The highlight and also the most grueling part of the hockey season is always the playoffs. Regardless of the league of the the skill level during the regular season everyone is working towards one goal, and that is to make the playoffs, it is truly a team effort. During the season everyone is trying to find their place in the team, veterans and rookies are all trying to get on the same page, but once the playoffs start labels are thrown out and everyone is just a hockey player.
The rundown of the playoffs can vary from age groups and leagues, they can be from a best of three to a best of seven, you can have a final 4 or a sixteen team field. On aspect that is interesting is how can youth players adjust from regular season games to playoff games where they have to concentrate on every shift for 60 minutes. “The key to development is to be play more often at a high level, we would like to constantly repeat the behaviors that helped us win during the regular season so that they become second nature. The season is put together so that we are peaking at the right time, in the playoffs and we are at the top both physically and mentally. Of course there are small things that get magnified in the playoffs, we go over these and try to eliminate them.” says MAC Budapest youth coach Tibor Marton who was the Hungarian youth coach of the year in 2013.
Because of the hectic schedule that occurs during the playoffs there isn't to time to have the regular practice sessions that have become normal during the regular season. Not only do players have to be physically fit but they need to be in top mental condition as well, the momentum in a 5 or 6 game series can change easily a number of times. A team can feel that they are unstoppable one moment and after an unlucky bounce everything can fall apart like a house of cards. A hockey player has to be able to control themselves on this emotional rollercoaster, if they are not ready for this, come the playoffs it's too late.
“During the season not only are we practicing on the ice but we also have grueling conditioning training as well, this is needed for the style of hockey that we play and so that we physically have energy from the start of the season until the end. During the playoffs this changes somewhat, the on ice practices are shorter and the conditions session are more geared towards regeneration or work on the fast twitch muscles.” says Marton, who has his U18 squad in the EBJL semifinals, he was also asked how do you deal with a younger player who is playing in multiple competitions (in both the Hungarian and Austrian leagues or in two separate ages groups as well). “This guys are practicing during the season so that they can handle the large amount of ice time they will have during the season, this is isn't easy but they are motivated by the fact that someone else could take their spot in the team or another team takes their team’s spot in the playoffs. It is important for MAC that they perform well in both competitions, it can not go unmentioned that they also have to keep their grade up in school as well, just because its the playoffs it doesn't mean they can slack off on their school work as well.”
This season there have been a number of your players that have cracked the lineup for Fehérvár AV19. Right now in the playoffs they are facing the Vienna Capitals who have one of the deepest pockets in the league, they are deadlocked even at 2-2 in this physical and demanding playoffs series. The team has played five games in over a span of eleven days, since the teams are pretty evenly matched and are both tired one team can get an advantage over the other one from the point of tactics.
“During a practice session during the playoffs we concentrate more on the given tasks, me might work on something that we have to work on from the tactical point of view, work out the kinks in the system, and the coach tries to keep teh lines the same as much as possible so that we get used to each other as much as possible” says Fehérvár center Csanád Erdély “of course everyone puts a little extra effort into every practice, everyone knows what is at stake. The difference between a senior and a junior practice session is that there is more teaching involved, whereas in a senior practice it is all about repeatedly doing something perfectly. Of course there is a difference in the pace of practice, I’m thinking of the power of the passes, it alos makes a difference in who is the goal that you are shooting on as well. We are lucky to have two great goalies who make our jobs harder, but this is how you get better”
That is one thing that during the season Erdély has gone from a fringe squad player to a stable forward that is never left out of the lineup of Alba Volán. At the youth level it is not unusual for a player to play in an age group and also one level up, this get a bit tricky to solve once its playoff season. The U18 teams are teh ones that are hit the hardest as the better players are playing up to the U20 team and they have to call up players from the U16
But this is what the spring is all about, the being of new things and playoff hockey.