The Game Within the Game: How Some Coaches Chose to Communicate?

There’s out of position and then there’s out of position and buried.

It’s hard to imagine how some coaches would bury a young player that is having success in their first foray in the QMJHL.

There’s always two sides to the story, but the optics don’t look good.

Coaches send messages all of the time, some are subtle, some not so much. One would assume if you have a young talented player that’s having success, but needs some refinement away from the puck the coach would try to set that player up for success rather than outwardly criticize, bury said player and take away all of their time on the power play.

I’m all for buying in, playing the game the right way, but how can things change within a span of a few short weeks?

Again the optics don’t look good,

Clearly when a highly touted player comes into the league and predominantly has success in one position, it would be hard pressed to have a coach decide to play the player in a different position.

That’s where the communication factor would have to come into play. The game within the game.

If you looked closely, you could see the players frustration level and the coaches.

You could also see the players confidence decreasing while the coaches body language change while that player touched the puck.

Decreased opportunity to shine in certain sequences, decreased time on ice all equates to a massive decrease in confidence.

Again there’s always two sides to the story, perhaps the player isn’t working hard or going through the motions in practice. Perhaps the player is entitled and needs a message sent. Either the optics don’t look good.

The game within game, it continues to happen at every level, let’s hope the messages are received, communication is honest, transparent and at an all time high. But more importantly let’s hope that there’s no mind games happening, because the optics on that one look dreadful.