Want your players to be aggressive, unrelenting and be annoyingly competitive? Of course you do. Matt Smaby can help.

Smaby, the 41st overall pick of the 2003 NHL Draft, played 122 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning following three years at the University of North Dakota and two seasons with Shattuck–Saint Mary’s. Now the Head Coach of the Waterloo Black Hawks, the 39-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, took the stage at TCS Live in 2023 to discuss his commitment to combining a physical style of play with the modern, skilled aspect of hockey. 

If you ever saw Smaby play, you know he was aggressive, unrelenting and annoyingly competitive. He was fearless and he now coaches his players to be the same and play with confidence.

“We can’t let the fear of failure stop them from doing whatever it is that they want to do on the ice,” said Smaby. “I want our players to feel confident in their ability to go out and make it happen.”

During this 25 minute TCS Live presentation, Smaby goes into detail on how to take the essence of tough, old school hockey and apply it to hockey today. This includes an aggressive forecheck (hard pressure from F1 & F2, D pinch all the time), being assertive on stands in the neutral zone (work to hold the line with great back pressure) and quickly closing in the defensive zone (no time, no space and look for chances to outnumber the opposition). You’ll also learn the three habits that allow Smaby’s group to have success being aggressive: direct pressure, good stick details and staying face up.

By teaching his forwards to pressure hard and encouraging defensemen to pinch often, opposing teams often feel suffocated and uncomfortable playing against Smaby’s group, and that’s exactly what he wants. Smaby teaches his players to go right at guys, to not take any angles when pressuring, and to not worry about getting beat. His system is fun for players and can translate to any level of hockey, making Smaby an expert on player development along with being beloved by his team.

“We want to empower our players to have that attacking, aggressive mindset, but to be detailed when they’re doing it.”

Noteworthy timestamps:

• 00:25 The game of hockey has evolved
• 03:15 What is modern old school hockey?
• 05:10 The habits
• 05:50 Direct pressure
• 07:35 Good stick
• 10:10 Face up
• 14:50 How do we teach the habits?
• 17:00 Teaching clips
• 19:20 Why do we play that way?
• 22:00 Isn’t it risky?