Northern Edge Elite Hockey School is proud to be a supporter of Athletes Against Autism, an initiative of Cure Autism Now

Northern Edge Elite Hockey School announces partnership with Athletes Against Autism.  Through this partnership, Athletes Against Autism hopes to raise awareness about autism and fundraise throughout the local communities. NEEHS is proud to support Athletes Against Autism through this partnership.

Athletes Against Autism is an organization of professional athletes and sports
personalities committed to raising awareness about autism and funding
for research, treatment and family support programs. Autism, a neuro-developmental
disorder that impairs communication and social interaction, affects an estimated
one in every 166 births and more than one million individuals in the United States.
Olaf Kolzig, Byron DaFoe and Scott Mellanby – National Hockey League players
and fathers of children with autism – founded Athletes Against Autism to make a positive
impact for families affected by autism. Athletes Against Autism is an initiative of
Cure Autism Now. 888 8-AUTISM and/or 323-549-0500, ext. 747
www.athletesagainstautism.org

The Cure Autism Now Foundation (CAN) is an organization of parents, clinicians and leading scientists dedicated to accelerating the pace of biomedical research and treatments for autism. Founded in 1995 by parents of children with autism, the organization has grown from a kitchen-table effort to one of the largest providers of autism resources in the country, funding more than $31 million in research, education and outreach. Cure Autism Now’s primary focus is to fund essential research through a variety of programs encouraging innovative approaches to identifying the causes, treatments and a cure for autism and related disorders. (888) 8-AUTISM
www.cureautismnow.org

Video coach prepares Belarus for success

Video coaching helps Belarus minimize mistakes

By John Sanful

Belarus has been one of the more impressive teams in the tournament. Thus far, they have beaten Slovakia and lost a close game to Russia. Today, they will look to beat Kazakhstan and close out the Preliminary Round with two victories and four points, something they have done only once before (at the 1998 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland). As the team's video coach, Todd Woodcroft is responsible for helping the players better understand what adjustments have
to be made and how to prepare for games.

IHWC.NET's John Sanful recently caught up with Woodcroft, who functions in the same capacity for the
Washington Capitals.

IHWC.NET: Can you describe your responsibilities as
video coach for Team Belarus?

Todd Woodcroft: Video coaching allows the head coach to make immediate changes from the bench. Where you get immediately involved in coaching is in terms of seeing what the other teams are doing and how we can counteract against them. This all happens during the game, and we watch tape in the locker room and discuss what happened. The screen on my computer becomes almost like a television and as things happen I mark them so that as soon as the period is over, or during the game itself, we can analzye the video and make adjustments immediately. But after the game we will watch it as a coaching staff to see things we want to do better and record what we did well. And at the same time we are recording and marking games of our next opponents to see what they do. We watched the Russia game against Kazakhstan to see how they play, and I think we had some pretty good success as a result, because we were able to eliminate a lot of the things they are good at.

IHWC.NET: How long have you been doing
this?

Woodcroft: I have been in the NHL doing this for six years. It is something that every team is doing over there.

IHWC.NET: Do you know of any other teams in the tournament that employ such a system?

Woodcroft: I know Canada uses it. I am sure the Swiss have a pretty good system. Apart from that, I do not think many of the hockey federations have the luxury of having the money to spend on something like this. A lot of teams do not have the disposable income to bring somebody over, or the resources to get the computer systems to do this, which is quite expensive. Obviously being in the NHL with Glen in Washington, he was able to arrange for me coming over. I brought my own computer. The Belarusian federation really wants to progress and get better, so this is something that other teams will one day try to do.

IHWC.NET: But teams will use video as part of their preparation process?

Woodcroft: I am sure that every team in some capacity is watching games. They might not have the ability to do the stuff we do with our computer programs, but I am sure they are all looking somehow.

IHWC.NET: How does this work?

