The Coyotes have a tradition of when they make the playoffs that fans should come dressed in white. I was so excited to attend that I went out and got some extra white clothes and hats to insure I was in the spirit. We left early to try and enjoy the crowd, only to get slowed by rush hour traffic. Once we got there, the crowd was mostly decked out in white! We had the usual Red Wing fans show up, but the Coyote crowd definitely outnumbered them! Standing in the arena just before the puck was dropped and scanning the sea of white is an awesome sight. I wonder what goes through the players minds when they see that from ice level. For me it demonstrated that true hockey fans in Phoenix can support their team.

As far as the game goes. It was a very well played game by both teams. Having the Coyotes winning game one was icing on the cake. Having the Coyote fans drowning out the Red Wing fans every time they started to cheer, priceless. Having the power play get then three goals, awesome. I just they were saving up the power play goals all season till the playoffs. In the third period, the attendance came out – a sellout! Lastly, having the announcement that the Glendale City Council voted to redo the lease – only means that the Coyotes are staying. The moons were aligned last night.

This season has been a good one. The team has come together to really delivered. Next step is winning this series.. Taking the step farther than any Phoenix Coyotes team has done. I want to attend a game in the second round of the playoffs.. Then the Western Conference Championship series… Attending a Stanley Cup finals came is on my all time to do list.. Could this be the year? I have coached for many years.. It is all one game at a time. Get better each and every game. Play hard and leave nothing when the game is over.

Keep playing strong!

The playoffs have been set, the pairings are getting ready to play. Below is a picture of the pairings for the first round. Pick away…

I would like to see what people think..

 Who do you have going all the way? NCAA bracket is cool that you see the complete picture to the finals.. But, with the NHL we get reseeding after each round! This makes getting to the winner all the more harder. Give it a try. What are your predictions? 

My predictions..

• East – Caps, Devils, Buffalo, Pens – Staying with the favorites. Next round East – Pens will upset the Caps. Buffalo will beat the Devils (go complete upset). Out of the East for Champs – Pens.. They will go back to the Stanley Cup.
• West – West – Sharks, Blackhawks, Vancouver and Red Wings. Next Round – Wings will upset San Jose. Vancouver will be Blackhawks – Goaltending the only difference. Coming out of the West – Vancouver.
• Disclaimer – I will be cheering loudly for the Coyotes! I do hope that they make my predictions of the West null and void.
• Lord Stanley’s Cup will be hoisted by the Vancouver Canucks. Nothing like going out on a limb.

image from Coach via Flickr

For most youth hockey teams you have reached or just past the halfway point of the season. What does that mean to you?

As a coach is it time to take a short break and look back on the season:

• Reviewed your progress to your goals.
• Reset your course to set up the upcoming playoffs (everyone loves a champion).
• Changed or modified your practice plans based on the overall team progress
• Too early to worry now, but the season is almost over – and things are going to change. You will get your nights and weekends back. You will be staying closer to home. Many worries will be off your head. All of this, till next season.

As a player there are two paths.

• If the season is going well, you continue to look forward to every game and the upcoming playoffs. Winning and success make going to practice, dry land and the rink – fun. Everything is good!
• If the season is not going well, you try your darndest to continue to get better, continue to work as a team and fight through all of the negative feelings. Well, that is what the coach would say. For most players it becomes not fun. It is up to the coach and parents to continue to motivate and make fun the rest of the season.

For the parents, this is simple. Just keep on support your young athlete. Support comes in keeping a very positive outlook on all situation. Continue to challenge them to get better. Encourage and reward as much as possible.

The season is long. Right about now, most folks are more worried about when it is going to end. The travel, the practices, the games and the cold weather will be coming to an end. Focus has to remind with each element of the team (coaches, players and parents) in order to make the complete season a success.

I had a team that finished in last place in the regular season. We were struggling throughout the season. The players were trying, but some things just were not clicking. I changed up the practices and added some more fun activities – like soccer balls, tag and whatever else would have hockey skills in it. By the last week of the season, we started to be very competitive (wins – some). Playoffs hit – they were a double elimination tournament style. So, we kicked off the first game to the odds on favorites. We lost, but barely. Fought through the loser’s bracket to face the odds on favorites. This time it was not even close – we won the title (6-2). The moral of the story was – we all hung together (coaches, players and parents) and kept the right positive pressure in place. It worked.

Good luck the rest of the way!

I wrote some stuff that I thought could help!

