By Peter Watts /
The playoffs are in full swing in Calgary minor hockey. It’s the time of year where there is such a focus on competition and winning at virtually all levels of the game.
I say “virtually” because we can’t lose sight of the fact the game is supposed to be about having fun, particularly in the younger age groups.
The peewee AA boys have a little extra on the line. The two finalists for the city championship will host a 10-team provincial tournament at Max Bell Centre March 13-16. That same weekend, the bantam A Calgary Trojans and Calgary Dinos will host an eight-team provincials at East Calgary Twin Arenas.
“We’re excited about hosting both events and we’re especially pleased about hosting the boys at Max Bell,” reports Hockey Calgary GM Kirk Reynolds.
“With our new hockey resource centre located there, we want people to start thinking about Max Bell as Hockey Calgary Central, much the way people think of Father Bauer Arena as Hockey Canada’s headquarters.
“With that in mind, we’ll have 60 teams from the Timbits program on the ice at Max Bell on March 22nd for a family day of fun. The players will each play one hockey game but we’ll have a lot of other activities going on as well.”
Trevor Morgan, the manager of hockey development for Hockey Calgary, says his group is playing close attention to the youngest players.
“We’re looking to expand our hockey development model from the Timbits program for the five to seven year olds, to novice players, ages seven and eight,” Morgan says.
“We’re putting a heavy emphasis on mentoring coaches to teach skills to young players and to stress the fun part of fundamentals. We’ll be using both classroom and on-ice sessions to make sure coaches are trained to teach skill development properly.”
“We want parents to buy in to the concept of skill development, so there’ll be sessions for parents to get that message out,” says Reynolds.
“And next year we’re tying in with Ian Clark’s GDI Goaltending School and we’ll be offering five specialty clinics for aspiring goaltenders. As well, we’re putting together a Timbits Learn to Play hockey school, where we hope to put 360 youngsters through a two-week camp and teach them how to play the game.”
The other goal in the year to come is to encourage member associations to use their best coaches to mentor and to work with younger players on skill development.
“It makes sense,” says Morgan, “that you’d want your best coaches teaching skills to youngsters so that they learn the basics of the game properly. Everything starts with that.”
Hockey Canada Update
Team Canada general manager Steve Yzerman has some thinking to do as he decides on a roster for this year’s world men’s championships in Halifax and Quebec City. The NHL schedule ends on April 6. The first round of the playoffs will be done by April 22. Canada’s first game is on May 2.
Yzerman can only pick 23 players. He doesn’t have to name his final roster until just before the first game. He could select 23 players from the first-round playoff losers.
But if he can’t fill out the roster from that group, he’s going to have to ask some players who’ve been off skates for more than two weeks, and who might have to cut short a vacation in Hawaii.
The good news is that Canadian players tend to respond when asked to wear their country’s jersey. And it doesn’t hurt that Yzerman is doing the asking. He’ll likely put a few players from non playoff teams on standby and fill out his roster after April 22.
This will be the first time the men’s worlds have ever been held outside Europe and the event celebrates the centennial of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The home side will want to put on a good show.
National Women’s Team Named
The national women’s team is being named this week with one eye on this year’s women’s world championships in Harbin, China next month, and the other eye on building a big pool of talent for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver-Whistler BC.
“There’ll be some returning veterans who didn’t play last season,” reports GM Mel Davidson. “Defensive players Cheryl Pounder and Becky Kellar were off last year after giving birth and forward Cheryl Piper missed last year after tearing up her knee.
“This will be a team that combines youth and experience. We want to see some of the players who debuted at the last Olympics in Torino show that they are ready to play a bigger role in the wake of the retirements of veteran players like Cassie Campbell and Danielle Goyette.
“And we’ve had good success with our U-22 program and are looking forward to promoting a few players from that level onto our senior women’s team.”
Twenty players plus an alternate forward and an alternate goalie have been named to the team which will gather for a brief camp in Victoria on March 25. The group departs for China on March 30. |