Woodcroft: I am watching the game that everyone else is watching around the world. But I have a cable feed that comes into a modulator that turns the signal into a digital signal. As things happen, my computer keys are used to mark situations on the ice. During games there are 500 to 600 things that I mark from faceoffs, shots, etc., so that you have the immediate ability to see what went wrong, or right.

IHWC.NET: And this can take place during the game?

Woodcroft: Yes. Let's say there is an immediate goal off a faceoff. Well, we can figure out why it happened, who did not do their job, what was the coverage in our zone. We can quickly turn it around, so between periods we look at our scoring chances, why they are
happening, from where, what are the line matchups when they occur. It is a tool to help learn from your mistakes and improve performance. When you have
a coach as talented as Glen, who can read the play so well, this video system offers him assistance to show situationally what happened. Same with the rest of the coaching staff of Eduard Zankavets, Sean Simpson, and Vladimir Tsyplakov. When you have the resources to look at things, it gives the team a real advantage in the game. We charted the Slovakia-Kazakhstan game to see what they are doing to use in our match with them.

IHWC.NET: So this tracks time of possession and things like that?

Woodcroft: Not really, it is more of a coaching tool. It is another piece to the puzzle that coaches can use. Back in the day it was a guy with one of those big cameras with a reel-to-reel that would take four hours to watch, but now we can make it much faster. We do not have to waste time looking through an entire game. Maybe we want to go straight to the third period--well, this gives us the ability to do so.

IHWC.NET: What's your background?

Woodcroft: I have been in the NHL for six years, now as a video coach with the Washington Capitals. You are seeing major junior teams in Canada have designated video coaches. It provides a path to coaching, and it's a step to take if you have aspirations of being a head coach.

IHWC.NET: Have you been to the World Championships before?

Woodcroft: In 2004 I was with Team Canada. It was a
lot of fun.

IHWC.NET: So this system has aided your team since training for the World Championships?

Woodcroft: When you have a team like Belarus that
is fairly young and needs a lot more teaching, this does help. The lack of veterans on the team requires more use of this system to show guys things. We work on individual tendencies and what our players can do better positionally.

IHWC.NET: What players have impressed you thus
far?

Woodcroft: Ovechkin and those guys are on a different planet already. From the teams that I have seen, Alexei Mikhnov on Russia really impressed me. Igor Grigorenko is another. A couple of Kazakhstan guys are good, speedy players. On our team, these guys are young and workers. When you do not have a lot of individual skill but work collectively as a team you can have a work ethic. Our guys have it. The Russian team is phenomenal but we had them all game working hard. The game is not only about skill, but also hard work and individual work ethic, and team work.

IHWC.NET: The Belarus hockey system has shown much improvement, and young players like Andrei Kostitsyn and Mikhail Grabovsky are developing.

Woodcroft: The system is growing. They have good coaches in Belarus with Glen helping them out. Belarus has Tsyplakov who played over 400 games in the NHL. [Eduard Zankavets] was in North America and he is a real smart, sharp hockey guy. So Glen, myself, and Sean just kind of help out and maybe give some North American perspective to the game a bit, but those guys are so well-prepared and doing some excellent work with these kids. It is so exciting to see where they were a few years ago to where the program has progressed to the level it is at right now.

IHWC.NET: Will you be around for a while?

Woodcroft: This is my first year here with Belarus and this team. I know for the next few years I will be helping them out as much as they want me to. When they don't need anything from me anymore, they can take it and move on to bigger and better things.

IHWC.NET: I suppose if you continue doing well, resident Alexander Lukashenko will want to keep you guys on for a while.

Woodcroft: He's a really big hockey guy who just loves the sport. The whole country is into the game. I hear they have been watching the games and paying attention. I know at least that when we beat Slovakia it was a big thing back in Minsk. Minsk is an awesome city with enthusiastic supporters. I remember when we
beat Canada in a pre-tournament game, I felt like the Yankees rolling down Broadway. It was nice they have let me be a part of it.