Stand Out Players

Sometimes these kids can really come out and surprise you. Watching them practice, you can evaluate them in many ways. Who are the fastest skaters, the best stick handlers or the hardest shooters? How well do they listen, and how quick do they pick up the skills that are taught? But something that often escapes notice is how much heart the player has.

The players that generally stand out the most are those who have that raw talent, those that seem to skate effortlessly around the opposition, .

We had only our second game yesterday and the player who stood out the most on the ice, wasn't one of these. It's only his first year playing ice hockey, and you can tell. Though he still may be a little unsteady on his skates, he stood out for another reason altogether. Not a player who you would think would show up on the score sheet four times, but he managed a pair of goals and another pair of assists. What he lacked in practiced skill, he more than made up for in energy and aggressiveness.

Seeing him at the first practice, you would have seen one of the weaker players on the team, but I'm fairly confident that by the end of the season, he may show quite differently. He was tenacious, seldom giving up on the puck, even if the opposing player was bigger and faster. He played smart, looked for openings and was constantly skating hard. This is the definitely the type of player that makes it fun to coach.

He wasn't the only player on our team who played hard, which is one of the main reasons why we won the game 5 -3, against a bigger and what seemed to be a more skilled team. The boys wanted the puck, and weren't afraid to work for it. They made some nice passes in front of the net, and even popped in a short-handed goal.

There are few things more exciting for a coach than to walk into an energy filled dressing room after a well fought win. It builds great confidence in the kids, and although not every game can be a win like that, I expect plenty more to come.