Wearing the "C"

The Desperados hockey club in Santa Rosa in 2008.  In this photo, I'm actually wearing the "A" for alternate captain in the center of the first row.

My lovely Louisianian wife, oddly enough, was the first Captain of an ice hockey team in our house.  Being the team captain in any level of ice hockey is a position and honor unmatched in any other team sport.  Some great hockey captains, like Mark Messier, can be forceful and vocal leaders on and off the ice.  Others, like Steve Yzerman, are quieter and just lead by example.  Most hockey captains are usually among the best players on the team at the higher levels, but even in the NHL you may find some captains who are just grind it out "lunch pail" types of guys who give you their best effort every night.

At every level of hockey, each team is permitted to have one captain wearing the "C" on their sweater and up to two alternate captains who wear the  "A's".  They are supposed to be the only players on the ice to speak with the officials during a game.  They are expected by the coaching staff, and their teammates, to be leaders on and off the ice. 

Each season there are a couple of NHL teams without a captain that designate three players to wear "A's" and share the leadership responsibility.  Teams without a captain are usually younger and lacking veteran leadership.  I would argue they also have an idiot for a General Manager (I'm talking to you Colorado and Florida) because you shouldn't ever have an NHL team without a player who isn't capable of being the Captain.

Charles Schulz - the longtime Peanuts cartoonist - owned the ice rink in Santa Rosa and decided in the late 1990's that there should be more women playing hockey in his rink in Santa Rosa.  He recruited a couple of coaches, donated one of his coveted weekly mid-evening ice slots to the women and, for the first time, hired a security guard to patrol the rink's parking lot, so the women would feel safe coming and going from their car to the rink.

Word went out that women of all ages were encouraged to come to these weekly clinics.  After a few months, they built up a core of about 20 hockey playing women and formed a team, the Storm, in the lowest level - "C" league - late night adult league. 

The Storm played a couple of seasons in the lower level adult league and some of the women - especially the younger, athletic ones - took to the game so much and improved so rapidly that they left the women's team - the Storm - and moved up to other teams in the faster, higher skilled "B" league.

Eventually most of the women dispersed among the teams in the adult leagues with a core few remaining with the original Storm.  As the original women of the Storm moved to different teams, my wife was soon chosen as the Captain of the Storm.  She was friendly, had been on the women's team from the beginning and was the only female USA Hockey certified coach at the rink (she helped teach the beginner "Basics" class to youngsters on Saturday mornings).

I helped her out behind the scenes in compiling her roster and making sure everyone had their paperwork filled out correctly and made their payments on time.  She had to order new sweaters, numbers and front logo patches for any new players joining the team.  Before each game she had to make up her lines - groups of three forwards and pairs of defensemen - who would play together during the game.  She would be the designated person to speak with the officials should the need arise during the game.  Even though she was never their best player, she was their leader.

As I helped out as an assistant coach on a couple of my boys' hockey teams, I was witness to the leadership dynamic at an early age.  How it worked and sometimes how it didn't work.  I was also present each time we counted the votes for captains on each team.  The captains were usually voted nearly unanimously and the two assistant captains usually stood above anyone else as well.  And I don't ever recall a team voting themselves inappropriate captains.  It was something they took seriously and did quickly without much thought or reflection.  Everyone knew who their leaders were.

I was assigned to a team when I first joined the adult league in Santa Rosa and stuck around on that same team for years and years.  The roster would always have several changes from season to season - some guys would move up to the "B" league while some would take a season off and come back later - but the basic core group of guys remained from year to year.  Eventually a couple of captains moved on and it was my turn to be the Captain of my team. 

I was an obvious choice at that point.  I had been around for years and was well-known among my teammates and at the rink, I was the only USA Hockey certified coach on my team and I was reasonably organized and responsible.  I asked the guys if anyone objected or if they wanted to take a vote, and everyone just shrugged their shoulders and said, "Sure, yeah, whatever."

I started typing out spreadsheets of the roster with ages, addresses, contact numbers, etc.  I sent out e-mails to make sure I knew who was returning for the next season and tried to recruit new players to fill in open positions.  I ensured everyone had made their hockey payments to the rink.

Prior to every game I would go through my available line-up and determine lines and defense pairings for that night's game.  I begged everyone to call or e-mail me before the game if they weren't going to be there, so I knew what I had to work with, but there were always a couple of guys who wouldn't show up and wouldn't let me know. 

I had a small magnetic board with a series of small 1" magnets with every players name on our team.  I would arrange the names as they would play during the game.  The first forward line to start the game would be the first three magnets at the top.  The left wing would be on the left side, center in the middle and right wing on the right, etc.  Just below the three lines (hopefully) of forwards would be the two or three pairs of defensemen (less people would show up for the later games which started at 10:30 at night) placed in the order they would go out on the ice and which side - left or right - they would play during the game.

