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.