Ask the Coach is back for the first time in 2019.
On the heels of last weekend’s epic eight-round shootout win by Chilliwack over Prince George, Sam Drenitch asks Chiefs hockey boss, ‘How do you decide who to send out in the shootout?’
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You’ll see the guys messing around in practice a bit. Sometimes a kid will score a brilliant goal, and the next couple practices after that he’ll look like he has two left hands.
So you never know.
It’s more of a gut feeling or how a kid has played in that game.
It’s body language I’m looking for.
Some kids put their head down and don’t want any part of it. Some kids are looking at you and really want to do it.
I know when I was a player, one year I had, I don’t know how many goals but it was a bunch. But I always told my coach, ‘Don’t choose me unless you have to.’
He was like, ‘Why? You’re our leading goal scorer.’
But I’d rather have four guys draped on my back than have to go down on a breakaway.
Some kids are really special in shootouts and some struggle. Matt Holmes was the eighth guy I sent out against PG, because he’s a guy who’s had multiple breakaways this season and gone five hole and missed.
We’ve joked about it.
So it’s one of those things where I’m overthinking it and he’s overthinking it and Matt ends up being the only guy out of 15 who scores.
If Matt hadn’t scored, Carter Wilkie was going to be next and he’s got some pretty nifty hands as well.
Honestly, there’s no coaching at that point.
It’s all gut.
And I don’t say much to them when they head out there. We might mention that the blocker looks to be open, but you start telling them things and they start overthinking it.
If it’s a kid who likes to deke we might mention the ice is bad and the puck might not feel the same on his stick.
Last game I did mention trying to get him (PG goalie Logan Neaton) to move laterally a bit more instead of coming right down on him.
I don’t know if Holmes listened or not, but he came in at more of an angle and the goalie had to move from his left to his right.
Whenever I was in a shootout, there was a lot going through my mind on what I was going to do.
Some guys have a move that they’re going to do before they even touch the puck, and they’re committed to it no matter what the goalie does.
Some have no clue what they’re going to do until they get to the moment, and I was more a guy that improvised at the end based on where he was and the angles.
That was more game-like to me.
I had a guy I played pro with who played at Denver University. He had one move that he was all-time with. It went in every time. Kind of a forehand, backhand, forehand thing.
It’s kind of like (Cole) Donhauser and what he tried against PG.
He’s got this one move that’s been really good, and that’s why I sent Cole out first, but now he’s missed a couple times in a row.
So is he overthinking it?
Does he go back to the drawing board?
Do I start with Holmes next game?
Why not?
I don’t know what I was thinking actually.
I was thinking of using Clark Nelson.
In practice he has some pretty nifty moves and he’s actually got some some hands.
He has nicer moves than some of our top goal scorers, but I didn’t use him much in the third and I didn’t want to put too much pressure on a kid who hasn’t played.
Maybe it wouldn’t phase him and he pulls off a remarkable move to win it, or maybe he’d be clenching the stick and miss bad.
In the moment, those are the things you think about as a coach.
Send your Ask the Coach questions to eric.welsh@theprogress.com
