We all have our little joys in life.

It may be casual Friday for you, or the bear claw you get every Wednesday at lunch. For me, it was "skill day" at hockey practice.

Everyone wins at skill day. One, because it's something us westerners need to do more of, and two, because every single person on the rink can mail in the physical aspect of work for a day. And who doesn't like that? I'm getting a better workout writing about skill days than I ever did dilly-dallying around out there. Half the time the head coach won't even come out of his office to watch the saunter-fest.

Skill day means no contact. Skill day means uncontested shots on the goalies. Skill day means that the assistant coach who usually takes stats in the stands gets to touch a whistle.

But if you look where the league is heading, skill day is a necessity. I've heard rumors that when Russian kids get bag-skated, they actually get to carry pucks (goodness me-oh-my!). I've heard that Euros handle pucks from the second they're on the ice until the Zamboni nearly runs them over at the end of the day. Nobody handles the pill less than American kids.

You can go to most rinks in the US right now and see kids doing crossovers, no pucks. Stops and starts, no pucks. Half the time they're scolded for trying to pull one off the top of the net for a hot second.

I drove my coaches nuts with my puck obsession.

I was "that kid" – the last one into the pile after the drill because I needed to take one more shot.

While coach was talking, I was threading one through the skates of a teammate who didn't know he was getting dangled. I annoyed the Zam-guy before and after practice, what with trying to push the pucks through the unfrozen ice (water), or risking jamming the machine by handling one when he was out there at the end of the day.

And that's what skill practice was to me. Feeding the need. Getting my fix. Learning new tricks.

You genuinely learn in these situations – not from the drills the coaches are putting you through, but by coming up with new ideas, trying them out, and finding what works. It's not like the pros have to get off the ice like the tykes paying for ice time do, so you can really get creative. 

Coaches used to yell at kids who tried the one-handed deke move, but now it's recognized as a valuable skill when the goalie is sliding with you on a breakaway.

Somebody created that move. The first time it happened in a game, it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment reaction. He worked on it for a crazy long time, for who knows how long, and was waiting for the right chance to bust it out. And bust he did.

I developed a fake-dump in, a fake-fan shot, and three dekes involving my skates. One move of mine involves a 9-iron and a buffalo, live or stuffed, preferably stuffed for safety's sake.

Those moves drive coaches nuts, but if we don't ever have the chance to develop them, any time we try something more creative than a dump-in, we'll look ridiculous. I got bawled out for the standard "fancy shot with your stick between your legs" a half-dozen times, so I just about jumped through the TV when the Rangers' Paul Mara scored a shootout goal with that exact move to win the game.

Players have to get to know the limitations of their sticks and bodies not just for fancy moves, but to better accomplish the basics. A college teammate of mine spent his first two (OK, three) years falling an inordinate amount of times for an NCAA hockey player, but it was because he was pushing the speed at which he could take a corner.

By his senior year, he could pivot, turn, skate and take corners better than the rest of us because he pushed it. The Canadiens signed him to a two-way deal. 

Coaches view skill day as a wasted practice. Guys barely sweat, it doesn't seem like work, so they don't like it. They want you to do that stuff after practice, when stickhandling feels like you're handling a tiny medicine ball in gravel.

The point, coaches, is to get better at all hockey, not just conditioning every day. Systems and cardio are keys to winning, but so is having good players – if you can improve your team the tiniest fraction of a percent without making a trade, why not? Maybe it'll be the difference one night.

Work smarter, not harder, right? Shouldn't we heed the visual lessons Pavel Datsyuk teaches every night? Factories and other businesses are going the way of efficiency every day, and players are headed that way, too.

Skill day: It's the little – and beneficial – joy in a hockey player's life.

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