I would come to the rink with an idea of my lines and pairs made out and then make a few small adjustments during the warm-up as I sized up who was and wasn't in attendance that evening.  Some players would request a position or linemate before the game, and I always tried to accommodate any reasonable request.  I would call everyone together after the warm-up and announce the lines.  I would then place the magnetic board in front of the forwards, up against the boards of the rink, so they could look down and see where they were supposed to be during the game.

The board thing was pretty anal - most captains just wrote their lineups on a piece of paper and crossed out anyone who hadn't shown up that night - but I found it really easy to adjust and use.  I received a lot of ribbing about it from the guys, but one night I forgot to bring it and told them to just do what they normally do and complete panic ensued.  I believe we received a couple of "too many men on the ice" penalties because of the confusion as well.   Next week, I brought back the lineup board.

Many nights there really was very little difference between the kids and the adults.  Even though I'm not a skilled hockey player or veteran coach, I had enough hockey knowledge to point some things out to the beginner players to help them improve their game. 

I would beg and plead for everyone to take shorter, more intense shifts (a good hockey shift is about a minute - shorter in a higher level game), instruct them on the various ways to cheat on a face-off and give them tips for positioning.

No adult hockey league teams have practices as a part of the league - although I would usually schedule 4 or 5 each summer and bring in various coaches to help us out - so you had to instruct players on the fly. 

One night I noticed a newer player who was really energetic and always around the net getting frustrated because he couldn't buy a goal.  He was always so close to the net that when a rebound came out it went by him so quickly that he couldn't even react.  Plus, he was so close to the goalie that he didn't have too much of an angle to get a puck by the goalie.  I suggested he back out a bit - stop five feet from the goalie instead of right on top of him and that would give him more time to react and shoot.  He tried it and scored a couple of shifts later. 

As a Captain, I never yelled at a referee during a game.  I knew most of our adult league refs off the ice and didn't want to give them a hard time, but I just felt it was counter-productive.  They weren't going to change a call they had just made and you didn't want to tick them off for the rest of the game.  My tact was more to stand next to a ref just before a face-off and quietly say to him, "Might have missed that last call," if I thought they were wrong.  Occasionally they would admit they didn't have a great view or that the other ref who made the call might have blown it.  It's all part of the game.  We would often get a "make-up" call to even things out a few minutes later.  That's hockey.

I prided myself on not taking penalties - I had seen in my years around hockey that good players usually didn't take many penalties - and could get worked up if guys took stupid penalties in close games.  But when I sensed the moment was right, I would occasionally take a dumb penalty to fire the guys up.

One night we were slow and lifeless and went down 3-0 early in the game.  An opposing player shot the puck on our goalie and skated right towards him as the goalie froze the puck.  He sprayed the goalie with ice as he stopped - a common intimidation trick in hockey.  Sensing we needed a change in momentum, I immediately rushed over and just ran right through the guy - knowing I would get a penalty.  What I didn't expect is that the ref called the other player for the spray as well, meaning it didn't cost my team anything.

As I took a rare trip to the penalty box - which was right next to our team's bench - I could hear the guys on my team yelling and getting all fired up because I had played a little feisty and gone after someone trying to run our goalie.  From that moment on, the game completely changed.  Our whole team played with a little more jump and toughness.  We scored a couple of shifts later, tied the score by the middle of the game and went on to win 5-3.  My little penalty was the turning point of the game.  It got the boys fired up.  I never could have hoped for such an instantaneous and potent reaction, but I knew we needed something.

My oldest son, center, holding the championship banner after winning the California 16A State Championship last April.  He was the team's Captain.

My oldest son has been the Captain of his hockey teams the past two seasons here in San Jose.  In past seasons, he has often been an alternate captain, but never worn the "C."  He wasn't the most highly skilled player on either team, but he was friendly, inclusive, smart and tough.  He seemed to get along with everyone and tried his best to keep them together.  Both teams had terrific chemistry on and off the ice and they won the state championship in their 16A bracket last year.  You know everyone is pulling in the same direction when you have a winning team like that. 

I will never forget him telling me a story about their pregame warm-up early in the year his first season as Captain.  The captains in youth hockey usually lead the boys through their off ice pregame warm-up to get them ready for the game.  Boys being boys, many of them resist doing anything too strenuous they don't see as necessary.  The team typically goes out for a little half mile run to get their blood pumping and warm them up.  Every youth team does this at every level, especially in California, and just finds a place to run inside if the weather is inclement outside.

So my son's team is standing outside an opponent's rink after an hour drive from San Jose, ready to start their warm-up run, and one of the kids tells my son he's kind of tired and how about if they don't run all the way around the rink today.  My son - the Captain - thinks on it for a moment and suggests instead of running ALL the way around the rink they just run halfway around - and then come back.  Everyone else ponders that for a moment and agrees that's a good compromise and is happy.  They then proceed to run halfway around the rink and then turn around and come back the same way.  I laughed when I first heard my son tell me that story and I smile every time I think about it. 

And that's what makes a good Captain.