It's rare that coaches get the chance to watch a game through the eyes of the person who stood behind the bench for it. There are a couple famous examples - hey was Guy Lafleur offside in that one game against Don Cherry's Boston Bruins in the 70's? - but in this day and age you're either too late or the coach brings boring, stock answers to every question. 

Watching Chris Lazary's presentation at TCS Live 2024 was eye opening for more reasons than one. This is one I'll return to again - it was like watching a live podcast where you can feel the pressure, tensions, and excitement of two teams duking it out for junior hockey supremacy. 

My main takeaways from watching Lazary were the sheer amount of information he was able to process in short bursts during the game, the intermission, and most importantly, following a mistake he believed could have cost them the game. Imagine trying to sleep after making a change in a game that led to two goals against and the cost is the Memorial Cup. Lazary is hard on himself too, as I am - he believed he was going to lose his job during the season, and he came back to guide his team to a championship. Things rarely work out exactly how you plan. It's vital to hold true to yourself and march to your own drum. If you're wrong, at least you'll be able to sleep at night. 

But eventually you won't be wrong. 

Check out this snippet from Lazary's presentation and view the full video here a membership to The Coaches Site.