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The Dog Days of a Hockey Season

by Lance Pitlick, Team Sweet Hockey.

Ask any hockey player and they will tell you that the best part of the season is the beginning and the end! What happens between those two points is what makes this game and its players so great. It’s also what separates out players who like to play hockey and who are hockey players. We are now going to look into what happens between the beginning and of the end of the season.

The beginning of the season is the most exciting. You’re anxious to show the results of your hard work in the off-season. The off-season is where players can blossom. Young players may simply grow a few inches, while others have become more confident in their stick skills because they have spent endless hours out in the garage or basement stick handling or shooting thousands of pucks. Still others have spent time working on their skating. Older players may spend the entire summer getting stronger. They may have worked on improving leg strength and find that when they returned to the ice their speed has dramatically increased and find they can’t be knocked off the puck easily anymore! Once the season starts, new friends are made and your current family dynamic changes. Your activities and social calendar now revolves around the team. You find yourself having sleepovers and spending off days with these new friends. There’s optimism about what lies ahead and a hope that a championship is in the cards.

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Now we will fast forward to the months of January and February. This is what I call the Dog Days of the Hockey Season. This can be a very challenging for hockey players for a variety of reasons.
  1. You find that your individual accomplishments or more specifically your point production, +/- ratings, or just your overall game is not what you’d hoped for.
  2. Your ice time during games may be reduced or what we call good minutes may not be there. Good minutes are considered to be power play time, penalty kill minutes as well as being called to the ice in important situations such as D-zone face-offs or ice time during the last few minutes of a tight game.
  3. You may find the success of the team is not what you’d hoped for. Maybe you thought your team would be at the top of the standings and you’re sitting in the middle of the pack or worse yet, at the very bottom and struggling to move up.
  4. The nagging injuries you may have developed during the first half of the season won’t go away. Injuries that you played through in the early part of the season become more burdensome now and you start using them as an excuse for your lack of production or overall play.
  5. Lastly, the teammates and coaches you adored at the beginning of the season have since become annoying. Your newfound friends are getting under your skin on a regular basis. Coaches are all over the team for inconsistent play, lack of effort or mentally not being there.

Folk’s, this is what’s called ADVERSITY! Every player goes through it each season and in many cases multiple times. Hitting the wall is a guarantee. Getting over the wall is what separates us as players. If you look at the top NHL players, all you see are their successes, but every one of them had to struggle through those “Dog Days” just like you! The difference is they figured out how to get through it and became a better player because of it.

Here are some tips that may help you avoid some of it or help you through it…

  1. At the beginning of the season keep your goals and expectations reasonable. It’s good to set goals and expectations high but they have to be attainable! If you scored 2 goals in the previous season don’t set a personal goal of becoming the teams leading scorer the next.
  2. If you are finding that your ice time or good minutes have been reduced, suck it up! Look at yourself in the mirror. The answer may be clear. Are you doing what you should to deserve more or better ice time? Are you the hardest working player in practice? Do you do what the coach asks of you or do you listen to others who say things like “you’re getting screwed”?  
  3. If your team is struggling, simply do what you can on and off the ice to make little differences. Be a leader in the dressing room and stay positive no matter what the results are. One player does not make a team so you will not be able to make the difference alone. Simply try to make yourself better every day and be a good teammate.
  4. Injuries in hockey can never be completely avoided but what we take some preventative measures. The injuries that are the most annoying and take the longest to heal for an athlete are groin and hamstring injuries. You should develop a stretching routine and do it religiously every day you compete on ice, off ice, in practice and games. Your normal bumps and bruises should be iced or treated immediately following the activity. That will dramatically speed up the recovery process.
  5. Lastly, if you had non-hockey friends before the season, continue to spend time hanging out with those friends. You will appreciate it when you get into those Dog Days of the season and need a quick vacation from your hockey buddies! Also, remember your coaches are doing everything they can to make you a better player and to make the team successful. I have always believed when a coach is hard on a player it’s because he believes in them as a player and person. When your coach says nothing to you, especially when you make a mistake in a critical situation, he no longer sees any hope for you!


The stretch drive or last month of the season can be the most exciting part of the year, especially if you’re in the hunt for a championship. Play Hard, Play With Passion and Play For Each Other. Best of Luck and we’ll see you soon. 

Team Sweet Hockey & OnlineStickHandling.com