How did Bryce Salvador score so much this postseason?

Let's look at a brief comparison between NJ Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador's 2011-2012 regular season and his 2012 postseason...

Bryce Salvador
2011-2012 Regular Season GP 82 G 0 A 9 PTS 9 +/- +18
2012 Postseason GP 24 G 4 A 10 PTS 14 +/- +9

The numbers don't lie... but several questions emerge.  Did the Devils use him in a different role or in a different position?  Was he the benefactor of an improved collective offensive output for the entire team?  or... did his good habits produce more results in a tighter-checking environment?

Let's use some numbers to make a point-
* In the regular season the Devils averaged 2.63 goals a game.  In the postseason the number was 2.45 goals a game.
* Tracked per player, the Devils were a combined -63 in the regular season... in the playoffs, the Devils were a +43.
* Salvador was 15th in team scoring in the regular season, and 3rd in the postseason.
* Salvador's Regular Season average was 1.29 Hits per game and 1.30 blocked shots per game.  In the postseason those numbers were: 2.25 Hits per game and 1.41 blocked shots per game.
* Salvador has averaged .14 points per regular season game over his 11 year career (692games).  In the postseason he averages .24 points per game.

So the question remains... how and why the offensive explosion?

Perhaps these quotes will shed some light.  Devils captain Zach Parise, who scored New Jersey's first goal on Saturday, of Salvador. "We know when the game is on the line, we need to protect a lead, he's going to be out there for us. We all trust what he does, and that's important."  "Go figure, All season, now these bounces off shots go right in the net," said Salvador.

Look at the some of the goals...

In the end I think it comes down to two things 1) Great Habits & 2) Playoff Urgency.  Salvador's goals were scored by doing the basic principles every young defenseman should understand: quick and surehanded retrievals and walking the blueline to create a better angle, open up opportunities for screens and tip-ins.  Salvador's shot placement is impeccable... they all hit the end, and are 0- 18 inches off the ice.  By walking the blueline he is creating an angle where even if he does miss the net, the rebound is coming right back out to the slot or near the net, rather than rimming out of the zone.  When you combine these good habits with a playoff atmosphere, where teams are trying to block every shot and finish every check, the ability to keep it simple actually makes the routine somewhat unexpected as shots are more difficult to see and the play is moving quicker.  Lastly, and you can see this illustrated in his plus/ minus, Salvador's positive play demanded increased minutes and his coaches responded.  Good Habits= More Production= More Minutes.

Scoring on Butterfly goaltenders

No style is perfect.  Goaltender's come in all different shapes, sizes and skill sets.  The dominant style in today's training model is for kids to learn, understand and use some variation of the popular "butterfly style of goaltending.

For those who don't know, here is a brief history-  "In ice hockey, "butterfly style" is a technique of goaltending distinguished by the goaltender guarding the lower part of the net by dropping to the knees to block attempts to score. The butterfly style derives its name from the resemblance of the spread goal pads and hands to a butterfly's wings. The butterfly style is contrasted with stand-up style, where most shots on a goal are stopped with the goaltender on his or her feet. Many factors helped make it a defacto standard style of play today, including the invention of the goalie mask by Jacques Plante, Vladislav Tretiak's outstanding use of the style at the 1972 Canada–USSR Summit Series, the National Hockey League (NHL) emergence of Tony Esposito in the 1970s and Patrick Roy in the 1980s, the development of lightweight materials for pads and the influence of professional goaltending coaches such as Warren Strelow, Benoit and Francois Allaire. There are few who exclusively employ a stand-up style in the NHL.^[1]
Although it is effective and popular among goaltenders, the butterfly style can leave the upper portion of the net more vulnerable to scoring attempts. The modern "profly" derivative was made most popular by Roy and is the style most commonly used and taught.<sup>[2]" Reprinted courtesy of wikipedia.com


