Compete: It is not on the list of the 500 most-used words in the English language, but it is in Hitchcock's top two, ranking only behind "the." According to the Hitchcock ethos, to compete is the greatest virtue. A fourth-line winger who competes is held in great esteem, but a sublimely skilled scorer is nothing if he is not "engaged." And a player who takes a bad penalty is not lame-brained, he lacks "competitive composure."
Dig in: When a whole team is competing, it is dug in. When the fans are behind the team, and engaged, the fans are dug in. If you don't dig in, things get "loose." You don't want things to get loose.
Heavy: This does not refer to Grant Fuhr's training-camp weigh-in. Heavy is good. A heavy player is one who has a notably positive impact on a game. A heavy player is a one who draws notice. A Gordie Howe hat trick -- goal, assist, fight -- is intrinsically heavy.
Light: A light player is not competitively engaged and, by extension, lacks competitive composure. Recently, "light" has been replaced in the Hitchexicon with the word "dozy." (To grasp the heaviness of "light" and "dozy," see "weighty" below.)
Leadership: The intricacies of "leadership and followship" are at the heart of Hitchcock's professional quest. It is why he studies the Civil War. Why do soldiers charge over a wall to face a fusillade they know is coming? Who and what compels them? On the ultimate Hitchcock team, there are a few lieutenants in the locker room who can lead a company off the bench and into the heat of heavy competition. The rank and file will follow, and engage, out of duty to their brethren -- even if they hate the general.
Rich: When skill and competition are meted out in equal amounts, the game is "rich" -- sometimes "too rich" for one player or another.
Reckless: Hitchcock helped ruin free-flowing offense with the defensive schemes he implemented in the mid-1990s. Other coaches followed suit and made the neutral zone a heavy no-man's land. In part to salvage his legacy, Hitchcock had to come up with an offensive countermeasure -- and like all of his great ideas, the countermeasure is more psychological than real. How do you score in today's NHL? You have to be reckless. Hitchcock uses Alexander Ovechkin as a classic example. Ovechkin will risk decapitation to get to the net. He will dance on the fine line of competitive composure. His copious skill is almost secondary.
Skate: On the bench, this is Hitchcock's clarion call after every turnover (outside some other, heavier words).
Snake: As in, "cut off the head of the snake." To beat the Penguins, for example, you have to cut off the head of the snake, Sidney Crosby, the most reckless player on their team.
Weighty: The well-dug-in player who competes for his teammates, who is heavy, who leads or follows in the direction pointed by the coach, who is reckless enough to revel in a rich game, well, he is part of a many-headed snake and deserves to be called weighty.
I can't name five players in my lifetime that play with that intensity. So if a player has to be Spiels to be "dug in"...then there haven't been too many players in my lifetime that have been. 
