Thank You

As the year comes to an end, we find ourselves reminiscing about the year that has passed. The good times, the unhappy times, the fun times... We think about the people we've met, some make an indelible impression upon us, while others simply fade from our memories... We take the time to appreciate what we've achieved, learned, imparted upon others... We also take extra time thinking of those that are no longer with us; cherishing each moment spent, that tiny fraction of an instant they were in our lives, how they molded us, inspired us, taught us and simply loved us.

Tucker Hockey has had the privilege of 15 years of sharing our passion and love of the game of hockey within Calgary and surrounding areas. We take great pride in knowing we've helped a lot of someones discover, improve and excel at what we love; hockey. As 2014 approaches, our 16th year of operating, we wait with baited breath and anticipation at how the new year will evolve. We strive to improve our services, we endeavor to make hockey possible for those that never thought it would be and we try to spread goodwill to all of those involved in this sport.

So as you busily take care of all of the little things before the end of the year, take just one moment, stop what you are doing, and reflect upon 2013.

Wishing everyone who's been a part of Tucker Hockey's World, and those that have yet to experience T.H.E. Way, Happy Holidays and have a Wonderful New Year.

Top 10 Stadiums of the NHL

Rogers Nets Lucrative Deal with NHL

It's stated in the media by Bettman that the new partnership with Rogers "Will Grow the Game."

How? By shutting out TSN and more importantly HNIC? Don Cherry is unsure of his future, this Canadian Hockey fan is unsure of his future and the quality that we've come to expect as Canadians every Saturday night from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM on CBC.

This Canadian Hockey Fan is angry, concerned, dumbfounded, and frankly down right disgusted with the 12 year deal.

Period.

Effective Communication

To be an effective communicator and get your message out to others, a person must be able to:

 

1) Connect 2) Respect and 3) Affect.

Even though the above words may all sound quite familiar - they each come with a different connotation that describes each one separately and uniquely.

To connect with someone means to go that extra distance - to know who they are and where they have come from in life. It’s important to put your words into language that each individual can relate to and understand.

To respect any individual is to know that we all have our own separate journeys - even though we have traveled different paths to get where we are together today and this not only makes us unique as an individual but that makes each of us indeed, true survivors.

Each living person resides in a community - whether they interact with just one person each day or a thousand people. How you react to your community will affect those around you. Make a conscious decision to be an effective individual in society rather than just an affected individual. Be positive, pro - active and purposeful in your daily communications. Ultimately, endeavor to make the world a better place around you through effective communications with others.

Coach Rex's Favorite Drill

"Puck Control Commands"

One of my favorite drills for teaching a player moving puck control is the puck control "commands" drill. With this drill, I randomly place 20 - 30 pylons in the neutral zone. I shout out a command, explain the key teaching points and demo the skill, then have the player perform the skill around different pylons. I switch up the command every 20 - 30 seconds.

Puck Control Commands can include the following:

• Slalom - both half speed and full speed
• Fake Left - go right
• Fake Right - go left
• Toe Drag
• Figure 8 - glide and crossover turns
• Full 360 turns - both forehand and backhand
• Forward to Backward Pivots
• Backward to Forward Pivots

This drill allows for a variety of puck control moves and skill development.

The average Calgary minor hockey player will only handle the puck 10 - 20 seconds in a game. However, with this 10 minute puck control drill, factoring in a rest to work ratio of 1 to 1, a player will handle the puck for 5 minutes, or 300 seconds; the equivalent of 15 to 30 minor league games!

Yes, playing games are fun, but good practice drills greatly enhance hockey technical skill development such as puck control.

Yucky Hockey - A Tribute to Minor Hockey Week

Minor Hockey week in Canada runs from Friday, January 10^th, 2014 to Saturday, January 18^th, 2014. More than 500,000 minor hockey players will play and compete for medals across Canada. In the City of Calgary alone we have over 13,000 minor hockey players active in our game.

For many young aspiring hockey players, this tournament will be the hi -lite of their season and for some maybe the hi-lite of their minor hockey playing careers. Great memories and good friendships often develop from playing our nations greatest sport. Having fun is of paramount importance during our country’s annual minor hockey week of events!

So what is yucky hockey you may ask? Yucky hockey is hockey that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It is events and happenings within the game that test our true love of our game. On many occasions it may cause individuals – minor players and valuable volunteers - to turn their back on our game. They feel they do not enjoy hockey any more and wish to do something else with their lives. Hopefully, this bad taste doesn’t linger too long. Maybe for a few days, weeks, or months but for some if the experience is really yucky enough it can last a life time!

In our Hockey Zones newsletter publications (http://www.tuckerhockey.com/newsletters.asp) we strive to reinforce hockey’s positives to all ages. However, on occasion it’s necessary to look at the negatives – yes, yucky hockey! –maybe it will positively influence and help change a few negative attitudes and influences in our game to smarten up! Fortunately for the minor hockey associations, 98 per cent of the performers are good people; it’s the bad behavior / attitudes of the other 2 per cent that is painting a negative environment in our great game.

