Darryl Belfry - Belfry Hockey

I dedicate this book to my amazing wife, Ruth. You gave me the best gifts of my life: a true love partnership; our two children, Ella and Easton; and the permission to find my own path. That makes you the MVP of my life. Without you, there is no me.

Contents

Foreword by Patrick Kane

When Darryl called and told me he wanted me to write the foreword to his book, it was a huge honor for me. I know how successful hes been and how much his career has taken off in the last 10 years. I hold him in such high regard for what hes done for my career.

I began working with Darryl when I was nine years old. We worked together until I was 13 and moved away from home, first to Michigan and then Ontario. Darryl came to one of my games with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League when I was 17. I didnt have an agent at the time, but CAA was in town and wanted to meet with me. I invited Darryl to come with us. Sure enough, he sat right next to Pat Brisson, who is now my agent. He pitched Brisson his game plan with his video one-on-one work, breaking down players, and Brisson really loved it. I think thats where Darryls growth really took off. He started working with guys like Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, Mathew Barzal, and myself, as well as some other CAA clients. Now hes regarded as one of the best guys in the world as far as skill development.

One thing I always liked about working with Darryl was that, while your coaches want you to play within the structure and certain things, Darryl always looked at the game differently, creating new ideas and talking through things that might work. When youre on the ice with him one-on-one, hes going through certain plays and situations and explaining how you can manipulate a defender and use your teammates. It was just so different from what you hear from anyone else. Its fun to look at the game in a different light.

Ive spent a huge part of my career with Darrylfrom the ages of nine to 13, when I first started working with him, to right after my time in the OHL, to now in the NHL with the Blackhawks. He helped me think differently and get not only my game to where it is now, but also my hockey sense. He helped me read and react to different defenses and learn things that can work in different situations.

The one thing Darryl could really do when we were younger is run a practice like no one else. He ran the best practices. They were always about two hours, and they would just go by so quick. You knew you were getting better out there. I can actually remember every Sunday morning my dad would drive 30 to 40 minutes to the rink in Fort Erie, Ontario. I would skate with the young kids from 7:30 am to 9:00 am . Id then skate from 9:00 am to 10:30 am with kids my age and from 10:30 am to noon with the older kids. Id be on the ice for four and a half hours on Sunday mornings. Then, driving back, wed start listening to the Buffalo Bills game on the radio. Can you imagine being on the ice that long today? It would be terrible, but his drills were fun. You knew your skills were getting better. You were working on different moves, deking goalies.

Ive seen Darryl evolve over the years. At his Florida summer pro camp, you can tell he has more confidence going into it. Players want to be there. They know its a good camp. Youre going to get better and skate with good players, obviously, but youre also going to be learning from him. He definitely has more confidence and swagger. One thing I like about him as a teacher is its not the same thing over and over again. Youre always learning something new. You ask him about something, and he takes you through it in certain situations. In Florida this past year, after a practice, we were just working on something for 15 to 20 minutes. For me, it was about weight shift coming into the zone and how to be deceptive and get defenders thinking youre doing something other than what youre actually going to do.

Darryl knows my game now. He knows whats going to work and whats not going to work. Its about fine-tuning it and always trying to improve. Sometimes we take certain things from certain players. I really like the way Barzal skates, how he moves and hangs on to the puck, so we talk about certain things he does and what I can do similarly to be successful. Its never really predictable. Its an ongoing conversation about how to get better and how to pick up a little thing here or there to give yourself an advantage. He sends you three-game segments of your play and talks about certain plays and places on the ice. Hell say, Im just going to look into it and see what we can do more of, what we can gain on this play. Its cool hes thinking about it and putting his mind to figuring out something that works.

A few years ago, the Blackhawks were playing the Islanders at home. I hadnt scored for a bit and was going through a phase where everything I was shooting was high. Darryl said, On the first shot of the game, I want you to come down and just shoot a blocker low a foot off the ice. Sure enough, I received a pass a minute and a half in, I shot a blocker low, and it went in. Thats worth it right there. Little things like that dont sound like a big deal, but I probably wouldnt have known I was shooting high all the time. You dont get individual stuff like that from coaches. I wouldnt know I shot something like 15 of my last 20 high.

Its been cool to be involved with Darryl in the pro summit. I think we can grow it even bigger. I dont know what its going to be or what the next step is, but I think we can keep building it. Thats good for me, too. I love going down there and being able to skate with some of the best players in the league for five days and learn from them. Its a good situation for everyone. I didnt know Darryl was going to do anything like naming the camp the 88 Summit or having a T-shirt with my celebration on it. Its cool to see.

We have such a close relationship that we understand when the other might be frustrated about something or feel the other person is in the wrong. Its about working through those times and trying to figure out the best way to go about it to make me the best player.

Hes been tough on me since I was a kid. I remember maybe my first or second game with him. We had a team called the Playmakers. I used to hang on to the puck a lot. I was probably what you would call a puckhog back then. Id come down and try to go through everyone. I was getting through sometimes, but other times, I wasnt. He came to me and said, Alright, if you try to go through a whole team again, youre going to sit on the bench the rest of the game. So, we were up something like 51 and I got the puck, went through the team, and ended up scoring. I came back to the bench and he said, Nice; sit next to me the rest of the game. The whole last period I sat next to him on the bench. I scored a goal, but he wanted to get the message across. That really helped me develop my vision and playmaking, because before that all I wanted was to score goals.

For me, personally, I think theres another level to get to. How we go about it in the future is going to be pretty interesting. Darryl sending me segment stuff during the season is great, but in the summer I think we can work together more. Sometimes you just have to be happy with the way a career is going, right? But I dont know if thats really in our blood. Its like were always searching for that next advantagea way to shoot better, to be more efficient, to feel better on the ice, to create more time and space. If you give me time and space, Im probably going to make a play, and thats the thing were always searching for.