Alright, so I’ve been meaning to talk about this for a bit. My game, especially my ability to just, you know, hold onto the puck under any kind of pressure, it’s been pretty terrible lately. Like, laughably bad. Someone breathes on me, and poof, puck’s gone. It’s frustrating, to say the least. I was rummaging through some old notes, some mental, some scribbled down from years ago, trying to find something, anything, that might click.
Finding that Old Spark
Then it hit me. I remembered this one time, an old coach of mine, a real character, was going on about Brian Lonergan. Now, I’m not even sure if he meant the Brian Lonergan, or if it was just some local legend he knew with the same name who was good at hockey. Honestly, back then, I probably wasn’t even listening properly. But the name, Lonergan, and the way he talked about a certain drill or mindset, it just stuck in a dusty corner of my brain.
So, I thought, what the heck? Can’t get much worse, right? I decided to dedicate a whole session to just this one thing, this Lonergan-inspired idea I vaguely remembered. It wasn’t about fancy dekes or blistering shots. Nah, this was about the nitty-gritty, the stuff that doesn’t always make the highlight reels but wins you battles on the boards.
Getting Down to Business
First thing I did was clear out a bit of space in the garage. Not ideal, you know, with the car and all the junk, but it was enough to move around a little. I swept the floor a bit – didn’t want to be tripping over old leaves while trying to focus. Then I grabbed my stick, a couple of pucks (the orange ones, ’cause they show up better on the concrete), and a pair of my older gloves.
The core idea I was trying to channel, this “Lonergan thing,” was all about body positioning and using your frame. So, I started super simple.
- Stationary Work: Just me and the puck. I focused on getting my knees bent, my butt out, and keeping the puck on my backhand side, shielded by my body. I practiced reaching out, pulling it in, feeling where my balance was, and how my body could act as a wall. Sounds basic, and it is, but I really tried to exaggerate the movements at first.
- Adding Some Movement: Next, I started to move, just slowly, in a small figure-eight pattern I imagined on the floor. The main thing was to keep that puck protected, always using my body to create space between the puck and an imaginary defender. I concentrated on keeping my head up, scanning, even though there was nothing much to scan in my garage except for old paint cans.
- Wall Work: Then I moved over to one of the garage walls. I used the wall as if it were a defender trying to get the puck. I’d lean into it, use my legs and core to maintain position, all while trying to control the puck with one hand sometimes, feeling that stick-on-puck connection. I pushed against the wall, then spun off, trying to simulate breaking away with possession.
I spent a good hour just doing these things. Over and over. My back started to ache a bit from being in that low stance, and my forearms were burning from stickhandling, especially the one-handed stuff against the wall. There were times I felt clumsy, like I was relearning how to even hold a stick. I messed up plenty, lost control of the puck, fumbled it. But I just kept at it.
The Takeaway
Slowly, very slowly, I started to feel a bit more solid. Not like a pro, obviously, but there was a tiny shift. I felt more aware of how my body could be used, rather than just relying on my hands. It was like a little lightbulb went on. This Lonergan idea, or whatever its origin, it was about making yourself hard to play against in the corners, along the boards.
Honestly, I’m not sure if I did any of it “right” according to how Brian Lonergan himself would teach it, assuming it even was his stuff. But the act of focusing so intently on that one specific, unglamorous part of the game, that felt productive. It was a good reminder that sometimes you gotta go back to basics, real basics, and just grind it out. I finished up feeling tired but, you know, kinda good. Like I’d actually worked on something specific and made a tiny bit of progress. Definitely going to try and incorporate more of that focused practice. It’s not magic, but it’s something.
