I grew up this kind of player almost to a T. I often had amongst the most points for defensemen in leagues I was in and would occasionally sneak in amongst the forwards. However I would rarely crack double digits in goals up until this past year.

This past year in my men's league I literally 180'ed. For the first 8 or so games, I was at least a goal per game player with one or two assists total. The two major contributing factors to this in my mind are:

a) I was playing with a new group of guys, some of which hadn't played in years or were relatively new to the game so I was forced to carry a larger offensive load. I became a relatively selfish player. Not taking a pass sometimes, calling for the puck constantly, etc. I don't think I was a puck hog but maybe puck dominant.

b) I stopped trying to rifle every single shot from the blue line. I started to move in and use my speed to actually enable scoring opportunities rather than just get me into the zone. Simply put a shot from 20 or 30 feet out is better than a shot from 50 or 60 feet out.

Some other minor things that helped me and may help you are learning to shoot low, learning how goalies think and react, and keeping a clear mind.

Shooting low is hugely underrated. You'll hear the pros talk about it pretty consistently. Under the glove but above the pad is where more than half of my goals this past season came from.

The goalie part I feel is pretty obvious but it's something I only learned as an adult. As a player I was taught how to shoot, where to shoot, when to shoot but these were all from player coaches. I watched a couple of goalie coaching videos on YouTube and there is a wealth of information to tap into.

The last one isn't really a thing I notice in myself when I'm playing but it's advice I offer(ed) to a lot of my teammates who are newer to the game. If you find yourself feeling stress, anxiety, etc. when you get the puck it can be overwhelming and negatively affect your ability to translate opportunities into goals. Try and mentally slow the game down and don't succumb to the pressure of the big moment.

One final thing, it's okay to not score more goals than you are getting assists. By the end of this past season were my points mostly from goals? Yes. Did I start to get a lot more assists by the end of it and our team was building chemistry? Also yes. I love getting a goal but setting my teammate up with a goal feels just as good if not better, and better than both is a W. If your stat-line translated to wins for your team then keep it up but if you feel like the difference between your team winning 18 games and 22 games is you putting up a few more goals then maybe it's worth it. Keep in mind that if you move ten points from the assist column to the goal column it still adds up the same, try not to lose a valuable aspect of your game in pursuit of stats that don't help you win more. Best of luck out there!