For games, I ask that the players arrive in the dressing room 30 minutes before our scheduled ice time. If everyone arrives a full 30 minutes ahead of the game, then we have time for about 5 minutes of stretching before they start dressing. The goal is for players to be fully dressed, skates tied and ready to put on helmets and gloves 5 minutes before the game. That last 5 minutes is our chance as coaches to review the skills we've been working on in practices and talk about our game plan. While 5 minutes may not sound like a lot of time, we can get a lot of coaching done if everyone is ready and focused.
For practices, I only ask that the players
be dressed and ready to go 5 minutes before the ice time. This again gives us 5
minutes to introduce the first few drills that we'll on in practice, which
saves time on the ice and helps us to get the most out of our practice time.
While we do have the benefit of some later ice times this year, we will still
have our share of 7am ice times and I know those can be tough get there for.