Hockey and Lacrosse

Anyone playing Hockey should consider playing Lacrosse, too.

From Gretzky to Tavares, Shanahan to Stamkos, Canadian-born NHL players recommend playing lacrosse in the summer to improve hockey skills. Hockey Canada's National Winter Sport, Lacrosse Canada's National Summer Sport.

Hockey players excel in Lacrosse and, in turn , they become markedly better hockey players.

Both hockey and lacrosse are high tempo, physical team sports that have similar elements to the game. Both sports utilize 5 playersand a goalie, three periods and strategy of developing odd-man situations to create scoring opportunities.

Comparatively, lacrosse is a much less expensive sport than hockey and uses much of the same protective upper body equipment.

Hockey players benefit from lacrosse by developing:

• develops stick handling creativity
• develops creativity in tight areas
• reading the play offensively
• develops strong, dynamic defensive tactics
• builds up strength and endurance
• helps prevent sport bum-out by playing a new, fast-paced sport
• increases hand-eye coordination
• teaches players to play with their head up and to be more aware of their surroundings
• reinforces the importance of quickness and agility around the net
• builds self esteem, respect, integrity and fairness
• teaches leadership skills
• learn to play both offensive and defensive positions and make a quick transition from defense to offence and vice versa
• scoring skills are honed by shooting at smaller targets and picking corners
• teaches the creativity of fakes, back passes and shots
• develop the use of both hands
• Loose ball/puck retrieval
• Develops proper body positioning

A list of NHL hockey players who benefited from playing lacrosse:

Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, Brendan Shanahan, Steven Stamkos, Mark Scheifele, Owen Power, Brandon Montour, David Bolland, Ryan Getzlaf, Brendan Smith, Sean Monahan, Reilly Smith, Darnell Nurse, Max Dami, Ben Eager, Nick Paul, Brett Ritchie, Connor Brown, Ryan Strome, Nick Ritchie, John Tavares, Joe Nieuwendyk, Adam Oates, Joe Sakic, Doug Gilmour, Matt Moulson, Gary Roberts, Jordan Eberle, Paul Coffey, Cody Hodgson, Paul Kariya, Gordie Howe, Rick Dudley, Bobby Orr, Darren Pang, Jason York, Shawn Simpson, Mark Stone, Bob Probert , Cliff Ronning, Adrian Aucoin, Jack Bionda, Devin Shore, Jason Ward, Dustin Brown, Gerry Cheevers, John Barrett, Doug Favell, Marc Savard, Lionel Conacher, Matt Barnaby, John Ferguson, Ron Meighen, Dave Andreychuk, Seth Griffith, Kyle Quincey, Dan Ellis, Kyle Turris, Riley Nash, Mike Ridley, Codi Ceci, Doug Evans, John Maclean, Sam Gagne and Brian Bellows, and list goes on.

Take their word for it.

"One of the worst things to happen to the game, in my opinion, has been year-round hockey and, in particular, summer hockey. All it does for kids, as far as I can tell, is keep them out of sports they should be doing in the warmer weather. I could hardly wait to get my lacrosse stick out and start throwing the ball against the walls and working on my moves as we played the lacrosse equivalent to road hockey. All the good hockey players seemed to play lacrosse in those days and everyone of them learned something from the game to carry over to the other - things athletes can only learn by mixing up the games they play when they are young."

- Wayne Gretzky

 "There is no question that lacrosse helped me become a better all round athlete but more important to me are the memories. Small town rinks, competing for my community, summer fun at tournaments, teammates and family. These are some of my fondest memories of my Mimico lacrosse days."

- Brendan Shanahan

"It's lacrosse that helped teach me to spin off checks, take shots and protect the puck under pressure. My stick skills, the way to read the play quickly comes from lacrosse. The hand-eye co-ordination, is just one of the little things that helps you in hockey."

- John Tavares

"Lacrosse was a big thing for us growing up and it's a sport that really helped me develop as a hockey player."

 - Dave Bolland

"Lacrosse is a great game that I enjoyed playing when I was growing up."

- Paul Kariya

He has incorporated some of the experiences from his lacrosse-playing days into his hockey repertoire.

Power won three National Championships at the Bantam and Peewee levels in his lacrosse career. Power's older sister, Emily, plays lacrosse for the University of Guelph and younger brother, Adam, also plays the sport.

"You definitely take a lot from what you learn playing other sports and use that to help you with hockey," said Power. "I could point to a lot of things from lacrosse, things like hand-eye coordination and learning how to adapt in tight spaces, that have helped me along the way."

- Owen Power