My travels to local rinks this early summer have given me the chance to watch some area high school leagues in action. Actually, I wasn’t very impressed with the skill levels I was seeing, so our conversation began with that. Ultimately, however, our discussion swung towards the above topic.

What I did was to pose a question to that young coach, asking him, “In all honesty, would you suggest your kids play a summer league game tonight, or would they have been better off working out with my team for two hours?” His very brief answer was something like, “A no-brainer…”

Of course, in a game, a player might get 10 or 12 shifts, and the lesser players — or the ones who need work in specific areas — will hardly get to practice whatever it is they need. Or, as I read recently, a pretty high level coach noted that, “Most of the time players just repeat their shortcomings in a game atmosphere.”

Yes, I guess we can’t blame youngsters for wanting to look their best in front of family, friends and possible future coaches. So they tend to take the safe route, or just repeat whatever it is they’ve done before. In other words, they stay in their comfort zone.

On the other hand, practices — or at least those of good quality — are usually aimed at breaking through that comfort zone. They should be about learning new skills, and bringing basic skills to a higher level.

Oh, on a slightly related matter… I understand that a lot of young players participate in those leagues so they might impress their future high school coaches (or whomever). Hmmmmm… I’d like to reason something with you, though… Which players do you think a coach is going to select once tryouts come? I mean, he or she has probably seen (or heard about) a kzillion players who have skated during the off-season, so it’s doubtful they’ll make their selections based on summertime activities. No, they’re going to wait until the tryouts are winding down, and they’re going to eventually select the very best hockey players they can.

It seems to me then, that the best use of one’s off-season would be to greatly elevate skills, to become a little smarter in playing important situations, and to be in as good a shape as he or she can be. I (and the other two fairly high level coaches cited here) don’t believe games are the place to achieve all those things. Naw. a player has a far better chance of making the team next season through dedicated gym work, with some off-ice training, and with some EFFECTIVE on-ice practices.

Then, of course, there’s the real gist of my original post — in that players need a time to break away from the same-old, same-old. (And the same-old, at least in my book, is games, games and more games.) Yes, the off-season offers the opportunity to vastly improve one’s playing abilities. At the same time, it should be devoted to rejuvenating a player’s love for the game. And, what I find with my players — or at least the ones who heed my advice, is that they ultimately can’t wait to do battle once the fall nears.