• I mentioned that they needed to market better… I am very happy to say, that they have been better. Had some very low ticket prices, the all you can eat stuff and the television broadcasts have been pretty good.
• Putting a winner on the ice would help… They really have done that! Right now, they are fun to watch. Winning and having a winning attitude goes a long way. The Phoenix fans, really are bandwagon fans.
• Wayne Gretskey needed to reduce his role with the team… The league took care of that, once they took over ownership. Wayne was a great player and an outstanding ambassador of the game. As a coach, not so much. Dave Tippett has really done an outstanding job with the team. The players are playing hard, each and every night.

Anyone can armchair anything. It happens every Monday or late Sunday night during football season. I love the game of hockey! I have been active in it for well over 30 years. Did my words of wisdom really hit home? Probably not, but what I said back on May 28, 2009 – seems to have rang true. Maybe someday – I can be a general manager for a team? Well, probably not – I truly like being a fan.

Most people have moments in their life that they run into tough times. Something that just does not go the way that you had planned or hoped. My post today is about one such time that I have experienced and how I had to step up and deal with. As I have written many times, I find that sports and life lessons parallel well. This example is a very much that way. The other day, a co-worker was telling me about a situation they were having to deal with (their situation is private - so, no deals to share). As I was listening, I was thinking back to a situation that I could draw from to help make a point. When I was coaching high school hockey - I could really use this example as a way to demonstrate my experiences.

I was in my second year of head coaching, we had a very good team. In fact, it was a very special team for me. Special in ways that coaches just know! They worked extremely hard, played hard and were a team (on and off the ice). I really enjoyed being around these players. We had probably my best season as a coach as far as wins and losses go. We went deep in the playoffs. It was the semi final game, and we were facing the #1 team. My team had peaked at the right time, we were playing our best hockey and frankly we knew we were going to win. We were confident, but we also knew this was the #1 team we were facing. Confident because we dominated the #2 team. Nothing was going to be easy.

My pre-game pep talk was centered around all the hard work that they had done over the year. They were peaking at the right time! We have an extremely tough opponent. They had beaten us 2 times this season (4-0; 3-1). Each game was tough and we did okay. I centered everything on how they are better today then when we faced them. I truly believed it! Our team had developed and was performing better.

Puck drops, we are playing well! Both teams were in fact playing very well. Back and forth all first period. End of period one, 0-0. Same for the second period – another solid period of hockey, both sides. End of period 2, 1-1. In between the period, I am stressing that the best team will win this game. We are the best team, we knew it and we were going to show it. Fired up, the team goes out in the first 2 shifts and scores. Wow, 3-1 and we are on a roll. Down to the last 5 minutes and we are still ahead 3-1. Then all of a sudden the game changes! Old Mo left our side. With 10 seconds left, they scored their third unanswered goal.

What the hell had happened? We were in the driver seat and we lost it. Every player was down. Every parent in the stands was down. My coaches were down. I was in shock. After the game we shake hands and go off to the locker rooms. I have to step up and set an example for the players. Shoot they are 14-18 years… They probably think their world had ended. I have to use this as a lesson in life. I can not change the hurt, but I have to do something.

I walked into the locker room and the heads were down, tears in some of the players eyes and others just sitting there – lost. My coaches were standing there pretty much the same, minus the tears. As the door closes, all eyes are pointed to me. Time for me to step up!

My discussions started off with – this was probably my best season ever as a coach. I have to start by saying that every individual in this room made that happen for me. Am I disappointed with the outcome of this game? You bet! I really have to step up and take the blame for this one. I know I could have done things different and the outcome could have been different. What is important is that each of you had in my eyes a magical season. You don’t get this very often. You are special! Did we accomplish all of our goals? Realistically? Yes. We were the #5 team going into the playoffs. Does this hurt? Yes. The most critical thing to take away is how do you react to this… The possibilities are you can continue to focus on what was missed or what could have been… or you can bounce back. You can take this as a lesson and move forward. Life is going to fill you will ups and downs. You just have to make the best of every situation. The true measure of you as a person is going to be how you bounce back from the downs. I walked around to each player – we hugged or shook hands and I thanked them personally for the wonderful time I had. For the seniors that were leaving I wished them nothing but success in the future.

I am so thankful that I had the time with them. I am now retired from coaching. I still look at my time with each of my teams special. Each has given me lessons and times that I just can not forget. This team, gave me – one extra gift. The gift to bounce back! Did any of my teams go onto to win a state title? No. The life lessons that they gave me – were tools to teach them about life. To help me, with my own life. It is not always about the wins or losses…