The Ride to the Rink: 10 Ways to See the Ice Like a Pro: Situational Awareness in Youth Hockey

…especially in youth hockey, you can get lost in a zone or lost on one play that

created a goal, caused a goal, caused the problem, caused the penalty. And what we

want you to do as coaches is zoom out and see everything that led to a goal,

right? Because goals typically don't start right in the house. They end in the house

inside your own zone. Goals typically start at the other end of the ice or on a

blue line or something going wrong in the neutral zone and your ability as a hockey

player to see that is going to make you such a better hockey player to be aware

of that and again i'll just start with this example far blue line turnovers are

detrimental to every team in hockey we don't focus on this enough as coaches in my

opinion kids but the turnover at the far blue line the play that wasn't made

typically turns into a chance at the other end, right? And what do we do? We blame

the goalie? No, we don't blame the goal. We have to look at this as the five

players on the ice or the players on the ice at the time of the goal and what

went wrong. But take that macro view. And also, and I'm going to throw this to

Mike in a second, when you watch NHL highlights, which are wonderful.

I'm not telling you not to. It's great to see some of the best players in the

world make amazing plays. Just know, and this is not a guess kids there's a hundred

percent chance that play started way before the clip started okay with players who

understand how the 360 version of the ice was it 200 by 80 mic how that works

right because it's important to have that macro view mike your thoughts yeah i think

i think a lot a lot of us coaches will talk about like hockey IQ as part of that

but i i often you know with all players that i work with now i tend to you know

really fall more on like situational away

Yes, I have a really good chance of breaking down the boards. But situationally,

I might want to put that puck in a safe place and get off the ice and live

another day. That's where coaches go crazy. And that's where we want players to be

able to see, like, okay, I have to look at the bigger view of this game rather

than that small little five second mark. And it's our job as coaches to protect

you. Like we want to teach you that, okay, yes, I guess that would have been a

great play, but what if it's not? And if it's not, and you get a goal scored

against you, and so he says, well, you're on the ice for a minute and 40 seconds,

and you produce nothing offensively, and now you're a negative for us. So I think

that's where, you know, when players have to, you have to look at the bigger

picture and say, well, you know, how am I, by me doing this here,

it's helping my teammates here. And that's hard to do.

the words situational awareness. I'm actually jealous that I didn't think of that

before you did. It's 100 % correct, right? The ability to grow that skill set is

everything. And I'm going to, you gave such great examples here. I'm going to give

other examples, right, from from goaltenders all the way out, you know, goalies

sometimes playing the puck in a situation where they should freeze it, the

situational awareness of understanding, okay, this line's been out there for a minute

and 10 seconds and they need a change. But if you play it there, there's no

awareness there. And that is a macro view of the ice from a goaltending position.

Or there's just been five chances against you. Cover the puck. You got to understand

those situations. Here's another big one. The D rush up the ice, both of them,

right? And the forwards don't get back to cover or one of the two D should not

have rushed up with the other D. that's a great way to turn the puck over the

other end and get a shot against, right? And then from a forward standpoint, Mike,

I love the example you just brought up. I'm going one on three for no reason when

you should just dump the puck. All right, kids, I'm going to tell you, and we

coach a lot of youth hockey here, if you are able to break through a one on

three, I'm not going to lie to you. It's going to look awesome. And you're going

to look awesome. You might get a great shot on that. You might even score and get

a highlight for yourself. It happens one out of every 20 times for most kids.

The other 19 times, there's a bad turnover. And I'd say 50 % of those results in a

shot against.

It's not the right play. And your awareness of that or understanding you have

another player you can pass to or dump it in and go around everybody to not be,

and I remember you to remember this word, kids, to not be a liability is important.

Because when you get older, and when I say older, I mean kind of 14 and up and

the 14 year olds up listening to this probably are nodding. If you're a liability,

coach won't play it. We won't play it because we don't want liabilities on the ice.

Again, a liability is someone who's likely to make a mistake. That's what that word

means in hockey. Okay. okay you can practice not being a liability very early on in

your hockey career by making smart plays and not forcing plays that make no sense

mike said it too it's really hard you want to play you want to make those moves

you want to be a spectacular player we want you to be a spectacular player but but

there's a time and a place and you've heard it's like the mishy guys the mishy

it's not the shot every single shot. There's a very specific time when a Michigan

makes sense. And it's very, very, very rare.

You got to know when to do it. Go ahead, Mike. Yeah, it's why we look as coaches,

players, and we see, you know, you can say, well, I scored five goals today. Yeah,

but you were on the ice for seven. Yeah. So, again, so it's great that you're

scoring five. I love it. But you can't, But situationally, and just the macro view

of what the team is, sometimes we got to win games two to one. Sometimes we have

to, you know, dump a puck in on a breakaway because I'm at the end of my legs. I

can't move. And I have to understand that, yes, if I just get in the zone and I'm

stuck in there, my team now is on the defense. All I had to do is put that puck

behind somebody and we're starting to see it meaning you the nchl is a great um

you know petri dish for this and and and the look at this because they're learning

right the nchl players are now learning on that especially when you watch like three

on three uh overtime it's they now they that is the ultimate situational awareness

like oh i don't need to go in there like you'll you'll hear you know you'll see a

player down there the goal line and they'll skate out of the zone into their zone

and reset because they'll know they have two players on the ice that need to get

off. So it's all these, it's, it's, it's your job as you're evolving as a player

to understand that if I look at the bigger picture of a game, I can help my team

more by being a smarter player at the right times than just being an aggressive

player at the wrong times. Well, Mike, Mike, I'm not going to lie to you. I think

I put that. I'm sorry, you put that perfectly. I think you put that perfectly. And

this was a great little mini episode kids. Again, we're coaches. We're kind of

talking to as coaches right now. This isn't just mom and dad kind of yelling at

you. But start to learn to see the game from a macro point of view. Start to

understand that situational awareness is a major hockey skill that will make us as

coaches put you on the ice. We look for those kids that can read the play all

right and and understand too highlights are great we're not telling you not to have

a lot of fun out there but understand the skill sets here of situation awareness

and where that plays in your game all right kids that's going to do it for this

edition of the ride to the rink uh remember no matter where you're at in your

hockey journey we believe in you you should too have fun skate hard and get better

we'll see you on the next episode of the ride to the rink take care everybody You

know,