Deep In A Tier 3 Hockey Coaches Thought
Wednesday March 11th 2020. I was sitting inside of a bar having a beer, and thinking about the upcoming playoff series we had coming up that weekend against the Yellowstone Quake. A match-up that wasn’t desired in my eyes as they are coached very well, work very hard, and handed us two of our 8 losses last season. We were coming fresh off of an emotional weekend against Sheridan where we clinched the Frontier Division title, and the boys were HOT. I can’t take any credit for the way they were playing, I thought that I had done my best to prepare them for the teams we were playing, game plans, and the systems we were going to run. However, in junior hockey there’s one single word that can make the X’s and O’s, the systems, and the game plans almost irrelevant. The word I’m referring to is said all the time in junior hockey locker rooms but there’s a different feeling in the air when you actually mean it. “Buzzing”. And boy oh boy were we…
My thought process from a coaching standpoint towards the end of the year was really to stay out of the way, don’t make drastic changes, but truly only hound and focus on one real thing. Team defense was my thing. We were very run and gun, and didn’t take care of our defensive zone at times which was frustrating from a coaching perspective. All of a sudden, we found ourselves “buzzing”, we didn’t give up a 5 on 5 goal in 8 hockey games. We closed the year out strong with a frontier division regular season title, and the boys were “buzzing” into playoffs. At this point we felt pretty untouchable, give us the fucking Tampa Bay Lightning and we’ll “find a way”. As a group we were all so laser focused on our one goal of going to the silver cup and bringing it back to Bozeman, it was a workman’s type of effort. Day in and day out just chipping away at a piece of marble that would eventually become our league championship.
At The Bar Again… Thinking
My first glimpse back to the real world was Wednesday March 11th 2020, COVID-19 was just on the brink of taking over the nation. I was sitting at the bar with a beer in my hand and the NBA came out with the news to postpone their season. Initially I disregarded the news and went back to thinking about our playoff series, and my beer. It took me about 5 minutes to snap out of it and really start thinking about the repercussions that this could have on our season. It took all of 2 days from March 11th for the COVID-19 pandemic to completely shut down our season, and the nation as a whole.
It Was Devastating
Our entire hockey team basically came back into the real world after “buzzing” for weeks and grinding our way meticulously to our final goal. The age-outs were faced with the harsh reality that their junior hockey experience was over and there was nothing they could do about it. The rookies were feeling like they had a year of their hard work stolen from them. We had all worked so hard and overcame so much adversity as a group just to have it cancelled by something out of our control.
I spent a good amount of time feeling sorry for myself throughout the early stages of quarantine… It wasn’t until my girlfriend finally said to me “guess what, everyone’s losing something here” that I once again snapped back to reality.
Back At It
It was a long summer, and not a normal one for a junior hockey coach. Our normal escape of being able to go and recruit in person and connect with other coaches was taken from us for the early part of the summer. Things eventually started taking shape and a “new normal” was accepted by most of us around the country. Now here we are. Mid-September and gearing up for a season of junior hockey. I think all players and coaches alike right now are nervous, anxious, and most importantly excited for the challenges that this year brings. Embracing the “new normal” that we currently live in, and the hurdles that it poses for a junior hockey program. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. We’re just trying to find that feeling in late February right before playoffs hits, that the boys are “buzzing”.
