Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 18:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack
– Rudyard Kipling.
Before the winter season ends, hockey teams and wolf packs that haven’t learned the lesson of interdependence will run into harsh times.
Interdependence has two elements: successful teams must all have catalysts – players who make others better. Deceptive playmaking was Wayne Gretzky’s greatest gift to hockey, and it is how the pack gains strength from an individual wolf.
The other half of the formula is dependence – each wolf gains strength from the pack. It is difficult for the most talented young players to grasp this, because they have the ability to create offense on their own. However, in the playoffs or in future years, every player must depend on teammates to be effective.
Interdependence is a win-or-lose lesson for hockey teams and a matter of life-or-death for wolf cubs who might think they can hunt alone. The smartest goal scorers in the NHL use teammates as tools to accomplish a difficult task, just like carpenter’s tools. The earlier they give their linemate a perfect pass, the better chance he can return it at precisely the right moment.
Soviet teams lived by Kipling’s advice, and dominated international hockey for 40 years. The puck seemed to move magically from one stick to another as they attacked with synergy that has never been equaled.
Definition of synergy: When the pieces of a team are put together in an effective way, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. This means 2+2+2 can add up to more than 6. Individuals can make others more effective than they’d be without the team.
Individual sports like wrestling, track or swimming do not provide opportunities for synergy. Certainly, individuals can contribute emotional support for each other, but an outstanding high school wrestler cannot make his teammate better by sneaking up and holding back the arms of an opponent.
On a track team, if one runner has a personal best time, others may be inspired from watching the effort, but a runner cannot step out on the track and push teammates along or lower the hurdles for them.
On the other hand, in a team sport, every individual has the ability to physically make teammates better. Good blocking by an offensive linemen in football makes the job easier for the running back. A basketball player can pick a defender, allowing his teammate to drive for an easy layup.
In hockey, when one player screens the goalie, his linemate might score with a shot that wouldn’t score if the goalie was able to see the puck. A brilliant forward might draw a defenseman out of position and allow his linemate to attack when the D is at its weakest. A defenseman makes the goalie better by keeping opponents from screening, by clearing rebounds, or by covering a receiver, so the puck carrier has no option but to shoot. The goalie can then play the angle more aggressively.
This is synergy: 2+2+2 adds up to big numbers when players are trying to make their teammates better. “Once a team practices interdependence for several weeks, it develops synergy,” said Herb Brooks in discussing how the 1980 Olympic Team accomplished its miracle. “A bunch of great players does not make a great team. The coach’s major job is to create synergy.”
“This is accomplished by the way you practice,” Brooks continued; “… by the way you play in regular season games, and by the camaraderie among players – by the trust they have in each other.”
Trust. Interdependence. Without these, there can be no synergy, no success in postseason competition. The old poet, Kipling, may never have seen a hockey puck, but he certainly understood the importance of competing as a team. Championships will be the eventual prize for teams that hunt like a pack of wolves.
Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.
