Ask the Coach is a bi-weekly feature where Chilliwack Chiefs hockey boss Brian Maloney offers unfiltered answers to questions from the fans.
Heading into the final weeks of the BCHL season, Mike Crasstun wonders how much coaches and players who talk about taking it ‘one day at a time’ start paying closer attention to stats and standings.
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Let’s be honest.
During a certain day or time frame, yes it’s one day at a time and one period at a time and all the cliches that go with it.
But if I sat here and told you I was only focused on Wednesday (Chilliwack played Langley Wednesday night), I’d be lying to you.
Most coaches will look at the big picture. We are lumping games into bunches and going over scenarios about where we could possibly land.
We’re calculating how many points we’ve got to win and what we need to take care of to win the Mainland division.
Do we share that with our team?
I don’t think we’ll go into depth on it.
We’ll make the kids aware that if we take care of our home games we like our chances.
But we don’t want to set them up for failure either. If we do slip up on a home game we don’t want them thinking it’s the end of the world and we’re never going to finish first.
We just want them to be aware of it so they’re not waking up in the third period saying, ‘We’d better win this.’
We want to help them to stay focused.
They are allowed to look at the stats and standings and do whatever makes them a better player. Some will study every single stat. They know exactly everywhere on the ice where they’ve gotten a goal or assist. Some of them have it broken down to a science, and that’s fine because that’s what makes them tick.
Some of them don’t want anything to do with that.
They just want to focus on having a good sleep, getting a good breakfast, making sure they train properly and staying within the moment. To be perfectly honest with you, I was one of those players.
Back 20 years ago, I had no idea where I was in any scoring race.
I was living with Travis Banga and he was a stat watcher. He would grab the paper and check it out and tell me, ‘Have a good weekend Brian cause you’re two points out of the scoring race.’
I’d laugh about it and I appreciated it, but I never thought staring at a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper would make me more focused and a better player.
But, am I going to go dark on these kids and not give them any statistics?
No. They’re smart and they’ll study it, probably more than players did in the past. And some of them will just go about their business.
Some players put tons of pressure on themselves and some players are prone to over-thinking things.
So where the cliches come from about taking it one game at a time is probably coaches trying to simplify and keep them focused on certain tasks at hand.
I expect our guys to be focused and ready every single day, and I’m sure they’re already thinking about Penticton on Saturday.
But that doesn’t mean they write off Langley on Wednesday.
We’re not taking anyone lightly, especially this last month. Midseason it’s happened where we look past Surrey and all of a sudden we’re in a game.
It happens at the best levels too and that’s why coaches stress, ‘Let’s take care of this day first.’
But the reality is, you can’t control what someone is thinking. You can prepare them for Langley, but when they go home and they’re lying in bed are they thinking about Penticton?
Who knows?
Probably, cause they’re a good team.
So is Langley.
So is Coquitlam.
But Penticton is right on our heels for first in the league and it’s a pride thing.