Tony, you win and you lose games in the 'war zone' in front of each net.
I would emphasize that area in my next practice. Tie up sticks, man-you-puck triangle away from the puck, stick on the puck when checking and stick in the passing lanes away from the puck.
I plan to draw a circle in front of each net with spray paint at my next practice and I want 4 players in that circle on the attack and everyone coming back to there on defense with one on the puck and a tight box behind. We are in our final two weekends of our season and three teams on top of each other for third place. So our problems are similar.
We will do battling drills and games in tight areas and full ice flow so we can play with speed.
As in another topic 'smart decisions with the puck make all of the difference. Your team needs at least 65% good decisions when they get the puck and force the opponents below that and you have a great chance of being successful.
It sounds like you said the right things. Now work on the process and the product will take care of itself.
Tony
The one thing I would be careful of is when you mentioned to them about how the next goal could 'break our opponent or give them hope.'
At that age, or in my opinion any age for that matter, I'd caution against a good vs. bad 'either/or' type of comment because some players tighten up and rather than playing to win, play more not to lose. I don't know if that's necessarily what happened in your case, but it might be some food for thought down the road.
Otherwise I think you are on the right track as far as finding what the technical problems were and how to fix them, and more importantly the lessons to be taken from it.
Good thoughts.
Our team is half 02 birth year and half 01. All the teams we are playing are 90% 01. We are tiny and have problems getting pushed around in front of the net. We probably had the puck 5 to 1 in front of their net and still lost the game.
At practice last night, I actually talked about how to brace and position oneself in front of the net. I also had my older Pee Wee AA son who is a great garbage goal scorer , talk to them about how to be successful in front of the net.
We ran a lot of battle drills and I had them play 3 on 3 cross ice no pass to encourage moving feet being strong on the puck and positioning to support the puck.
I understand what you are saying about potentially making them tight but this is a very loose group. My D were still rushing the puck and pinching when we were up 4-2 in the 3rd. We were also completely taking it to the other team.
My Squirt AA team lost a really tough playoff game this weekend 5-4. We led the game 4-2 going into the 3rd period and out shot our opponent 32-17.
We have not had a lot of success this season. So they do not have a lot of experience protecting leads. Going into the 3rd period I told them the next goal would be big. It would either break our opponnent or give them hope. I tried to talk them thru making wise plays with the puck thru the 3rd period. The game tying goal was caused by lack of point coverage on the blueline and the game winning goal a defenseman left a player in front of our net uncovered.
I felt really badly for the kids as they took the loss hard. I tried to tell them that they had played some of their best hockey and done very many good things in the game. We have worked 90% skills this season and they have improved a ton.There were a few things that hurt them at the end. Penalties, getting out of position and poor decisions with the puck. We talked about how you need to lose a few games that way before you learn how to win in that situation. We also discussed winnign and losing with dignity and class.
My questions are:
1) What else do you feel needs to be said after a particularly tough loss?
2) How do you like to run practices after a tough loss in the playoffs?