Go for the big skate

Coast or wait for a conspicuous scoring chance instead of contributing steadily to team play. Highly obscure and domain-specific Regional use: Canadian hockey slang.

An obscure Canadian hockey expression preserved in DCHP from a 1963 description of player Dave Keon. The cited explanation contrasts Keon's engaged play with a player who coasts around the rink waiting to add to a personal scoring total. The dictionary provides no evidence for a deeper etymology or a broad non-hockey use, so the origin should remain limited to that attested players' slang context.