Hockey Parents Summer Edition & Dawn of New Season

Note: I took an unexpected hiatus, not because I did not have anything to write, but as you will read below, my summer was busier with hockey than I expected. This post is longer than usual because there is a lot to catch up on.

Back to School & The New Youth Hockey Season

The weather in New York is starting to turn comfortable after a hot and, at times, very sticky summer. For the Big Apple-based youth hockey programs, practice is in full swing, coinciding with the start of school. I was talking to a friend this past week who spent the summer in Greece with his family. After hearing his Hellenic tales of fun, he asked me if I was ready for the start of the new hockey season. Chuckling, I responded, “For me, the hockey season never ended.”

Once, A Leisurely Pace

There has always been a certain amount of hockey over the summer for my kids. In past years, once a week or maybe once every other week, my sons would participate in clinics and private lessons. They would also each attend one camp, usually wrapped up in an adventure north of the border in Montreal or staying with friends in Nantucket. It was nice and calm.

Now, Like A Slap Upside The Head

This summer was different. My older son, the teenage tendy, joined a more competitive team that is far more demanding. There was at least one team practice per week, with a team goalie session on the weekends. As his team is based in New Jersey, practices were held at the local rink as well as at the Devils’ practice facility. Driving in and out of Newark on a hot summer evening is a unique experience. During one special night, we saw on the other side of the street a throng driving souped up scooters and ATVs where the drivers were standing up doing wheelies. If their clothes were a bit more post-apocalyptic, it would have looked like a scene from the movie Mad Max: Fury Road

I wish I had been paying a little closer attention when the team manager informed me that the program had a more rigorous schedule than typical teams. She told me they liked to attend three summer hockey tournaments. She intimated it was one tournament a month. It was three tournaments and a showcase across July and August. Plus, there were multiple practices before the tournaments to make sure the team was properly prepared, hence the trips into Newark.

Damn It’s Cold

The first thing you learn about summer hockey tournaments is that they are cold. It may be 85 to 90 degrees outside, and you want to be wearing shorts, but inside it is freezing. At the first tournament, I found myself shivering so much that I stepped outside to warm up during breaks in the games. A sweatshirt is not enough. By the second tournament, I started wearing jeans with a heavy fleece to keep warm. Sitting in a cold ice rink, I often forgot that it was stifling hot and humid outside. After each game, I walked out of the rink into the same wall of stifling heat, blinking in the bright, almost overwhelming sunshine reminiscent of deplaning in Florida or on a tropical island in February when escaping winter.

Hardcore In More Ways Than Just Hockey

Besides being cold, the other thing you immediately notice about summer hockey is the dichotomy between the kids who are there mostly for fun and the parents who put the word “hard” into hardcore. These are games where there is nothing really at stake. The results do not affect any league standings, and some teams are pulled together just for the tournaments for boarding school kids to play together. There was heavy checking in games, but that is expected from teenage boys. All it takes is one good hit to get the boys riled up.

The parents on the other hand exhibited a mid-season intensity that was borderline hostile. Many women wore hoodies on top with blankets wrapped around their legs with some sporting Uggs as they stood next to the boards. They constantly banged on the glass, screaming during the game, reacting loudly to checks or any perceived missed calls by the referees.

As for the men, I lost count of the number of “Let’s Go Brandon”, “F JB”, and “Second American Revolution” hats and sweatshirts at the various rinks. In the parking lot of one rink on the New Jersey side of Philadelphia, I spotted a smattering of Three Percenter bumper stickers. This was not the middle of nowhere. This is the same area as the Flyers’ practice facility. I understand, by nature, that hockey is populated by more conservative families, as the sport is generally more suburban and rural. However, I did not expect to be hanging around rinks one step removed from an insurrectionist rally.

Before one game, I asked one ref who happened to be standing next to me if it was always as intense as it seemed.  He told me the week before, the police had to be called because a parent was flipping out trying to get to the benches to berate the coaches during a game between two teams in the SAME program.

