Credit to John Riley for sending me this clip illustrating how the Rangers are winning draws at a 76% clip.
https://x.com/nhlnetwork/status/1729862796610093295?s=42&t=UZywpL6ww_RDsVyxFthItQ
So simple— low hanging fruit for the taking..
Hacks
“They’re ain’t no hacks. You misunderstand that then you have a real problem.” -David Goggins @ minute 59
https://youtu.be/nDLb8_wgX50?si=pV4g-O9ABgdwp1kC
The longer we accept players playing crooked the longer we give them an incomplete and confusing learning curve.
The community decides whether we create a game of laws or a game of men for future players to grow into (paraphrasing Marbury v Madison).
“Most people are good enough so that they don’t go wrung after wrung.” -Andrew Huberman @ 1 hour mark
Circling
From Jerry Lynch and the Way of Champions I inherited the idea of making circles with teams. Off the ice in the room players stand beside each other on the same level creating what exists in the middle the culture and values and group identity. And by the defense of the Boston bruins play these days it’s clear we’re growing ever closer to the five man unit play. So I thought of the interesting symmetry that could exist between the circle exercise off the ice and a circle attack on the ice where players follow each other in an ever evolving circular pattern attempting to either create or disrupt successful plays based on time and space, their teammates and opponents.
But my intuition goes further to invite a spiral structure instead certainly on the defensive side to shrink the space given and coordinate with teammates the creation of some decentralized autonomous organization where players have the utmost autonomy to cooperate and improvise. We see spirals in nature. They are built into the fabric of reality and if hockey is a game to learn about life and prepare wonderful players for play in all realms then a spiraling reflects the fundamental flowing structure of the game and creates natural thinking patterns for players to adapt to.
Checkers
Without two ways Hockey becomes checkers. Hat tip to my friend Ryan Shannon for this one.
I wonder if the game’s environment engenders a certain harshness that caps the delicacy we can bring to the game? I like to think— NO!
Common Way
From two ways can we adopt one? A common way along a common line.
Can and can't do
Sportsnet "What Kris Knoblauch can, and can't, do to turn around the Oilers' season"
In this article I found nice language that illustrates some gameplay realities..
“I am concerned, though, that the amount of "systems" discussions these days had led some fans to believe that the role these systems have in the outcome of games is more impactful than it really is.
In some sports the “systems,” or the “tactics,” or the “strategy” that comes from the coach are nearly as impactful as the team’s roster. In the NFL, players run very specific offensive plays via routes, where some guys are asked to operate like figures in bubble hockey tracks. In basketball, plays can be run with every possession and all five bodies can contribute something to the execution of getting a good look at the basket.
Hockey is so free-flowing though, with so many random bounces, that its “systems” are so often referred to as “structure” for a reason. They’re guidelines to eliminate those moments where players are caught between two choices and the worst possible outcome isn’t selecting the wrong option, it’s hesitating.
You don’t hear the term “structure” as much in other sports. Hockey is such a quick-twitch instant-reaction sport that you often don’t have time to look up and make a thoughtful play, so the best thing the team can provide for you is: in this type of scenario, here is where my teammates should roughly be. That allows you to blindly bang the puck off the boards to where a teammate is supposed to be, or flip it up the middle, depending on the situation.”
The two choices the author hints are the two ways.. Interesting he mentions in game scenarios where one not having enough time to make a thoughtful play is left with banging the puck off the boards or flipping the puck in the middle— two gross, wildly insufficient team plays. Please see these occasions as gaps or shortcomings in team play with the individual player communicating through body language— I’m afraid of the moment, all the other subscribed solutions have failed and aren’t available so please let me terminate play so that my status as a serviceable team player remains. Let me stop play, don’t let me create hockey as a richer refinery for human development and error. Hockey is the end.
Is the game’s purpose to win or to grow and share something common along lines that mirror finer realms of human excellence?
Day of the Dead
It was the Day of the Dead yesterday. I went to look up the significance of the holiday and came upon the idea of syncretism. Syncretism is the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different schools of thought, cultures, or religions.
I can’t help but see hockey as some combination of, as I have written before, the physical contact of American football, the turn-taking of baseball with the marksmanship of archery, the cooperation of soccer with the generosity of basketball, all built on the deftness of tightrope walking. These all relate to physical elements of the game.
