great player, but he does not seem to elevate the play of his team mates the way Sidney Crosby does. But for everyone to rap him as the reason the Capitals loss, seems wrong to me. It just seems to me it all came down to goaltending, and letting in 2 goals on 16 shots seems to be where to look.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

NHL Advertising

The NHL has some decent ads finally, to highlight the critical moments of the playoffs, called History will be made, you can check it out on Youtube. But some of the best ads are made by NHL fans as a parody, check out Puck Daddy's Blog for some of the best.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Ovechkin vs Crosby

Tonight Ovechkin plays Crosby tonight and as two of the best players/hated players/loved players in the NHL it is a great thing.

In the early 80s the NBA finals were on tape delay and the NBA was not really the big business sport it is today. Two players Magic Johnson and Larry Bird changed they way the game was seen and brought the game to the mass audience. The NBA used the Magic/Bird rivalry to build awareness and public interest in their game.

The NHL should do the same with Crosby and Ovechkin, two great young players who polarize hockey fans. They seemed to be loved or hated, but everyone seems to have chosen a feeling about the two.

This game between the Penguins and the Capitals should have prime time exposure, and the NHL marketing team should really be pushing this game.

Hockey players are great ambassadors of the sport, and the NHL should be doing a media blitz to grow the exposure of the league.

We had momentum from the NHL players in the Olympics, and that should have been used to continue to keep hockey in the minds of the public.

It just seems something needs to change to get hockey out of just being a niche sport with a small amount of fans.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Hockey a Crime

So there was finally a nice day in Canada, and a dad decided to play street hockey with his son. Well imagine his surprise when he was fined $75 for playing street hockey. I guess technically it was because of a noise complaint, but I am shocked this happened in Canada of all places. He is fighting the fine. Here is the story from CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/03/23/montreal-street-hockey-fine.html#ixzz0j1J2ewtA

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Off Season Strength Training

Now that the hockey season is coming to an end, players need time for their mind and body to recuperate from being on the ice. By doing dryland training and weight training, the youth hockey players can still build up their body and skills without getting burned out on the sport.

The Hockey Share blog put up a good post giving some reasons why this is important.

www.hockeyshare.com/blog/comments-thoughts/allowing-post-season-recovery-time



The American Developmental model wants to build athletes first, and hockey players second.

http://www.admkids.com/


We have developed our summer camps so that players can do the nutrition, weight training and hockey skills that keeps it fun, and builds athletic skills.

www.lagunahockeyacademy.com/camps_clinics

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Summer Training

We want to make sure that we do not burn out our Youth Hockey Players over the summer, depending on their age you need to have them not just play hockey leagues year round. We want them to play hockey because they want to, and it is fun for them, not because we push them as adults. The American Developmental Model from USA Hockey address age specific training, and how we should develop athletes first, and then hockey players.

http://www.admkids.com

Here is an amusing post on the subject by Mike Boyle from StrengthCoach.com

http://mboyle1959.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/summer-training-for-nine-year-olds/

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

NHL and TV

After the great buzz generated for hockey generated by having NHL players in the olympics, two things are certain. First despite the 2 week shutdown, the exposure that hockey and the NHL players got because of the olympics was worth the league shutdown. In a world of stars, getting new people to learn about Ryan Miller is huge. People learn the well known athletes of a sport and then follow the sport, look what Tiger Woods did for golf. So the NHL must send its players to the olympics.

Second after perhaps one of the greatest hockey games in quite a while for the gold medal game, many people who were not hockey fans or casual fans wanted to watch some more hockey games. The NHL needs to fix this by getting a contract with a major network to broadcast games. Versus has been great, but it is not easily available to many homes. Second, the fact that Versus cannot be watched on Directv means that people with the largest satellite TV provider cannot watch hockey on Versus. Someone in the NHL needs to step up and resolve this dispute between Versus and Directv. It would be a shame to lose all this goodwill, and interest in hockey. In a fast paced world, the gold medal game will be forgotten by the general public who move on to something else, and a great opportunity will be lost.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

2 on 2 hockey

Great article in USA Hockey magazine by Harry Thompson http://www.usahockey.com/Template_Usahockey.aspx?NAV=TU_02_01_05&id=279990 about the benefits of 2 on 2 hockey for having fun and developing skills. Doing drills all the time can get repetitive or boring, but by playing games in a competitive setting lets you improve your skills and have fun, which is one of the most important things for hockey. How else can you scramble for pucks, go after rebounds, and work on your stick handling and shooting and get significant puck touches. We are having a 2 on 2 Adult skills games at our facility for just this reason.
Check out the link http://www.lagunahockeyacademy/Original6

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Protecting Hockey Players from their skates

The Orange County Register has an article by Curtis Zupke about developing a material to protect hockey players. One of our local hockey players Kozo Shimano is working on a material to reduce hockey injuries. There have been a number of freaky accidents involving player's skates. He has a material that is slash resistant, is washable, and can be used to make a players socks. Of course even if it is fully developed, Reebok has an agreement with the NHL to make all socks that the players wear. And most players would probably not want to put on another piece of equipment on, especially one that is heavy like this one is. So we will see how this develops, and hopefully something can be worked out to protect hockey players from their skate blades.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Burke and the Ducks

Well Brian Burke keeps getting the players types he likes in Toronto, by grabbing them or trading with the Ducks. It will be interesting to see if JS Giguere reunited with his goalie coach can reproduce the success he had taking the Ducks to the Stanley Cup. JS just does not seem to have the consistency that made him a premier goalie in the league. Sometimes a change of scenery helps all players involved in a trade, so maybe Blake who had been a bust in Toronto will pick up his game as well. If not the Ducks have their number one goalie in Hiller, and some salary cap relief they will need to resign Bobby Ryan.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Hockey Weekend across America

This weekend is Hockey weekend across America. Here is your chance to grow the sport that you love. Bring a friend to the rink, or come to our training center to try out the equipment. It is up to everyone who loves hockey to get new people to try the sport.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Does a goalie get better with more shots faced

An article by Alain Haché, Ph.D and Pierre P. Ferguson, M.Sc from the physics of hockey website discussed how a goalie does when faced with a lot of shots.