Diners – The Saving Grace

Youth hockey tournaments can be fun, but there is a lot of schlepping around. One of the biggest challenges is trying to find decent food with no local knowledge. You know you have spent too much time running from rink to rink when diners become the preferred eating choice. One of the saving graces at tournaments stretching across the New York City to Philadelphia regions is the plethora of diners. I am not saying that you will always make the healthiest choice, but at the same time, one cannot go wrong at a restaurant that serves all-day breakfast. And it beats trying to compromise with yourself by choosing between a local pizza joint and the plethora of fast-food boxes dotting the suburban landscape.

The Smallest of Worlds

There was a funny moment in all the hockey madness this summer. Only at tournaments and showcases do you end up with very early morning hockey games once your kids get past their first few years. At the last showcase of the summer, our team had a 7 a.m. Sunday game, which meant a 6 a.m. arrival at the rink. I did not want to be there. My son was not scheduled to play in the game, and I was tired. We had a late game the night before where my son faced a lot of shots. He was not entirely awake, and his gear was still wet when we left for the rink at 5:30am.

I was sitting killing time in the closed, empty café of the rink when I noticed a group of parents from the team we were going to play. One of the fathers looked very familiar. When he walked by the table where I was sitting, I struck up a conversation. In the smallest of worlds, he was a friend from high school. We played both travel and high school soccer together. So, even schlepping around in summer hockey, you can come across something or someone that gives you an unexpected smile.

As For The Habs…Are You Not Entertained?

The Best Sources of Information

It is amusing to watch a consensus view form in the Habsphere and even the wider hockey world, driven by the media. Well-regarded media personalities and hockey writers feed fan expectations by feigning insights they really do not have. At best, the analysis is guesswork. At worst, it is clickbait.

Ignoring the noise, more astute observers are aware that the Canadiens brain trust are transparent about what they are doing. With a more engaged media strategy guided by Chantal Machabée, Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has been consistently visible since his arrival, clearly enunciating the team’s strategy. Both he and Jeff Gorton have done podcast interviews providing useful insights, which generally received little attention because of the lack of soundbites.

In the July 7th post I wrote how Kent Hughes discussed continuous improvement with the words “capable” and “willingness” highlighted as an attribute of players.  His comments provided a framework on how the team evaluates players.  On July 20th, it was Jeff Gorton’s turn.  He sat down and spoke for about 40 minutes on the Bob McCown Podcast.  There was nothing earth shattering but Gorton, like Hughes, provided a sense on the team’s approach to managing the roster.

The Right Personality

During the conversation, Gorton talked about the level of recognition in Montreal. He referred to it as a lifestyle where you are recognized even when you go food shopping. Gorton then recounted how, after hiring Kent Hughes as GM, they were travelling to meet the team in Las Vegas. He said they were recognized by “eleven out of ten fans” when they were getting COVID tested at the Montreal airport, but no one recognized them as they walked through the Detroit airport to make a flight connection.

Gorton’s comments are evidence that personality is an added criteria for the team. Gorton said that because of the scrutiny, they’ll attract a certain kind of player that loves hockey and wants that limelight. Which means they need players with a higher level of maturity to deal with the level of fan recognition. It is not a market where a player can live a quiet life, be anonymous, or hide.  In 2012, the Montreal Gazette considered Carey Price’s purchase of a shedding blade for his dogs at a small pet store as newsworthy.  Today it is obviously far worse with the ubiquity of social media.

Playing the Long Game, But Keep Watch

Asked about MSL, Gorton recounted how he had become friendly with MSL’s agent over the years. He said that he knew his wife’s family was from Connecticut and that MSL, at some point, would want to finish his career closer to there. Gorton also said that after MSL retired, he asked him if he would consider coaching. This tells you that Gorton is patient and is willing to invest in relationships that down the road may pay off.

Playing the long game is one thing but being overly patient is another. One of the cited reasons that Gorton and team president John Davidson were fired in May 2021 was their “slow walking” approach to rebuilding the Rangers, after the team had missed the playoffs for four straight seasons. Larry Brooks pointed out that despite Gorton’s adding promising pieces, the Rangers never took a real step forward during the rebuild.

