My morning routine starts with my coffee reading the business and sports section in the paper I once delivered many years back, The Vancouver Sun.  Today I almost fell out of my chair as read an article titled “Blowout leads to calls to keep kids hockey fun”. It appalled me that there was a Novice (8 Yr. Old Kids) Hockey Game in Ontario where they shared that the (actual) final score was 41-0. (this was the real score that was shared out by the adults involved with the game, not the 6-0 that showed on the scoreboard to soften the blow for parents and players)

Yes, you read that right, 41 for the team from Kitchener, 0 for the team from Cambridge. Really? How many scoresheets did the scorekeeper need to use to keep track of the goals and knowing how focused we are on kids stats today, the first and second assists? The article went on to cite sources from Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario, the two teams in the game, as well as Hockey Alberta. We (as in BC Hockey) and Hockey Alberta no longer keep score for games for Novice age group (something I thought we should have done when I coached that age group many years back) and Brad Lyon from Hockey Alberta stated “Young players should be learning skills like passing and being part of a team, not focusing on the score or who has how many goals.” I could not agree more with Brad, and can’t for the life of me believe that 8 year kids suffered a blowout to the extent one hears about in football, rugby as points for tries or touchdowns can be 6 at a time not one.  41-0 would have been 7 touch downs and 6 PAT (point after the fact) and a failed convert in football so in hockey terms – 7 goals NOT 41. For the winning team in this novice hockey game to have scored 41 goals, it meant they spent the entire game in the opposition zone and the only player that would have benefitted potentially from touching the puck would have been the goalie who faced all those shots. Chances are he or she was the one that was the most dejected, and after 10 goals went in and lost confidence no matter what positive praise or encouragement from their coaches to just have fun especially if coaches were rotating their players each week to have their turn to play goal. The writer of the article shared by many newspapers nationally across Canada, Gemma Karstens-Smith, stated the game did not result in a barrage of phone calls after the fact as the coaches from parents “found a way to keep it fun for the young athletes.”  The very reason why it did not result in numerous calls is the league adhered to a 6 goal differential on the actual scoreboard, not for the players benefit, moreso for the parents. Really?  What did the coaches on the Cambridge team do, just keep telling their kids when they came off the ice gassed from chasing the puck and never getting out of their zone to keep their heads up, play thru it, remember to have fun? I read another article that the coach of Cambridge believed this was a life lesson for his team, was important for them to play right to the end of the game, regardless of the outcome.  He further shared he was against the Mercy Rule as a result. I agree in part, kids should learn how to handle adversity, get up when they fall down, but it is totally a different scenario when they are 18 then when they are 8.  No score should be kept for U9 games, period, even if try to soften it with only posting 6 goals on the scoreboard and scrambling for additional scoresheets to keep track of all the others in this scenario. Having talked to parents across Canada, many do not ruffle feathers early on (Novice age group) by making those phone calls, emails as they don’t want to jeopardize their kids chances of playing higher level down the road. Ironically, due to parent expectations to play NCAA and get scholarships or Pro, parents of this age group will start appealing releases from AAA level to AA as they “are concerned that their kids won’t be scouted” She further stated the winning team did implement things like 5 passes before shooting the puck only once the score started to balloon. My question would be … when was that? 10-0, 15-0, 20-0? I can only imagine how dejected those 8-year-old kids on the other side of the score felt, frustrated, sad, and perhaps considered quitting. Tony Martindale, Executive Director of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario shared that “our biggest thing here is we don’t want to turn kids off hockey … we want hockey to be a lifelong adventure for the kids” This game was an adventure for sure, one that probably left many who experienced it with a sour taste in their mouth, not just the players, but their parents. He further stated they are considering a variety of measures to prevent similar situations happening in future including new rules of guidelines how teams are split up based on skill. The guidline/rule that could have avoided this fiasco from the get go?

A Mercy rule which many argued should be in effect but he (Tony Martindale) stated on CTV news would not be looking at as kids could lose 20 minutes of ice time.

