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Something out of the Ordinary
Shift
to Shift
Period
to Period
Game to
Game
Day to
Day
Year to
Year
I sent
this message to a group of young players that I have been
mentoring. Thought you would like to read it because you, your staff
and players are all, "Something out of the ordinary" in your own
way. Feel free to use it with your players as you see fit. I told
them:
I've
been fortunate to watch you train and play for a while now. Let's
start by saying I'm extremely proud of the way you have handled
everything to date.
I've seen you go beyond our regular requirements for training @ our
camp and/or I'm aware of your other commitments to training.
The
challenge has just begun. I've been witness to you making plays when
plays are not there on some nights. I've also seen you make a
better play when a simpler play was an option. All great players do
this.
The
more you train, the more you make plays, the more there is @ stake
for you and your career. This is a good thing. Once you do
something of this nature, out of the ordinary, the stakes rise.
There is a whole lot more @ stake every time you hit the ice.
"Doing something out of the ordinary" should be the goal of every
player each and every shift.
This
is the game of hockey. This is what special players have learned, or
will have to learn, to live with every day of their careers when
their game goes to another level and they show you that glimpse of
excellence. Sidney, Evgeny and Marc-Andre started living this way @
a very young age. Others on the team are about to experience the
same thing or have begun the process. Ryan Malone, Ryan Whitney,
Kristopher Letang, Colby Armstrong, Maxime Talbot, Jordan Staal,
Tyler Kennedy and Erik Christensen are all experiencing this @ the
NHL level. Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts have been through it and got
better every day since junior hockey.
My
wish and advice is to embrace this opportunity created by your
talents and the will to exceed others' expectations. Be ready, be
smart, be prepared to be better every night you step on the ice. If
there is a bump in the road, accept it and put it behind you. All
the great ones have the courage, composure and confidence to do
that. They expect to make great plays and they expect to win making
those plays. They possess the unique skill of validating and
anointing themselves regardless of opinions and evaluations of
others. They have the charisma to raise the bar in any setting
and have great communication skills. You know when they walk in to a
room.
I
can remember calling Ryan Malone and saying, "Don't ever be
satisfied until you are in the upper 5% of the league." I still have
that same feeling. I recently told him, "Maybe we should lower that
percentage number. Are you up to it?"
We
drafted Kelly Miller in 9th round (183 overall) for the New York
Rangers in 1982. When Kelly ask me what he can do to get better @
our training camp in the Brainerd Lakes Area, my reply was that
simple, "Try to do something out of the ordinary every shift." He
lived by that motto, played fifteen (15) years and had the
communication skills to be a captain in the NHL. The New York
Rangers regret that trade and the Washington Capitals got a player
who had the charisma, courage, composure, confidence and character
to anoint and validate himself regardless of other opinions and
evaluations.
We
interviewed him to play for the San Jose Sharks after his stint with
the Caps near the end of his career. I asked him what he did to have
a solid career in the NHL. His reply was, "I tried to do something
out of the ordinary every shift of every game I played."
The
more I watch games the more I'm convinced of the importance of
players with unique skills to overachieve in those unique
skills. They need to be hitting on all cylinders, and sharing the
puck when it should be shared, to maximize their team's potential.
The plays from the back end are especially important because they
start everything. However, I don't know how many times I see some
player make a dynamic rush and finish by just throwing the puck in
to the slot with no receiver available to catch it.
"Errant passes
in the slot are the easiest breakouts in Hockey."
The more I
watch hockey, the more I see the outstanding players carrying a puck
until they have no where to go with it. If every player switches
over to a give and go game; sharing the puck unconditionally, they
will have a chance to play @ the highest possible level related to
their will and skill. The team usually goes like the better players
go.
Everyone is
trying to emulate the better players.
Coaches can
believe anything they want, but players are just as likely to get
better because of the better players as they will because of a
coach. They need a mix of both and a healthy dose of both. In one
case their sub-conscious mind emulates what they see every day and
the other case they learn from their mistakes and dialogue from the
coaching staff. The sub-conscious mind will emulate all the good it
sees. Each player will get better in each category if every player
overachieves in their asset categories.
It all comes
down to "believing what we see versus what we hear". We will all
retain more of what we see and do than what we hear. Seeing and
doing has a bigger impact on retention than hearing.
The best report
I've written about any player in my 28 years goes like this: "He
passes when he should pass, he shoots when he should shoot and he
carries the puck only if he has no other option; all the time
looking to give it for one good reason; to get it back." It is
human nature to want to handle the puck. The great ones are thinking
about who they can give the puck to before it hits their stick.
Handling the puck is something that is natural to them and not
something they are thinking about as the puck is coming to their
stick.
My wish for
every team, when I see them @ different times during the season, is
to be able to say,
"I like your
team a heck of lot more than I did a month ago. They have a team
game that is tough to beat and they will all improve because of it."
-ole gringo- |