Hockey Calgary is actively promoting this season “RESPECT” in our game. You may have seen the new signs located in each city arena. Hockey Calgary is promoting awareness, and education to those involved in our great game – “that everyone should be shown respect”. Otherwise, please stay away from our local rinks! “Hockey rinks are supposed to be playgrounds for children. They are supposed to play, have fun and enjoy the experience” says Former Hockey Calgary President, Perry Cavanagh 

Here are a few examples of yucky hockey.

Often we see players hitting from behind and delivering head shots. Such reckless actions can cause concussions and even major life changing injuries. Player’s must be conscious of opponent’s safety as well as their own on the ice.

Some minor hockey coaches are concerned about winning at all costs. Coaches, who verbally abuse their players, opposition coaches and officials, need to take a look in the mirror. A few coaches have crossed the line with shocking sexual abuse of their players over the years. Both Hockey Canada and Hockey Calgary encourage victims to voice their concerns with “speak out programs” to ensure we have a safe environment for kids at the local arenas.

In addition, there are parents who are living the NHL dream vicariously through their children. Many parents are so involved in their child’s hockey that they pressure their kids too much. Hockey Calgary is actively promoting – The Respect in Sports – “the parents program” to educate parents about acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Also, there are officials, who spoil a good game via inconsistent and bad calls. As well as the occasional administrator who carries around his or her own power and control agenda and forgets that our game is first and foremost about the kids and their enjoyment from our game!

I am sure you can add a few more yucky examples to the list!

For more information about RESPECT in hockey initiatives, please contact your local minor hockey association or the Hockey Calgary head office at 403 – 245 – 5773 or visit their website www.hockeycalgary.com

Let’s work together to rid the game of:  “Yucky Hockey”. Shared respect within the game of hockey requires good cooperation between all the major stakeholders – players, parents, coaches, officials and facilities. Shared respect will ensure that hockey will continue to be the greatest game on earth. Everyone should be shown RESPECT! 

Coach Rex's Note  –  Background on the Article:

The idea to write a “Yucky Hockey” article came to Coach Rex at a downtown drugstore. While waiting patiently in my chair for a prescription to be filled, I noticed a poster on the wall – illustrating kids taking their medicine. The poster indicated the taste can be yucky! The promotion talked about food coloring flavors such as raspberry, grape etc to make the medicine for kids – more palatable. So I thought how can I relate this to the game of hockey?

As hockey coaches, managers, officials, organizers, parents and fellow players, I feel it is our responsibility within the game - to try and make the game better each day, season and year. To avoid yucky experiences and incidents, and to help instill the love of the game in our youth so they will stay in the game, learn valuable life skills as well as hockey skills and become good contributing members of society.

Respect is critical. It should be shown towards everyone involved in the game. Remember the golden rule – do onto others as you would want them to do on to you. Unfortunately, our society forgets the wisdom of this rule. Plain and simple - if people don’t show respect they should not be allowed in our local arenas!

Tucker Hockey picks Canada's 2014 Olympic Hockey Team

The NHL will place its regular season on hold from February 9^th to 25^th, 2014 for the Winter Olympic break. This past summer 47 Olympic hopefuls were invited to Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park from August 25^th to 28^th for Hockey Canada’s orientation camp.

During the four days, Hockey Canada held informational meetings regarding the logistics, travel issues, accommodations for family members and friends, a walk through of the venues, and drug testing policies. Due to insurance costs of $1.4 million, Hockey Canada did not conduct any on-ice sessions. Off - ice activities to enhance team chemistry and information meetings to get players to understand what to expect were the keys to prepare staff members and players, who have the potential of representing Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. This will ensure players are well prepared and can focus mainly on giving their best for their country.  “Russia is kind of a whole new world compared to what North America is like” said Edmonton Oilers Forward Taylor Hall.

Players will tryout based on their play throughout the Fall 2013 NHL schedule. So much can happen between now and December 2013. Injuries, scoring slumps to just name a couple. Players plan and hope to peak at the right time. There are many questions to be answered. Who will play in net – arguably Canada’s weakest / unknown position? Who will play the left side of the team’s defence? Will it be a classic battle between Canada and Russia? Remember the European teams always do better on the big ice!

With the international ice surface 200’ by 100’ – it’s 3,000 square feet larger than NHL size, therefore players will need to be quicker and faster, plus require strong skating agility and supreme hockey sense / IQ. In the past Olympics games on the bigger ice, the ability to score has been an issue for Team Canada.

