It's difficult to measure qualitative vs quantitative elements in hockey.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

“If he’s so good in the room why don’t you just leave him there?”

Most of us have a lot of time on our hands to watch the National Hockey League persevere down the stretch, and if you’re like me you’re reading and listening to perspectives that come from all different directions — coaches, media, social media, and the vocal parts of different fanbases.

The confidence with which those not involved in the behind-the-scenes operations of an NHL team never ceases to surprise me. I understand it — passionate hockey fans and professionals who cover a team dissect the information that’s available to them and use it to craft an angle that pushes the conversation forward for them and their followers. To say the only way to comprehend the choices of a hockey coach is to have previously played the game at that level is nonsense. I’ve learned a ton of useful information by pros and amateurs alike — what matters is how you apply it. 

There isn’t a lot that happens on the ice during a hockey game these days we can’t quantify, so when there’s information that we can track and there are people with the requisite work ethic required to distill it all, that’s a conversation worth listening to in my opinion. My coaching experience, both here in Winkler as the head coach of the MJHL Flyers and from my time spent as an assistant with the UBC Thunderbirds Men’s Hockey Team, tells me I value carrying the puck into the offensive zone with control instead of giving it away and hoping you can get it back.

But why is it important? 

Well, the data collected on zone entries with possession and how they lead to a scoring chance more often than dump-ins reinforces that belief. It’s quantifiable. That said, just because I want to know which defenceman leads the team in breaking the puck out of the zone with controlled passes, that doesn’t mean I don’t value the defenceman who chips the puck off the glass and out more frequently. The Coaches Site founder Aaron Wilbur even named a podcast after the act.

It’s difficult to measure qualitative vs quantitative elements in hockey from inside the room, let alone from a distance. It’s even harder to attach negative or positive values to things you can’t see.

The impact on culture

How do we quantify loyalty?

It’s officially the offseason and I’m in the middle of a 14-day interprovincial quarantine so let me digress for a moment: the mighty spartan warriors made famous in Zack Snyder’s 2006 movie 300 fought side-by-side to defeat the invading Persian army in the battle of Thermopylae. One soldier’s shield protected the next in line, and his the next, and so on. The strongest of the brave 300 fought at the front of the line while his brothers held them up and literally pushed them forward. Fighting in the closed confines of the hot gates of Thermopylae, the mind-boggling numbers of the Persian army count for nothing. When a solider is injured or weakened, another’s turn at the front of the line is earned. 

Spoiler alert: they all die at the end, including bold King Leonidas, so it’s not a perfect analogy. But even the wishes of King Leonidas — a Sparta free of tyranny and oppression — wins in the end because his powerful wife Queen Gorgo held up his symbolic shield at home, far from the hot gates, and persevered in her own battle with a corrupt Spartan council. Thus the interests of Sparta and her people were upheld. The team wins.

Anyways, we’re playing hockey here and last time I checked games are still 60 minutes long, and not everybody can start every period or play on the power play, but each and every player can have a big impact on culture. 

And culture starts in the room.

Here’s a snippet from a presentation I gave to a local hockey team here in Winkler that I thought was relevant:

How to contribute to culture:

1. 1. Be on time
   2. Great your teammates
   3. Help keep the room tidy
   4. Spend extra time in the gym
   5. Take care of yourself in between games and practices

What you get from culture:

1. 1. Increased focus on challenging tasks
   2. A worry-free environment
   3. The empowerment to take advantage of your opportunities
   4. The responsibility to optimize your condition, abilities, and impact
   5. Poise: create an automatic response when the moment counts

A person who feels empathy and compassion for another person is inevitably affected by that which affects that person. Let’s say a young player who’s working hard to make an impact makes a mistake in a game that ends up in the back of the net. It happens, we all know it’s coming, and the best way to learn is by pushing your comfort zone. But even the grizzliest of grizzled veterans, if they’re a good teammate, will feel a bit of the frustration of her or his young teammate. 

And here’s where being good in the room counts: if the player who made the mistake pouts, retreats, or blames someone (like you, the coach), that negativity will spread. It’s inevitable, you’ve all seen it happen. That’s why you’re the coach, to put an end to the negative reaction and the bad body language. And if you don’t and the negativity is allowed to carry on, it becomes a distraction. Everybody has bad days and negative reactions. Competition breeds passion. But the player whose contribution doesn’t outweigh their negative influence won’t and shouldn’t have a seat in the dressing room for very long.

Now, clearly this isn’t reserved for young players who are learning on the job (every league is a development league). A player can learn from their mistakes while also accepting coaching, being gracious is the face of failure, and refocusing their efforts. The other players feed off positive energy quicker than negative energy, therefore being good in the room not only endears someone to their teammates, it should inspire them as well. “If he’s doing all he can to get better with limited ice time, I’m sure as heck going to do the same.”

The only difference with older players is you might have a better understanding of their limitations relative to their teammates. And that’s ok because it’s a team sport. The numbers might not show up in an obvious fashion in the analytics report, but a player who’s utilized in the right fashion while being an encouraging, positive influence on the team is worth more than just their own numbers, but the numbers of their teammates as well. 

And it’s precisely because we don’t have time to fight a whole damn war that will be forever immortalized in books and movies that we owe it to the team to find the right personalities on and off the ice. A positive approach isn’t tangible, but it’s important in the room, in the gym, in team meetings, and to the overall culture of your team. The teammate who cheers on your success small and large, who you can lean on when times are tough, and who’s there for you because they know you’ll be there for them — that’s the qualitative measurement of heart, character, and commitment. Eventually those values will show up on the scoresheet when the team wins. 

One player’s opportunity might be a power play in overtime, while another’s might be a huge shot block in the first period. Being good in the room means supporting your teammates when they get opportunities, and in turn they’ll support you in yours.

And that counts for a lot.