What I Found Interesting During The Offseason

What I found interesting was how the team really meant it when they said that it was going to become information and development-driven. There has been a certain amount of incredulousness by the media with the development focus, calling it a “bet.” That misses the mark because of the investments made by building an analytics team led by Christopher Boucher and expanding the hockey development team with skills coach Adam Nicholas and player development consultant Marie-Philip Poulin.

This has been telegraphed by Gorton and Hughes.  John Sedwick spoke about the approach in February, when he said he believed modernizing the team involved investing in ways to objectively measure talent, develop players, and coach. He added that he was uncomfortable with the term “analytics” and thought “information” was a better characterization because he was a believer in information and processes.

Kirby Dach, Really

The Kirby-Dach trade epitomizes the Hughes-Gorton approach. The team acquired a former third overall draft pick whose development stalled with the Chicago Blackhawks. Many Habs fans were not happy with the acquisition of Dach, costing the team Alexander Romanov. Last January, Andy Campbell of The-Rink.Com wrote how Dach’s development had been mishandled by the Blackhawks. 

Poor player development is common across many NHL teams, with “sink or swim” as the common approach, especially for high draft picks. These are kids whose brains do not fully form until age 25. Most of them need to be put in a position to succeed, and there must be a level of commitment from both sides. The Canadiens are willing to make the investment because they see something, especially at 6’4″ that can skate. When Dach signed his contract with the Canadiens, there was analysis and reaction to the price and terms, trying to figure out the value proposition. But what was missing was the obvious point, the mutual commitment. By signing a four-year deal, Dach was making a commitment to the Canadiens’ development plan for him because he knew how poorly it went with the Blackhawks.

This Season’s Obsession and Pre-Camp Thoughts

You would not be in the Habsphere if there were not obsessions dominating coverage of the team.  Thankfully the next captain debate has been put to bed.

Where will he play? Given the poor outcomes of the Bluto high draft picks of Alex Galchenyuk and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, it is no surprise questions are flowing about whether Juraj Slafkosky should play with the Canadiens this season.  If he does not have a respectable training camp, the obsession will only get worse.  We’ve already reached a level of silliness where I heard one commentator say the best way to evaluate Slafkosky is to compare him with the top five picks in the upcoming draft who are considered generational.

The Most Important Of The Young Defenseman This Season: I am more focused on Kaiden Guhle than Slafkosky. It is accepted among the hockey media that the Canadiens’ defense will be young and vulnerable this season. All summer, there have been debates about how the team is going to manage the young D corps. If Kayden Guhle can step up and grab one of the top spots, it will help to begin to solidify the defense.  He has already been subject to longer media profiles where Arpon Basu wrote that he is “someone you can build around” and Sportsnet’s Big Read.

Pre-Camp Season Prediction

The accepted view this season is that the Canadiens are going to be bad once again. That is common across Montreal’s media. Listening to NHL Network Radio last night, the commentators discussing the Atlantic Division focused on the improvement of Detroit and Buffalo while speculating on which of the division’s top four teams would fall. The Canadiens were not even mentioned and are considered an afterthought outside Montreal.

I am not as pessimistic, thinking the team will be a doormat again. I think the Habs will be a plus/minus.500 team. If a few things go the right way, they have a chance to be in the playoff bubble. Anything that could go wrong last season did, especially before the hiring of Martin St. Louis (MSL). Hughes and Gorton expect the team to move forward. Players that were hobbling at the beginning of the season will be healthy and in shape.

There should be some rebound in players that underperformed last season, while other players like Cole Caufield will be put in the position to take it to a whole other level. Coaching will be better from the outset and not just focused on making players look better for trade. There are no questions in goal with Carey Price on LTIR, meaning Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault will be properly managed from the beginning. And most importantly, there is clarity in purpose and direction. I do expect another trade or two given the salary cap situation of the team, but it will not have the same energy sapping effect as last season.

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