Watch the CTV News Video HERE I don’t know about you, but having played and coached in games where we were getting blowed out OR we were dominating the other team no matter what we tried to slow it down, BOTH TEAMS want the game to be over sooner than later … keeping it going is merely adding salt to a wound that is deep when it 15-20 to 0. One of the biggest challenges when scores are so lopsided is ensuring that players one both teams win with humility and lose with dignity.  There is nothing worse when a team is way up on another team and excessively celebrate goals or when players demonstrate poor sportship when lose a game like throwing their sticks, using foul language etc. This blow-out game is the PARADIGM why Hockey Canada is rolling out cross ice hockey, last season for Initiation (5-6) and next year for Novice (7-8). Had they rolled out for both like BC Hockey did 2 years ago, this blow-out would not have happened as there would not be score kept. These are my recommendations how Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario can salvage their Novice Hockey program this year to ensure no further blow-outs take place; * Balancing:  Go back to the skills inventory of all the players, evaluations you did of all players (assuming you so as all MHA’s do in BC). Immediately rebalance your teams.  Ensure that every team has kids from the top ½, middle and lower level of the skills evaluations so all teams are balanced. Then have tiering games to ensure that the teams are in fact balanced and retier those teams (move up or down a tier) to ensure the teams balanced with a +/- 5 goals differential so blow-outs like this do not happen. As kids when we played shinny, dropped all our sticks in the middle or assigned captains to pick teams (nothing worse than being that last kid picked by the captains), if one team was dominating we (yes we as in kids) would rebalance the teams to ensure the games were competitive not blowouts even though no scoreboard, we all knew which team won, who scored, got assists.

• Eliminate the scoreboard and scoresheets in Novice: The scoreboard in Novice, even Atom (Development age group) is more for the adults to have bragging rights, for teams to compete for banners than it is for the kids.  All they want to do is play, have fun, and after the game ask what the snack is and when they go play again.

If kids can do it, then the adults that run the league with all the policies, procedures, I came across when I checked Alliance Hockey’s website should be able to do it vs. permitting a super team to roll over others as happened in this blow-out.

• If scores still going to be kept implemented until Hockey Canada or Hockey Ontario’s Applicable governing body mandate no scores be kept in Novice implement  a MERCY RULE starting with running time, then if 15 goals call the game

To Ensure that kids (and parents) get their bang for buck (don’t end ice time early)

• Have all the players drop their sticks in the middle and pull to each side to form teams to play good old pond hockey/shinny

• The ref should only be there to ensure safety but not enforce off sides or other rules

• The coaches should just open gates, not coach

• The kids should just play

The parents should Just Love Watching Your Kid Play

I Guarantee that the kids will have more fun as a result and will ask to do so again, and again, and again. Better yet, as cross ice hockey is going to be mandatory next year for Novice Split the two teams into A,B,C’s … coaches assign their top 5 players, next 5, and remaining into 3 mini teams. Then the A’s play the A’s cross ice in one end, B’s play the B’s in middle, C’s play C’s in other end Only 2 Goalies ? No Problem, have them rotate from game to game, pull empty nets so 4 on ice, turn them around so have to score off the boards and use gloves, pylons, spare gloves to be the other nets Then drop the puck in each end and just let the kids PLAY. No line changes No coaching No Reffing No Parents screaming coaching instructions of negative criticism Knowing all too well that we have our challenges bringing it back to the kids and both recommendations may get pushback here are other recommendations to ensure the practice of fair play in adhered to, one of the top 3 reasons that kids quit is due to no fair play policies.

• Enforce the Gretzky Rule for all games – max number of goals a player can score is who then must pass to get assists.. Promotes selflessness and team play.

A player on my Novice Team I coached I enforced the Gretzky Goal for him even though our association policies only enforced for tournaments from day 1 of the season, parents loved the idea, as he could score at will, and the assists he got for first year team mates (one was a good friend of his) were his biggest celebrations and he even asked to keep the pucks. His is playing Major Junior now so turned out to be a “pretty good player” and when we run into each other he and his parents thank me for helping him get to that level as selfishness is frowned up by all high level coaches.