Here are four ways shooters can be proactive in their approach to Butterfly goaltenders.
1) Quick and unexpected release- Catch him off balance and before he can set up.  The faster the release the quicker he'll need to reacte, and the less time he'll have to prepare to control any rebound.
2) Miscommunication- Get the goaltender to make his move first by utilizing a fake shot.  It's like playing poker, you'll know what you are dealing with. 
3) Creating Rebounds-  It may take two shots to score, but aiming low and far pad will create a rebound for a teammate.
4) Understand your angle- A left hand shot coming down the right way, or a right hand shot coming down the left side has an unbelievable angle shooting advantage.  A players vision is actually 1-3 feet to the left or right of their stick and several feet higher than were the actual puck is.  What you see is not what the puck sees.  Generally speaking, lower and closer to your body is better.</sup>

* A 1996 NHL study revealed trends in goal scoring. A whopping 72% of NHL goals were scored from within 15 feet of the net, to the stick side, and between 0-18 inches off the ice.

Here is a video of Brett Hull.  Brett Hull was a natural goal scorer with one of the quickest releases and hard shots in NHL history.  In addition to that, he read goaltenders amazingly well, and exploited their first move.  You can learn a lot by just watching...





Run Hills to Improve Speed and Confidence

Hill running is a great way to build up power in your legs.  Utilizing bodyweight and gravity, hill running is one of the simplest ways to develop explosive power in all the muscles in your legs. When you improve the strength and power in your legs, you will skate faster by maximizing each stride.

The goal of the hill run is to get up the hill as quickly and explosively as possible.   For hockey, you should pick out a hill that can be conquered in at the start 10-20 seconds.  Short bursts of speed most closely replicate the activity you will perform during a hockey game.  Gradually, you should aim to work your way up to 30-45 seconds by conquering longer and/or steeper inclines.  The 30-45 second hill will match that of a typical shift in a typical hockey game.  The longer the hill, the greater the cardiovascular training element. 

To start, these hills should be sprinted up 10 times to start, with gradual increases in the amount of repetitions.  It is important to note that you should jog down at three quarters speed back to the starting position.  The jog return is an important part of resistance training.

Hill training, is a very simple yet very effective exercise. Always try to push yourself past to your limit, as this is the only way to see results!  NFL great Jerry Rice built his off-season training around Hill running, and had amazing results.  Here is a video:

Why a 3- Day "Focus" Camp?

The 3-Day Camp is designed to be a unique training experience:

 

* 3 On-Ice Sessions

* 1 Off-Ice Skill Session

* 1 Video Analysis Session

The On-Ice drill work will be entirely skill focused and uptempo, using the model of previous Scoring Concepts clinics and private training. The Off-Ice Skill session will focus on specific drills that your youth hockey player can learn and take home with them (via a handout for each student) to practice their skill work in their driveway, rec room, or basement. The video analysis will feature footage shot from the previous 2 days of training and drill down into the technical aspects of powerskating, so that your player can learn, in a positive setting, the deep details of stride analysis.

The goal for the 3- Day Focus Camp is for kids to get the maximum bang for their hockey camp buck.  For a very cost-efficient price kids can get the On-Ice instruction and repetition, using drills that will push them to go "out of their comfort zone", and combine them with 2 other elements that players and parents constantly overlook.

1)  Off-Ice Hands work.  Your hands, puck control skills and stickhandling can get dramatically better when drill off the ice.  This is a fact.  It is the central reason why Joe Mullen scored over 500 NHL goals and played primarily roller and street hockey when he was a kid growing up in New York City.  The kids who attend this camp will learn the right way and what tools to enhance these skills, and get a handout/ chart to take home with them so they can continue to grow this skill.

2.  Video Analysis.  Every kid loves to watch themselves play, but do they know what to look for?  This camp will record the first two days of training and analyze, using a positive approach, to dig deeper into the most efficient and powerful components of the skating stride.  Players will have a mental image of the right way to skate, and be able to take that with them... applying those principles to their own strides.

Email Scoringconcepts@gmail.com for info.  Or visit www.rockicecenter.com 

3 Components of Player Evaluations

When picking players for your team or organization there are a lot of different criteria used for evaluating your candidates.  I try to use a little different system, and compare it to the level I am evaluating for.

3 Key Components go it in, and these 3 components are graded on a 1-5 or 1-10 scale.

1) Skill Set- This is the most obvious.  Skill set is the basic set of hockey abilities an athlete possesses.  Skating, shooting, puck handling, passing and natural athleticism.

