“Pass the F_ _ king Puck”

It’s that time of year. You don’t have to have the “Whisper 2000” to pick up the voices of players this time of year “calling” or shall I say or desperately “yelling” or slapping their stick to receive a pass. When the puck doesn’t arrive when or where they want it, you hear it almost instantly, “pass the F@$%ing puck.”

It’s gotten so bad lately that I’m not surprised the $300 or $400 dollar sticks haven’t broken. There’s one thing to hear that phrase, multiple times, but I’m not sure what’s worse, the yelling and screaming or the body language from the players. Ironically, when those players get the puck on the stick, they’re the last ones to ever think about passing.

Can you say, “entitled,”?

Listen I get it, here’s Craig with another article or rant about passing or the lack there of, but if you watch closely the lack of or reluctance to pass the puck travels at warp speed throughout a team. We were told to pass the puck or there would be consequences. That’s how the vast majority of us were brought up in the game.

Passing the puck was just something you did, it was natural, it was always expected. We were taught from a very young age to share the wreath so to speak, at all times, no matter what.

From a scouting perspective players that pass the puck jump off the page, actually they drastically climb up any draft board. Those that refuse to pass the puck plummet. With all the focus on individual skill development, one could say they passing has taken a back seat in the game. Don’t believe me just go watch a U13, U15 or U18 AAA game.

We have all witnessed the plays during a game, where we all say to ourselves or for some with no filters out loud, “that puck needed to go across,” “move the puck,” or “pass the F@#$king puck” “pass the damn puck.”

It’s gotten so bad that a few weeks ago, one player on the power play was urging their teammates to pass them the puck and almost directing traffic to move the puck, but as soon as they received the puck, they took over and then refused to pass the puck for the entire sequence, and refused to follow his own “advice” from seconds before. Don’t worry he got the shot off, because he thinks he’s the go to guy on the power play. Oh, the shot was blocked because it was a low percentage shot from the perimeter and quickly cleared down the ice, which left that player shaking their head in disapproval.

You see it’s around this time of year where teams tend to start freezing their own teammates out. I have referred to it as “subtle selfishness” for quite sometime now, but trust me it’s not subtle by any means.

Teams that aren’t moving the puck right now are struggling internally and there’s a definite rift beginning to widen on the team. It’s quiet or subtle selfishness that will completely destroy any hope of that team winning big games. By this time of year players are giving certain players a taste of their own medicine.

A little taste of their own medicine should do the trick.

You see the kid frantically yelling and demanding the puck hasn’t passed the puck all season, sure they have moved a few times only when it served them. Passing the puck for them means trying to get/collect points, it doesn’t mean making the right play, it means points.

How the hell would you feel if you’re not getting the puck, but yet when it’s on your stick it’s moved almost instantly. That’s how you play the game the right way. This kind of thing is happening at a lot of different levels even the Major Junior level, don’t believe me, just watch odd man rushes or the power play, you will see it.

Passing is a lost art.

Those that pass the puck are valuable, those that don’t are just entitled puck-hogs that will learn lessons eventually the hard way. This might sound over the top or extreme. This might sound out of character, but can you imagine the players that have been dealing with this an entire season?

Can you imagine if they have been playing with the same players all year or all the way up through and the behaviour has never been corrected, never addressed or worst case celebrated and rewarded?

Can you imagine if coaches actually praise and promoted a non-passing culture? You know something that’s exactly the message they all send when they ignore selfish players.

I wonder how many more times, we will all hear, “pass the f@#$ing puck” this season?