• Make D play F, F play D, enforce 5 or more passes before can shoot, confirm ask other coaches to change up their lines and whatever else the can do to slow it down.

• Change the goalies if one team is way outmatched, the one on the winning team goes to the other net and vice versa.  This gives the one that is getting peppered a breather to watch the game from 200’ away and the other goalie an opportunity to get shots, make saves and be engaged.

Last thing any coach wants is a goalie’s confidence being destroyed by a blow-out, AKA when Jacques Martin when he left Patrick Roy in the net when his team was having a bad game in front of him and he was getting peppered and lost confidence in the game.

• Pull the goalie on the winning team to give the other team a change for a Hail Mary shot to get ONE goal, nothing worse than a goose egg in a blow-out game

When I coached Novice we used to play full ice (thankfully no longer the case) and  changed on the fly (vs. 2 minute buzzer which was also wrong as it was to ensure kids lined up properly for faceoffs) but games had 5 goal differential on the scoreboard. Even in a blow-out game where the game is 10-0 or higher, kids KNOW what the score is. I believe that rule was in place more for parents than players to ensure they would not go nuts in the stands. Example was a tournament game when we were in tough against a very strong team from Vancouver Island, were down 5-0 early in the first period and the tournament had a goals for and against tiebreaker rule so teams total goals for may determine if they moved onto the medal round or won the tournie. As each goal the other team scored went in the net, many of my players would say 6-0, 7-0 on the bench which I continued to discourage them, focus on just playing the game, having fun but I knew they would continue to keep track in their heads, and a few would ask me how come the scoreboard still said 5-0 in the third when we were down by a ton (I lost track when was 10-0 before the 1^st period ended) One thing that did happen for us and not Cambridge, is we were able to score ONE goal, so the scoreboard went to 6-1 (at that point was 22-1 several of my players reminded me of) so we did break the goose egg and both teams, parents, coaches celebrated like we won the Stanley Cup when we did so. The coaches of the other team were really apologetic after the game, they wanted to back off but stated the tiebreaker rule forced their hand and I understood but still felt they could have backed up the peddle but it was what it was then. I can only imagine what the parents of the Cambridge team were doing in the stands as the score continued to increase in their heads (as they only showed 6-0 on the scoreboard) …

• Better yet, do like BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan did before Hockey Canada made it mandatory for the 2019-20 season for Novice, roll out Cross Ice Hockey now, don’t keep track of score, have 2 or 3 mini games of 3 on three going at once, just drop the puck and roll kids in and out over the course of “game” and just let them play.

Below is a video that USA Hockey shared out that highlights the benefits of cross ice hockey that they rolled out 5 years ago nationally to adhere to their American Development Model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB_Ygapyl7c&t=11s

As the analytics showed, as many parents still are pushing back to change who feel that cross-ice will not prepare their “elite” 6-7-8 year olds (there is no such thing as an elite minor hockey player, only when they play for their country in the Olympics are elite) for rep hockey in Atom and beyond, the more advanced players benefit MORE from cross-ice hockey due to the smaller playing surface. As the parent shared, they don’t know if their kid is having fun, but it is refreshing to know that cross ice permits them to touch the puck, pass, shoot, battle much more than if was a full ice game. In Cross Ice, if a goal is scored, just tell kids to pull the puck out of the net and play on, don’t waste time having them line up for a faceoff. It helped Bobby Orr become a pretty good hockey player among many other NHL’ers who attribute pond hockey, shinny, stick and puck with 20 plus players on the ice with no scoreboard, or adults (no coaches, parents or refs, scorekeepers or timekeepers) present to become the players they become.

All Bobby’s Dad Doug would say to him before every ice time was “Just go out there, have fun and see what happens”

8 Year Old Kids don’t need scoreboards, they need to play for fun so they love the game more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning. Let’s all work together to bring the game back to the kids … where it belongs.