2) Hockey IQ-  This can be the most difficult to identify if you are new to the game, but Hockey IQ is the ability for a player to utilize his intelligence to make the right play.  Positioning and the ability to read and react to his linemates and situations are important, but look closely at players during evaluations... Does the Forechecker take away the D to D pass?  Does he have good habits and not turn the puck over at his Offensive and Defensive bluelines?  Does he take good angles to force decisions?  Does he have an understanding of game situations, and know how much time is left on the clock?  If the answer is "yes" to all of these, then the player possesses a high Hockey IQ.

3) Compete Level-  Compete level is the ability for a player to maximize, through effort, their athletic ability.  Players with high compete levels are consistent from the beginning of the evaluation to the end and in all facets of the game (offensive and defensive).  Will the player win loose puck battles....  backcheck hard goalline to goalline?

All the categories can be related to the level of the team you are selecting for, as the comparison does not have to be against NHL talent.  If you select players who excel (8-10) in all these areas, you will have a team with talented, winning players who are fun to coach.

A 10-type player in all of these Evaluation components is Mark Messier-

Mastering the Toe- Drag Shot

Toe- Drags can be a flashy way for players to beat defensemen 1 on 1.  Yet, as players advance relying on the toe-drag can be a bad-habit waiting to happen.  Young players need to understand the purpose of a toe-drag and then use the different variables available to them to beat both defenders and the goaltender.

Effect of the Toe- Drag
Essentially the toe-drag is a manipulation of the puck by using your stick only (not your arms or body).  This manipulation creates different angles for which the puck can be shot from, and different directions from which the puck can be moved to.  In addition, upon set- up, the defender of a toe drag will jump the puck or attack the body, giving away a portion of the ice.  It is up to a good forward to know which way to  maneuver himself to exploit it.  Moreover, given that a defender will jump the puck, it creates less visibility for the puck to be tracked by the goaltender.

Puck Tracking & Uses as a Screen Shot
For best use of the toe- drag at higher levels, I try to train players to use the toe-drag shot as an additional arrow in their quiver.  By dragging the puck 2-4 inches towards your body it'll set up the perfect defender screen on the goaltender.  In addition, given that the puck is closer to your body, torque is maximized which if practiced can create a more powerful shot that is released in a split second of time.

Practice
Work on this skill stationary at first off-ice.  Focus on the form, hand positioning, quick release and power... accuracy of the shot at first is not that important.
After you have acquired the basic skills, use an obstacle placed over cones on-ice or a chair/ bench.  Begin to practice this skill skating into the zone and from 12-15' out from the net.  Remember to practice good habits, and crash the net for rebounds after releasing the shot.  Aim low at first for maximum power and to create a rebound.  Low will eventually be the best placement for this shot, as it will be the most difficult spot for the goalie to track.

David Clarkson of the NJ Devils is one of the best in the business at this shot.  Watch him work, and have fun with this new skill!

Sacrificing Yourself for the Team

I referenced the story of Bob Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs during of one my end of the year meetings with a player.  For those who don't know, this is the story of Bob Baun...

It was 1964. In Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings, Leaf defenseman Bob Baun fell to the ice in excruciating pain after blocking a slap shot off his ankle late in the third period.

Baun was carried off on a stretcher and was presumed to be out for the remainder of the series. During the intermission, Baun refused to have his ankle X-rayed. Instead, he insisted it be frozen and, miraculously, he skated out for the overtime session.

The Maple Leafs, facing a three games to two deficit at the time, were in need of a hero to keep their Stanley Cup dreams alive. At the 1:42 mark of overtime, Baun drilled a shot from the point that beat Detroit netminder Terry Sawchuk, giving the Leafs a Game 6 victory.

Inspired by his heroics, the Leafs easily won Game 7, 4-0, giving the team a third consecutive Stanley Cup victory. It was not until after the series that it was discovered Bob Baun had scored that overtime winner on a fractured ankle.

Reprinted via- http://bleacherreport.com/articles/29182-bob-baun-scores-winner-on-broken-leg-defining-moments-in-leaf-history-no-5