Why Hockey Goals Are Scored

I have an awesome video to show members today. To most observers, I'm sure it's seen as a highlight kind of flick, with the chance for viewers to marvel at all the great goals. Of course, I'm different than most -- I immediately start thinking like a coach, and I begin wondering something. I mean, as fascinating as some of the offensive moves are, I couldn't help thinking, "Why hockey goals are scored?"

-- Dennis Chighisola

Why Hockey Goals Are Scored

Okay, before I get going, I'll offer the following video for my members' amusement. For sure, it does demonstrate some awesome moves by many NHL players... http://coachchic2.s3.amazonaws.com/BarSouthNCelly%E2%84%A2-1.mp4 Now, although that had to be fun to watch -- and it was for me, too, it's time I get us back to the title question... Ya... Why hockey goals are scored? Hmmmmmmmm... If you haven't done so already, I'd really like members to rerun that video again, this time watching it from the defensive side. Actually, if you're a coach like me, you might start getting a little sick to the stomach as you do. In fairness to the goal-scorers, they made plenty of great moves. And, as the best of the best usually do, most of the goal-scorers in that video kinda mesmerized defenders into doing things that don't want to do. Ugh.

I grabbed the pic to the right as an example of what I'm talking about. Actually, all three players -- the puckcarrier and the two defenders have their eyes down and they're looking at the puck. And, while that might get the attacker killed, focusing too much on the puck ought to get the defenders permanent seats on the bench. Don't get me wrong: it's okay for a defender to use split vision to simultaneously poke at the puck. What one can't do is only focus down on the puck, thus looking foolish.

In yet another screenshot I happened to capture, the last defender is getting turned inside-out and backwards, having initially looked down at the puck. You'll have to go back and watch the video (at the .43 mark) to see how badly that defenseman really looked. What that play really amounts to is three white defenders not doing a single thing to prevent a lone attacker from scoring the goal.

If there's something I'm trying to get across here, it's that we should watch exciting goals from both perspectives. For sure, I love wild puckhandlers, and I've spent a lifetime developing hundreds (or maybe thousands) of them in my skills programs. On the flip side of the coin, however, I kinda know why hockey goals are scored, and I almost always know that someone has created a major defensive mistake in order to allow the goal-against.

In yet another freeze frame, we catch three defenders out-manning two attackers, and still ending up on the short end of things. If you recall, the dark attacker here walks away from the crowd, then comes right back to rip a wrister through a screen and into the net. In each case -- this one and in many others in the video, the defenders could have grabbed their own man, and shut down the attack.

In all honesty, a few of the goals scored in that video didn't show an obvious guilty party. Still, most of them did. In fact, the few goals I chose to highlight just above were pretty representative of most others -- defenders had their eyes down, they focused mainly on the puck, thus leaving themselves vulnerable to looking foolish. Anyway, I want to once again echo something I said above, in that we ought to study offensive players, and try to isolate the things that help the best goal-scorers do what they do so well. At the same time, try to study as much as possible, ask yourself why hockey goals are scored, and know that that's a biggie with us coaches.