It’s not the size of dog in the fight

...it’s the size of the fight in the dog

By Jack Blatherwick

Let’s Play Hockey Columnist

Of course you’ve heard the phrase many times, but it’s worth repeating, because it’s inevitable that youth coaches will decide the position a player is assigned to for life. These decisions should be — but often are not — based on relevant criteria. A more humble approach would be for coaches to assume they can’t predict the future, and play everyone at all positions to learn the game from different perspectives.

How absurd — the tradition that the biggest kids (at age 7) should automatically become defensemen. First of all, if you truly believe this is the one position where size is important, I’d suggest that anthropometric data on growth rate might be assigned reading.

Just kidding.

But let’s get real. There couldn’t be a poorer reason to assign a youngster to play D. Size is comparatively irrelevant in youth hockey. It’s comparatively irrelevant in high school. And — once scouts adjust to the fact that refs are going to enforce the rule book — size will become less and less relevant at the highest levels as well.

Why do I say “comparatively irrelevant?” Because every other criterion by which a player could be evaluated is more important than size. Let’s list a few — but first a Herb Brooks story.

When Brooks coached the New York Rangers, they were the first NHL team to use several Swedes, Finns and Americans — many of them of below average size. After Brooks’ first season, the Rangers finished fourth behind the Flyers, Islanders and Capitals. The Flyers ruled the regular season, because Fred Shero was smart enough to see that if refs were going to call the same number of penalties on each team, his team would be extra big, extra tough and 100 percent mean. Their penalties would be ones you’d remember, while the other team might be whistled for touching.

However, in the playoffs, officials called penalties a little more like they were written in the book, so Brooks implored his team to avoid retaliation and let the Flyers beat themselves with penalties. Yes, the Rangers had some potential retaliators in Barry Beck, Nick Fotiu and others, so Brooks kept reminding them to turn the other cheek … just for the playoffs.

The end result was that the fourth-place Rangers sent the first-place Flyers off early to play golf and attend summer school to refine theirgoonery. The script was the same each year: the Rangers advanced to play the Islanders after dispatching the Flyers. Then, they lost in seven, and watched the Isles win the cup.

The Rangers were called “smurfs” by the media, because they looked like the diminutive smurf dolls that were popular at the time. Their innovative style of changing lanes and regrouping for better puck control and attack wasn’t adopted by the rest of the league until other teamsadded European players.

Just before Brooks’ first-year playoffs, he drove down to scout the Flyers in their last regular season game. Throughout the game, he groaned at their emphasis on thuggery, and said, “Jack, their D are more interested in killing people than making a pass, so we’re going to have to bait them into taking penalties.”

Between periods in the media lounge, he started the taunting process publicly when a reporter asked, “Do you have a plan for their size, especially their huge defensemen?”

Brooks replied loud enough so everyone in the room could hear, “Well, I thought I’d toss a few dog bones on the ice to distract them.”

Near chaos erupted as reporters crowded in like piranha. With pencils and paper ready, and recorders thrust in Brooks’ face, one of them asked, “Were you surprised at the first-year success of your smurfs?”

“Am I surprised that Mark Pavelich would lead the team in scoring his first year and help his linemates to their best years ever?” Brooks questioned, rhetorically. “Well, let’s analyze: he’s a great skater, brilliant passer, creative playmaker, skillful stickhandler and accurate shooter. He’s got it all … except size.

“Now let’s analyze the Flyer defense. They can’t skate, can’t pass, never make plays, can’t stickhandle or shoot. But… they’ve got size.”

The game was on. This was public taunting on steroids. (Note: the quotes are as accurate as my demented old brain can recall, so I apologize if I missed a detail or two).

I grabbed his arm and said, “Herbie, let’s get outta here. It’s a long drive back to New York.”

The story’s true, but more importantly, his list is worth consideration, because Herbie won some significant championships by moving small, brilliant forwards to defense.

When deciding if a youngster might be a good D, size is the last thing on the list. The first? My list starts with passion for hockey. Next would be a burning desire to keep the puck out of the net. At defense you need a competitor who will dive face first if necessary to prevent a goal. And he must compete — even with a broken leg — until the puck is out of the zone.

Defensemen must be the smartest players on the team. After all, there is no worse time or place for dumb decisions than when the opponents are on the attack. Anticipation is a must, because if a dangerous situation isn’t sniffed out before it starts, it’s usually too late. D must have great stick skills. Turnovers and errant passes are never a good thing, but if a D commits them, it’s deadly.

Backward skating ability? It’s second to last on the list, because it’s so easy to teach. Andrew Alberts at 16 years old couldn’t skate a lick. However, he had all the other qualities in spades — and parenthetically, he was big, so he attracted the attention of scouts in spite of his skating deficiencies. But because no one had taken the time to help him with his skating, he was cut from traveling youth teams in his hometown. Later, he worked hard to become an incredible skater, an All-American at Boston College, and he now makes millions playing in the NHL.

Youth coaches had overlooked his passion, competitiveness, rink sense, stick skills, anticipation and desire to improve. It’s not easy to overlook all that, but it happens every day. That’s why I write.

Jack Blatherwick, Ph.D., is a physiologist for the Washington Capitals.

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