Post by Disco Stu on Aug 23, 2015 18:04:09 GMT -5
Igor Larionov wrote an article recently about hockey in the Soviet Union and he also talks about hockey today. It is a really interesting article, and it makes me wonder how this type of thinking fits into the Spirit movement toward drafting players with eastern European background.
www.theplayerstribune.com/miracle-on-ice-hockey-russia/
I don't mean that the Spirit players should be conditioned 24/7 without any time off. That isn't what I mean. But I do wonder when Igor writes "Say what you want about the Soviet mentality, but if coaches are going to push kids at that age, why are they pushing them to play a simple game? Why aren’t coaches pushing them to create a masterpiece?"
And, "Many young players who are intelligent and can see the game four moves ahead are not valued. They’re told 'simple, simple, simple.' That mentality is kind of boring. Nobody wants to get fired. Nobody wants to get sent down to the minors. If you look at the coaches in Juniors and minor league hockey, many of them were not skill players. It’s a lot of former enforcers and grinders who take these coaching jobs. Naturally, they tell their players to be just like them."
Greg Gilbert as a forward played 837 games and scored 378 points with 576 PIM. Not really an enforcer, but also not really a big scoring guy, but I would like to think he would be on board with the idea of a more beautiful version of the game than a simple one. Sometimes, you want guys to keep it simple, but why not encourage them to play at another level if they are capable of it?
Igor talked also about Datsyuk finding the right NHL home under Scotty Bowman as opposed to many other NHL coaches who would have probably tried to iron him out, then would have got frustrated, then would have flushed him out back to the KHL. Instead, he is a star player in the NHL because Bowman is a different type of coach. A better coach.
Also -- if you haven't seen the documentary Red Army, its definitely worth checking out.
www.theplayerstribune.com/miracle-on-ice-hockey-russia/
I don't mean that the Spirit players should be conditioned 24/7 without any time off. That isn't what I mean. But I do wonder when Igor writes "Say what you want about the Soviet mentality, but if coaches are going to push kids at that age, why are they pushing them to play a simple game? Why aren’t coaches pushing them to create a masterpiece?"
And, "Many young players who are intelligent and can see the game four moves ahead are not valued. They’re told 'simple, simple, simple.' That mentality is kind of boring. Nobody wants to get fired. Nobody wants to get sent down to the minors. If you look at the coaches in Juniors and minor league hockey, many of them were not skill players. It’s a lot of former enforcers and grinders who take these coaching jobs. Naturally, they tell their players to be just like them."
Greg Gilbert as a forward played 837 games and scored 378 points with 576 PIM. Not really an enforcer, but also not really a big scoring guy, but I would like to think he would be on board with the idea of a more beautiful version of the game than a simple one. Sometimes, you want guys to keep it simple, but why not encourage them to play at another level if they are capable of it?
Igor talked also about Datsyuk finding the right NHL home under Scotty Bowman as opposed to many other NHL coaches who would have probably tried to iron him out, then would have got frustrated, then would have flushed him out back to the KHL. Instead, he is a star player in the NHL because Bowman is a different type of coach. A better coach.
Also -- if you haven't seen the documentary Red Army, its definitely worth checking out.
