October 12th, 2016. A date that is recognizable to some, maybe for birthdays or anniversaries, but to the hockey-obsessed it is the date of Auston Matthews' incredible 4-goal game in Ottawa on the night of his NHL debut. Auston Matthews was drafted 1st overall in June of that year after taking the road less traveled, playing for the ZSC Lions of the NLA in Zurich, Switzerland. If his atypical route and high draft status didn't make him a household name, his opening night, 4-goal performance did. In the years to come, the hockey community watched as he regularly ranked within the NHL's Top Ten in Shots on Goal, all the while wondering what it was about Auston's shot that made him so successful. Soon coaches began to obsess over what would become the "Matthews Shot"; this technique sees Matthews pull the puck back to his heels and into his feet, before changing the angle of the shot, and snapping the puck off his outside leg, rather than the inside leg. Skills coaches all over the world began teaching this as the one and only way to shoot a puck.
Flash forward a few years; Canadian phenom, Connor Bedard, is carrying Team Canada through the World Junior Championships with a whopping 23 points in only 7 games. Prior to his extraordinary WJC performance, Bedard was already #1 on every NHL draft ranking, set to become the Chicago Blackhawks' second 1st overall pick in their storied franchise history when the NHL Entry Draft rolls around in June 2023. Bedard has been in the spotlight since his preteens, being interviewed by The Hockey News as young as 13-years-old. While Bedard is above average at everything, it is his shot that is truly exceptional, giving birth to what is now being called, the "Bedard Shot". While not much different from the release of Auston Matthews, Connor Bedard has had his own version of the outside foot release branded in his name. The obsession over the shooting patterns of these two players has garnered so much attention, it has begun to spark debate over the intricacies of each release:
​While this definitely has a place in the game and it is very obvious through the success that Bedard has had already that this is going nowhere, can we really argue that every kid should be learning this by default? Bedard and his family have long-credited his exceptional ability to shoot the puck to an injury he suffered in 2017, when he was hit, fell awkwardly into the boards, and broke his wrist. This injury required about 12-weeks of healing, causing Bedard to be with one-arm throughout that period. A hockey nut, Bedard continued to stickhandle and shoot pucks with his left hand, his top hand, which further strengthened his control over the stick and by extension, the puck. This has given him the unique ability to pull the puck almost fully under his body before his release. By no means should we stop teaching players to change the angle of their shot before release, but I think we are approaching the point at which skills coaches have fully adopted this method as the one and only way to shoot the puck, a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching players. Not every player has the skating stride, flex, hands, or the presence-of-mind to pull it off, whether in a game or a skills practice. And the most blaring issue of all: we're replacing all other shooting techniques as if this is good in all situations. This toe drag release is used best off the rush to shoot through or around defenders; what about all of the scenarios in which this cannot be used? It also seems strange that Mike Babcock is chased out of hockey for seemingly coaching all players the same way but when it comes to TikTok-skills-coaching the obvious answer is to force feed our players the skills that are most commonly used by those of exceptional talent. Should we throw away the book written by coaches like Tim Turk who have been teaching players from the NHL down for decades? Should we rewrite the book with lessons from iTrain Hockey and other youtubers pushing weak technique in exchange for views and likes?​ ​These coaches have ignored actual technique and instead focus on gimmicky phrases and demonstrations where they exaggerate movements and push poor habits of exposing the puck, loading far past your heels, and judging a good shot based on the sound your stick made on the ice. Coaches all over the world are now being forced to fix the bad habits being peddled by these social media coaches. It begs the question, have we gone too far with all of this?​
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