Bag skates send a message to underachieving players in the NHL
When a team suffers a big loss in a game, they often hear about it from the coach afterward. Many coaches are not afraid to call out certain players who did not compete hard enough or
made big mistakes. And while the coach’s harsh words are often hard to stomach, they often resonate with the players.
Another attention-grabbing method that coaches in the National Hockey League have been using in recent weeks is the 'bag skate'. Performed during a practice session, the players skate
around the rink numerous times in succession until the coach tells them to stop. Some of these bag skates have lasted 20 minutes or more, and they often serve as a fitting punishment for an underachieving team.
Cory Clouston, the head coach of the Ottawa Senators, is the most recent NHL coach to use this method as a way of sending a message to his team. The Sens are off to a slow start this season,
as they have posted a disappointing record of 1-4-1 in their first six games.
“We needed to get back to the drawing board,” Clouston said after the Senators’ practice on Wednesday, 21 October. “We’re not so good that we can just play haphazardly. We have to rely
on simple, structured hockey."
“We have guys that care and now we have to make sure that intensity and that caring is channeled in the right direction. If you just work hard, it’s not going to be good enough. You have
to work hard and you have to work smart and you have to work within that system.”
Other coaches that have employed this method recently are Scott Arniel of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Todd Richards of the Minnesota Wild. Arniel used the dreaded drill after the Jackets’
dropped their home opener 5-2 to the visiting Chicago Blackhawks, while Richards used it after his team lost 3-2 to the Blue Jackets.
Both teams played games in the days that followed, with Minnesota dispatching the Vancouver Canucks with a 6-2 drubbing on Tuesday, 19 October, and Columbus cruising to a 3-1 win over
the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, 20 October. Clearly, the message had been well-received by the players of both teams. The coaches were satisfied as well, proving that skating a few laps can go a long way.
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