Steve Yzerman, Team Canada General Manager stated “We’re not putting together a team for an NHL all – star game…we’re putting together the best possible team we can to compete against the best players in the world and try to win a gold medal”. “Part of that comes with players that can do specific things for us.” We have enough depth in our country to ice two medal contending teams! It’s a very difficult task for the coaches and management team to select the right NHL players to represent Team Canada in Sochi, Russia. Good luck gentlemen with a very difficult task!

We live in a very passionate country when it comes to hockey. Everyone has an opinion; everyone will give their two cents worth from now until long after the completion of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Did we pick the right team?

Let’s have a little fun! Here’s Tucker Hockey’s picks for Team Canada.
Goalies (3): 
Robert Luongo, Carey Price, Corey Crawford
Notable: Cam Ward 

Defence (8):
Duncan Keith, Drew Doughty, Shea Weber, Dan Boyle, Alex Pietrangelo, P.K. Subban, Marc Staal, Jay Bouwmeester
Notables: Kris Letang, Brent Seabrook    

Forwards (14):
Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby, John Tavares, Corey Perry, Claude Giroux, Steven Stamko, Rick Nash, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Eric Staal , Patrice Bergeron, Logan Couture, Taylor Hall, Matt Duchene 
Notables: Ryan Getzlaf, Martin St. Louis, Jordan Eberle, Jeff Carter

Note:

Team Canada opens round robin play on February 13^th, 2014 against Norway.

 

Canadian / Czech Hockey Exchange - Summer 2014

Experience the Hockey Trip of a Lifetime!!

Tucker Hockey is offering a unique opportunity to visit the Czech Republic from July 9th to 23rd, 2014. It’s an incredible opportunity for top calibre / select Peewee and Bantam aged players born in 1999 to 2002 to experience elite Czech hockey training and enjoy the rich culture of the “Golden City” – Prague, Czech Republic with their parents.

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world! Prague, pronounced Praha in the Czech language, is the capital city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north- west of the country on the Vltava River, the city is home to about 1.3 million people.

The city has been a political, cultural and economic centre of central Europe for centuries. Prague suffered considerably less damage during World War II than other major cities in Europe, allowing most of its historic architecture to stay true to form. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague with its rich history has become one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. The Czech Republic is famous for its historic architecture, rich culture, crystal and of course passion for hockey!

Why Experience the Canadian / Czech Hockey Exchange Program?

Our camp location will be in the Czech Republic! It is a country with an excellent ice hockey tradition, boasting the most NHL hockey players from any European country; an amazing statistic considering the country’s small population of only 10 million people.

Practice and learn an intensive type of hockey from highly trained and experienced elite Czech coaches - including the “Imaginary Model Opponent”, specific station training of hockey skills development, as well as other innovative training methods based on the Czech tradition to develop a player’s individual and tactical hockey skills.

The hockey camp is based at the top sports facility in Nymburk, Czech Republic where the best Czech ice hockey players and other elite athletes train for their upcoming season.

Intensive on and off ice training as well as high quality relaxation and recovery time – 21 hours of on ice training, 10 hours of off ice dryland training, daily video / chalk talks, mental conditioning, a variety of balanced nutritious meals, and 24 hour supervision by a staff of professional counsellors. Parents will have the option of staying with their child at the sports center camp hotel or another hotel a 5 minute walk away from the sports center. Parents can also use all the sport facilities in the sport center.

An Exceptional Hockey Value, the Exchange Program Includes The Following:

• Airfare from Calgary to Prague ( Return)
• 2 weeks accommodation in the Czech Republic
• Majority of meals included
• Guided sightseeing tours of attractions within Prague
• Guided sightseeing excursions to the Czech countryside
• 1 week of professional Czech ice hockey training with Elite Coaches
• Access to all the sports facilities within the sport center for both players and parents
• 24 hour camp supervision by a staff of professional counsellors
• 3 exhibition hockey games against local Czech competition
• Group travel attire for all participants
• Personalized Home and Away Game Jerseys
• Arrival and Departure Receptions in Prague

An outstanding hockey, travel vacation, cultural, and friendship exchange experience!

Additional Features / Added Value Included:

Sightseeing trips to historic and cultural sites in the Czech Republic such as Karlovy Vary, Crystal Factory Nizbor or Karsteinjn Castle etc. Explore one of the most beautiful cities in the world – Prague! We will show you the beautiful center of Prague, historic Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, the old Astronomical clock in the Old Town Square and Vltava River Cruise. Thanks to the Czech Republic’s location at the crossroads of various cultures in the heart of Central Europe – it can provide opportunities to extend your stay and explore other countries near to the Czech Republic.

To ensure a wonderful time on and off the ice, the Hockey Exchange Program is professionally organized and managed by a friendly, dedicated support staff. Two unforgettable weeks consisting of elite hockey training balanced and supplemented with unique Czech cultural experiences. Excellent opportunity to make new hockey friendships!

Check Out Our Brochure