The Inside Post

Playing defense in hockey may not be as glamorous as their goal-scoring forward teammates, but is a critical position at all levels of play. Those who can master the position provide their team with a significant competitive advantage by shutting down scoring opportunities and controlling field position. In this week's article, our founder Lance Pitlick shares some of his observations from his years as a NHL defenseman, and shares his top-5 tips for how to be successful defenseman. 

While the spotlight usually finds the goal-scorer, the truly great players are also outstanding passers, both to move the puck and to create opportunities for others. Just with other skills development, becoming an effective passer takes both hockey IQ and repetitions on-ice and at home so that you can find your teammates' tape when it matters. Coach Lance takes us through four tips to becoming a dominant passer in this week's article.   

Looking for the perfect hockey gift for the aspiring D1 player in your family? We have a range of products for all ages, and for all budgets. As the 20-year market leader in home hockey training, we pride ourselves on offering products that are durable, provide great training benefits, and are simply fun to use. 

Whether you serve as captain on your team, or are a third line grinder, everyone has the ability to apply leadership skills to positively influence team culture and level of play of those around them in a positive way. In this week's article, we dive deeper into five such leadership characteristics that are common of great hockey leaders.

Hockey is a game of possession. A considerable amount of practice time is dedicated to passing and puck control, which is important to be sure. But nearly as important for many players is knowing the best ways to take the puck away, and the tilt the time of possession back in your team's favor. We review four top techniques to steal the puck in this week's article.

Investing time to learn new skills is an essential part of personal growth. And with the learning of any new technique, such as a stickhandling move, there will undoubtedly make mistakes. This is a good thing. Mistakes are signals that let you know forward progress is taking place. Instead of getting frustrated and abandoning the drill, challenge yourself to think like an elite player and become determined to conquer the issue. Learn from the mistake, make the adjustment, and go again. Soon the mistakes get fewer and fewer, and before long they’ve developed mastery of the new skill.

Every hockey player has different motivating factors for playing the game. For many, the answer could be for love of the game, to have fun with friends, and/or to be active, which are all perfectly good reasons! Those committed to becoming elite athletes, however, have other personality traits in common that motivate them on their hockey journey, which we explore further in this week's article.

For those committed to becoming elite hockey players, game day preparation isn't just the 4-5 minutes of on-ice warm-up time right before a game. These players are shooting pucks and refining stickhandling skills at home to build confidence and muscle memory, so they can simply read and react in a game situation.   

Years ago we stumbled across the following graph, published by Ontario Minor Hockey Association, with original stats compiled by Stats LLC over then-recent NHL seasons, entitled “The Science of Scoring”. ...

In this week's article, we discuss how playing with passion and persistence (i.e. grit) is the secret to outstanding achievement.

Learning from some of the best goalies over the last 30 years, Coach Lance breaks down four critical tactics for how you can keep the goalie guessing and score more goals.

Most players want the big prize, but are unwilling to put the time in to obtain it.  It takes years of grinding it out at practices, as well as off-ice stick handling and shooting, hockey camps and clinics. Earning the right to have an opportunity for a big moment requires patience and persistence. This week we revisit a classic fishing story told by Coach Lance with the perfect parallel to hockey training.