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Yeah Nemesis! Here is a topic we can agree on. My kid was never a "goal scorer", but did have a fairly successful career as a d-man with a great +/-, perfect tape-to-tape passes and rarely lost a battle on the boards. Always towards the bottom of the stats list after Peewee's (that when he realized he had a role to play on the team, which was skating it coast-to-coast and shooting). A lot of times when people came calling on him I was always surprised because of his lack of goals, but every coach pointed out (just like you did), there is more to this game than scoring goals. Great post, thanks

I would agree that pihl teams don’t seem to always play their best players for whatever reason (first you have to get them to join the team). Tier 1 kids get frustrated watching a dman think he’s Paul Coffey leading the rush just to turn the puck over at the opponents blue line or line mates playIng 3 on 3 Superman hockey, but I suppose both of these should be put on coaching. Regardless of skill level and skating ability, kids should be taught to move the puck, use your line mates. The best thing I’ve ever heard a coach yell during a game “you can’t skate the fn thing faster than you can pass it”.

Never thought of that. He was always voted most popular, top teammate, or person who everyone wanted to play with on the teams, and I thought it was just because he was easy going and never complained. Maybe it was more about the way he played than his personality in general.

I agree but my point is most of the higher skilled kids are moving the puck and playing their positions correctly, d that know when to join the rush etc. the middle of the road kids seem to be the ones that want to play 3 on 3 style and try to score every goal alone, that frustrates the higher skilled kids.

Definitely a coaching problem. If they want to play like that, then you're minutes get cut. That kind of play doesn't win you games. That might work when you're 10 years old, but not long after. I've seen countless high-skilled players get stopped by average players (and below-average) with good coaching. And it makes those less skilled players better by way of boosting their confidence and seeing that they can be impactful in a game. That's why I constantly reinforce to kids that to me or anybody who is knowledgeable about the sport, that a well-timed block or winning a puck battle is just as important as scoring a goal. And so is a nice pass to the player with the best chance to score, regardless of where that other kid falls on the depth chart. Sooner or later, most of them get it that yeah, it's easy to notice a goal being scored, but that's just one part of the overall game. And unless you're Sidney Crosby, the average high- skilled player is not consistently going to be able to deke and stick handle around 4 opposing players to score on a no-risk-to-the-goalie shot while their team mates are tapping their sticks the whole play.