Going deeper through the lens of tightrope walking we are most apt to understand Smushkin’s hockey agility. The variety of arm movements without stick exemplify the balancing act that is performed by our hands at most if not all moments. This act is simply crippled by the game today.
Walking on a tight rope requires total momentary organization with an imagination for the next moments. Thus the most dangerous and joyful hockey game will arise when players accept through their hands, as well as impose by their hands, the tightrope that we accept beneath our feet. If the goal is to walk successfully from one end of the tightrope to another, can a tightrope walker ever hold or force one step in particular without sacrificing this goal? Transforming a particular step into the goal sacrifices synchronizing the successful walk.
Modern Dreamers
“Certain modern dreamers say that ants and bees have a society superior to ours. They have, indeed, a civilization; but that very truth only reminds us that it is an inferior civilization. Who ever found an ant-hill decorated with the statues of celebrated ants? Who has seen a bee-hive carved with the images of gorgeous queens of old?” Chesterton’s Orthodoxy p.267
The reflective instinct is the edge of dignity. The contours of the game are aligned then. A reflective element in player ability is the highest form of cooperation and competitiveness. It pushes the game to the furthest arc of its development.
Agere Contra
https://youtu.be/90gP3d-K920?si=mnRlQzO6QKugMccg
Bishop Barron mentions agere contra as acting against our attachments to do his will. The purposeful pursuit of playing and being played, sharing and growing. Then at minute 3:25 he mentions Aristotle’s concept of entelechy, of a stick bent in one direction— Aristotle believes the entelechy of humans is we naturally want to be knowledgeable and social.
Two Way hockey agility adopts sticks bent in either direction, coinciding like clockwork, and then ultimately straight to create the furthest and finest development curve for ice hockey players and the game.
songwriting
“I’m working within my art form. It’s that simple. I work within the rules and limitations of it. There are authoritarian figures that can explain that kind of art form better to you than I can. It’s called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it… I’m not going to limit what I can say. I have to be true to the song. It’s a particular art form that has its own rules. It’s a different type of thing.” -Bob Dylan
Ed Reed vs Paton Manning
Piggy backing off of my last post with Deion Sanders here is an interesting video about opponent processing from two NFL greats.
https://youtu.be/GQrZKveWgOk?si=FTeypultXzQVsVAx
Thought processes and game richness in hockey can be enhanced by more reflection individually to overcome the forcefulness that handicaps the game at this moment. Thanks, Harry, for pointing me to spirit over strength and power.
Deion Sanders
As a two way player he spoke to being better on offense having played defense and being better on defense for having played offense. He knew the intricacies of the positions more. There’s something essential about this reflective element one can develop.
https://youtu.be/8Z8244-TWKQ?si=-BrrK-NWplcj6UbV
Common sense
Is there a deep common sense in hockey that’s shared with other sphere’s of life?
Are there alignments in play that create a coherent intertextuality so players may enrich themselves with natural knowledge and go on to fortify communal linchpins? Or do the dynamics in hockey operate in a vacuum only known by those who ‘know’ the game.
Is this not the essence of the team concept we so dearly, ardently stride out to create common ties that bind teammates? There is something deeper in hockey worth sharing. It’s not be coveted though it is at the moment.
Accurate translation
“Communication is a prerequisite to problem-solving and one of the most fundamental skills in life. Communication can be defined as mutual understanding. The main problem in communication is the translation problem: translating what we mean into what we say, and translating what we say into what we mean. The first challenge, therefore, is to learn to say what we mean; the second challenge is to learn to listen so that we understand what others mean. The key to ‘accurate translation’, or effective two-way communication is high trust. You can communicate with someone you trust almost without words, you can even make mistakes in verbal communication and still find that they get your meaning. But when the trust level is low you’ll find it that it really makes little difference how hard you try to communicate, how good you are in technique, how clear your language is. When trust is high communication is easy, effortless instantaneous, and accurate. When trust is low communication is extremely difficult exhausting and ineffective. The key to communication is trust and the key to trust is trustworthiness. Living a life of integrity is the best guarantee of maintaining the climate of effective communication. As with all natural processes, there are no shortcuts, no quick fixes.” From Principle Centered Leadership by Covey p138
Acceptance
You either believe in the fundamental ingenuity that lies within the human spirit or you think Hockey can only be played by a single handedness. I am not an anomaly, I am not special.
https://twitter.com/rainmaker1973/status/1675171710096556033?s=46&t=lM2Qyveu4tQ_jpyf4SzQwQ