For a 20-30 shot game a goalie does not get weaker as he faces more shots, in fact the goalie's save percentage goes up the more shots he faces up to a certain number. So the question then becomes is it better for a team to let its goalie face more shots in order to have a higher save percentage? Well even though a goalie's save percentage from 20 shots to 30 shots increases by 0.007 percent; from their charting of the data 10 more shots means one more goal per game. So even though the percentage goes up so does the number of goals.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Science of Hockey

Here are some interesting facts about hockey from

The Physics of Hockey. Johns Hopkins University Press. (2002)



  • ... down to temperatures as low as -250 degrees Celsius, the ice surface contains a thin semi-wet layer and that's why pucks and skaters can slide on it so well? Without this layer, the friction of ice would be as large as most other materials, like concrete and asphalt.

  • ... when a player the size of Eric Lindros (240 lbs) skates at half his top speed and comes to a stop after having checked someone against the boards, the energy dissipated is enough to power an average household lightbulb for one minute?

  • ... when two average-size players collide in mid-ice, the impact can produce several thousand pounds of force?

  • ... a team that is on a losing streak tends to have a better chance of winning its next game than a team of similar strength that is on a winning streak?

  • ... while today's NHL best shooters can send the the puck no faster than 100 to 105 mph, Bobby Hull's slapshot was measured at 120 mph and his wristshot was clocked at 105 mph? Although he used heavier sticks than now permitted, Hull's ability was largely due to his strength and technique.

  • ... when a hockey player suffers a concussion, he becomes more sensitive to injuries from damage from subsequent blows to the head? And the effect is cumulative: the more hits, the greater the risk of permanent injuries.

  • ... a puck shot from the blue line at 100 mph will reach the net in 0.34 seconds? Although most people have reflexes slighlty faster than that, very few have the ability to anticipate the trajectory and move fast enough to make the save.

  • ... when a hockey player shoots from the blue line and score between the pad of the goaltender, the margin of error is only about 1 degrees of angle?

  • ... the fastest players in the NHL can skate at speed over 45 km/h?

  • ... more than 60% of the net can be sealed by a goalie's equipment that meets the NHL maximum size requirement?

  • ...the odds of a young hockey player to ever make it to the NHL is one in several thousands?

  • ... during a slapshot, the bending of the stick shaft and the contact with the ice allows for significantly greater speeds than otherwise possible?

Friday, January 22, 2010

Hockey Players Brains

Hockey players, when you die, do you mind donating your brain? Scientists are trying to determine the long term effects of multiple concussions suffered by hockey players during their years of playing. One of the questions scientists hope to answer is why female hockey players suffer more concussions that male players. Another concern is if repeated brain trauma increases the risk of dementia later in players lives. Young players have began wearing helmets with sensors so that scientists can gather data. It is estimated that players suffer up to 50 collisions in one game


The full article by Christie Nicholson can be found on scientific american. http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=hockey-and-concussions-09-12-08

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Key to Success for a Goalie

Live Science did an article about Canadian scientists finding the exact spots a goalie needs to watch to block a shot. Since a puck in flight moves too fast for the eye to track, where the goalie focuses his eye before taking action is crucial. Using headgear and cameras the scientists had the best goalies from Calgary schools face the best shooters on their team. 75% of the time elite goalies focused on the puck a full second before the shot. 25% of the time they focused on the ice in front of the stick, only 2% focused on the body of the shooter. Novice goalies tend to be looking all over the place and have a much lower save percentage. So focus training as well as technique can be incorporated into a goalie's training to improve their game. Here is a link to the full article.

http://www.livescience.com/health/061026_hockey_goalie.html

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Goalie top draft picks not so successful

Nice article on Hockey or Die on the lack of success when picking a goalie as a top draft pick.

success rate low



For the 9 top ten picks of goalie only 3 have played more than 500 games at the NHL level. So that makes the success rate only 33%. It does seem that hockey is not unique in this respect, as of the 43 first round quarterback picks by NFL teams only 13 have been successful for a rate of 30%.

What is weirder is even though the Canadian Major Jr league is heavily scouted, the success rate has not been that great, here is the chart from Hockey or Die

League# of Pickslt 100 100GP500+GPSuccess Rate
Major Jr.6611163959.1%
Everywhere Else34272573.5%

Monday, January 18, 2010

Birthdates and Hockey teams

There is a great article about how players with early birthdates in the year make up the majority of players on upper level hockey teams. This was also discussed in the American Developmental Model, how players who are late bloomers are not getting the chance to play on teams due to late in the year birthdates. So unless the system is fixed, if you have a late in the year birthday, you will not be playing higher level hockey.

Here is Rand Simons blog from Hockey News

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/30842-Rand-Simons-Blog-Canadas-age-system-must-be-fixed.html

Friday, January 15, 2010

What makes a great hockey instructor

Hi

During this blog I hope to interview various instructors in the hockey industry for tips and comments, and to find out what makes them a great hockey instructor. Whether they do dry land, ice, strength and conditioning, or a combination. Each coach strives to make a better hockey player, and to grow the sport of hockey. Using the new American Development Model http://www.admkids.com, the hockey player of the 21st century will help grow the success of hockey to unprecedented levels. Come check out our website http://www.lagunahockeyacademy.com, or become a fan of us on facebook.