The core message of Acres Hockey 2011 running July 18-20, July 24-28 for players aged 5-14, will be respect for opponents and the rules of play, fused with providing education for brain injury prevention.

“We have the ability. We must do better as coaches. We must change our focus.” says Henry Acres-Program Director of Acres Hockey Training. “Basic skills training must take precedence in our youth hockey to help players thrive and enjoy the game after the age of body-contact introduction. It’s a fact the majority of Canadian kids are behind in skating, and puck handling compared to kids inEurope.” Acres would know, having a 9-year pro career mostly in Sweden and Finland.

Colleen Butler, Founder of Brian Navigators knows the ugliness of living with brain trauma suffered in a car accident. “Two weeks and you’ll be fine,” she was told by doctors. “Little did I know what was in store for me. Having survived this journey I vowed that my struggle should not be repeated by others. Education is vital to understanding that head injury recuperation time can be minimized with practical tools mentally and physically.”

For more information about Bringing Smart Play to Hockey programs visit www.acreshockey.com and www.brainnavigators.com.

So, I finally took a break from the computer which is where I have been living, much to the chagrin of my wife, the last 2 weeks pretty much straight to actually watch the IIHF, Finland-Russia, semi-final game. The game progressed the first 25 mins without a goal or a penalty and then their was a goal. Oh man what a goal! 19-year old Mikael Granlund of Finland, well words can’t describe the goal! You have to see it to truly grasp how special a play it is. http://youtu.be/DlF6UvGEUKQ (Note to self: learn how to embed video in blog) He is just so fluid in his movement, what skill! The goalie didn’t have a chance.

This is a player I have been following for about 4 years now since I first heard of this special player from the northern city of Oulu, Finland. I was playing and coaching in Helsinki and did some work for the Finnish Ice Hockey Association and was tipped off about a special talent that was being hyped as the best player to come along since Teemu Selanne. So, I asked around and found a clip of him on youtube http://youtu.be/Q2w5Q6yKk04 I could see right away he was special. He is actually more of a set-up man than a scorer, but there was no denying he was a creative, special player at that point only 15 years old.

He was amazing for HIFK in the SM-Liiga Playoffs helping to co-lead the league in Playoff scoring and also to the Playoff Championship so I was excited to see him compete and succeed at the World Championships. I had no idea he would excel like he has in leading Finland to a berth in the Gold Medal game vs. Finland’s biggest rival and co-host of next year’s tournament, Sweden.

I went to sleep with visions of his goal dancing though my head.

Emma was up early, 5 am early and when she wakes, she lets the world know even when she is in perfect health.

Well, with the time difference to the west coast of Canada being 9 hrs, a good time to try to reach a friend I have been trying to catch up with for a couple of weeks. I was so excited to talk about Granlund’s goal and other things. I am in luck, he is home and we have a good connection! Then he drops his bomb on me, have you heard? New York Rangers, Fwd, Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment. He was only 28!

Boogaard was not known for his on-ice puck skills, he was a monster of a man, 6’7″ tall and one of if not the toughest of the tough guys in the NHL. He only scored 1 goal in the previous 5 NHL seasons. But like most tough guys he was soft as melted butter off the ice. Would do anything to help others especially children. I personally didn’t know the man but the hockey world is small and a recent teammate of mine played Jr. in Prince George, BC on the same line with him. “I used to pick up his gloves.” One of Boogaard’s best friends, goaltender Niklas Backstrom, became a star playing for Oulu-Karpat the same team that Granlund, played his Jr. hockey for. He and the “Boogyman” sat next to each other for 4 season as teammates in  Minnesota. They were famous for ribbing each other and as I was looking on-line for more info on what happened I stumbled across a great quote from Backstrom on Boogaard breaking his 5 year scoring slump. “It must have been an end to end rush with him deaking to the back hand and roofing it.” Of course he was poking fun at his friend, but that was the first smile I had today when reading about this tragic event. I have been on the edge of tears today many times as I think about this and it has been bothering me all day. Boogaard missed most of this past season due to suffering a major concussion and I eagerly await the autopsy results to see if there is a connection.

After starting my day on a high, a dose of the realities of life brought me back down. Forever linked now in many ways, Mikael Granlund and Derek Boogaard, Friday May 13, 2011. RIP-”Boogyman”

Share with your friends this exciting news about Acres Hockey Summer Programs for 2011.

Click on the link to view and share our poster for Clinics offered in Co-operation with Progressive Goaltending Development during July 2011 on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

I thought about the format I would like to take with this blog and came up with this.

Since I have a website www.acreshockey.com , Facebook page www.facebook.com/AcresHockey , and Twitter @AcresHockey that tell you much about what I do professionally this should be more about me and the really important issues. Who I am and what I think about things going on in my world. Did I mention I live in a hockey bubble. Somebody got married this weekend and I guess it was a big deal? There is a federal election in my native country (Canada, presently reside in Sweden) on Monday? These are all things that yes, they have value but for me the important issues going on in the world are: will a Flyers goalie step-up to plate and grap the #1 job and lead them back to Stanley Cup Finals? How are the Canucks going to solve Pekka Rinne? How can I provide a value priced hockey school to my clients and still provide all the extras I like to while still making a profit? How can I help develop more pure goal scorers? Where am I going to play/coach next season? Is it time to retire and concentrate fully on being the best coach I can? Do I spent enough time with my family? What kind of future are my kids going to have? Am I teaching them the right things? How can I live in Europe and still remain somewhat connected to my friends/family back in Canada?  These are some of the issues that run through my brain each day.

I plan to try to answer some of these question and most defiantly welcome your opinions on these and many more thoughts that are constantly running through not just my head but all of us.

So this is what this blog will be about, plenty of hockey related material and some instructional thoughts with a slice of Hank’s view on his world. If this is your cup of tea, please subscribe to the page and if you have better things to do that listen me, so be it.

I will leave you one of my favorite quotes passed to me by one of favorite coaches, Scotty Atkinson.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” -Aristotle