Stickhandling, passing, shooting, and skating are the basic hockey skills of the game.
Enter Glenn Carnegie.
The Winnipeg resident spent 11 seasons as the skills coach for the Vancouver Canucks between 2009 and 2020.
Now a resident of Lake Country, Carnegie is the new skills coach of the Kelowna Rockets.
Developing the skill set of Bo Horvat when he first entered the NHL, and calling Ryan Kessler, “probably one of the hardest working guys”, Carnegie is excited about bringing his expertise to the WHL franchise.
“When he [Horvat] first came into the NHL, he was out early every day, 20 minutes or 30 minutes before practice”, Carnegie recalled. “That was my challenge was to take those young guys, like Bo, and work with them every day and teach them to be a consistent pro.”
“One hundred percent”, Carnegie smiles when asked if it is gratifying to see the things he’s practiced with a player translate into success on the ice. “It makes it fun. With this job, you are in the background, but the players know what you do for them.”
Joining the Rockets staff in early January, Carnegie is eager to help players improve all aspects of the game, including skating.
“I think every skater is different. Technically, you want to have a good knee bend. I like to talk about your knees over your toes and have a good shin angle. Trust me, I don’t want to take a player in the middle of the season and reconstruct his stride, its just tweaking a couple of things.”
Carnegie is not a miracle worker. He can’t make an average skater into an elite one, at least not right away.
“I think it is the difference between guys who make it to the NHL and guys in the American League, it is that attention to detail and working on the boring things.”
What makes Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid or Pittsburgh’s Sydney Crosby such elite skaters?
“With skating, posture is so key along with edge work”, Carnegie explained. “I tell the guys, if you don’t work on this now, when you are in a game and do things at high speed, you don’t have those fundamental skills and you lose edges or you don’t have speed out of your turns. The guys that work on those details and perfect them are the ones that move on and have success.”
Coaches at all levels must adapt to the way they communicate with today’s players.
Carnegie is no exception.
“We [skills coaches] have to make sure we don’t move the progression of the drills along too fast before the player has the fundamental down”, Carnegie said honestly. “If it is an outside edge drill, and they can’t hold that outside edge, don’t move on to another drill.”
As a skills coach, you would think Carnegie would be in favour of the ‘Lacrosse Goal’ or the ‘Michigan’, where a player with the puck is behind the opposing net, lifts the puck onto their stick, moving it around to a top corner of the net.
“Do I like it? I do. When it first started I was torn on it being a bit of an old school guy”, Carnegie added. “The skill is so good today, and if guys are able to be successful with it, and its in the rules, why not? It shows the creativity that players have now a days, and I don’t want to stunt someone’s creativity.”
RocketFAN had to ask Carnegie about one element of skill he sees in Kelowna Rockets leading point getter Andrew Cristall’s game, that may go undetected by the average fan.
“How he uses his body to protect pucks”, Carnegie says without hesitation. “Not only are his hands quick, and he has a heavy stick, but his body awareness to protect pucks and make plays when someone is trying to defending him is impressive.”
Carnegie has a warning for all young players.
While you may be good on your own club team, the hockey world is global, and a player in Sweden is working just as hard, if not harder than you, in order to play in the NHL.
“Don’t just be the hardest worker out here”, pointing to the ice surface at Prospera Place.
“You need to be mentally strong and you have to go out and preform, especially once you get to pro, because often times you won’t get a second chance.”
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GREAT addition !! Now if we can just stay outta the penalty box !! 🙂