There is no honour in demolishing a weaker opponent, particularly in the younger age groups. It can create bad feelings, disrespect and unpleasant games for years to come.

If you build a positive relationship with the opposing coaches and demonstrate respect for the other team, it will be a lot more fun in the future, as you continue to run into these coaches/teams in arenas. It will also send the right message about sportsmanship to your players.

Here are some ideas to make a non-competitive game more competitive

1) Neutral Zone checking - you pull all your players (in fact do not fore-check) out of the opponent's end when ring goes into that end. This allows your opponent to skate it out of their end and engage your players in the neutral zone. You do this after a shot on goal or after the ring goes into the opponents end. This is very effective for Novice and Petite age groups - basically when you see your players pursuing into the weaker team's zone yell "OUT" - this will alert players to proceed back to neutral zone - a few times yelling and they will do this automatically. The advantages of this are:

Allows other team, by giving them the chance to retrieve the ring without fore-check pressure, to participate in the game (as opposed to watching the other team skate around in their end with the ring , pass 3 or 4 times - shoot wide etc)

Allows your team to be in a more competitive game - by engaging your opponents in the neutral zone it can result in the weaker team getting some chances in the stronger team's end thus forcing them to play some defence

Allows your team to practice a strategy that will be useful to them in more competitive situations, especially when they are older. The neutral zone trap can be an effective defensive strategy to neutralize a team's attack when they actually can beat your fore-check.

2) Switch players positions - forwards back, defence up , goalie plays out etc - this can have mixed results - sometimes you can disrupt your team play enough to make the game more competitive - sometimes it can get worse as moving defence players up to scoring positions can result in more goals - the defence will see this as a lone chance to score and will do everything they can to do so.

3) Extra passes in the offensive end - when in the attacking zone insist your players pass a minimum number of times before shooting - this strategy has had mixed results. It can just prolong the agony as the weaker team is waiting much longer to get the ring and goals continued to be scored - it does reduce the number of goals scored, but is a very frustrating game to be in if you are the weaker team

4) Shoot the ring into the weaker team's end from outside the blue line and then don't chase it, so that the other team gains control without a shot on net (similar to neutral zone checking in the first point.)

In all cases talking to the opposing coach before the start of the game (when you feel strongly that the game is likely to be one sided) to discuss possible fair play strategies is strongly recommended - the opposing coach may prefer one strategy over another, etc. He/she may also wish to wait (until half time or a certain goal spread) before any strategies are applied as he/she may want to have their team under some pressure - at least for awhile. In any event the buy-in and guidance from the opposing coach will make the game much more enjoyable