Keep your stance low and wide, get in the corner, lift sticks and tie up the puck carrier. Below is a rule you should memorize. Good containment can lead to pressure. Some coaches may prefer to always pressure, but this usually only works when everyone on your team can skate and check, and they all understand and play a system. Pressure — This is when you leap into action in an attempt to get the puck.
You have to think and act fast to decide when the right time to pressure is. You can apply light pressure to players even when they are in possession, this is when you should be angling them and blocking passing lanes. There are two good ways to angle a player, you can angle them into a low percentage scoring zone or to their backhand. Most players are weaker on their backhand, so if you force them along the boards to only be able to make a pass out on their backhand, you increase the chance of them losing the puck or making a bad pass.
The last scenario when you can pressure hard is if the puck carrier loses the puck. Act quickly, tie up their stick, get good body position, and then grab the puck.
The defense will sometimes find themselves in this zone. When in support you have two jobs, help out if needed in the corner AND have your head on a swivel to cover a player if needed.
This means their team has the puck and is looking to make a play, so you need to know where the open player is the one your centermen normally covers so you can stop a pass out to them. You can rotate from the support zone into the hit zone — Your position is not set in stone.
A good team knows when to swap spots. This is probably the most important zone for the defense. Just outside of this zone is the high percentage scoring area. In the high percentage scoring area we want to always outnumber the opponent.
I have two simple rules for defensemen in front of the net. I see defensemen get pulled into the corner and unaware of an opponent that is now wide open in front of the net. With your head on a swivel you will recognize this threat, and stay assigned to your 1 role, protect the front of the net.
My second rule is to keep the other teams sticks off the ice. This rule is in place because many times a loose puck is bouncing around and both players go for it. If the forward on the other team gets to the puck first it could be in the back of the net, however if the defense plays the body and lifts the stick, he takes away the scoring opportunity. Breaking out of the defensive zone happens when your team regains possession of the puck and exits the defensive zone. Typically puck recovery happens deep in the defensive zone which leaves the defense in charge of initiating the breakout.
The biggest things to remember on the breakout are to make a hard and accurate first pass, support your defensive partner, and stay in good defensive position if the breakout fails. The main types of breakouts are the rim, reverse, up, wheel, and over. For more details on the breakout and these formations you can read my article the 5 breakouts every hockey player should know. The offensive zone is pretty simple. Keep the puck in, keep the other team from breaking out, and put the puck on the net.
It is very important to play in tandem with your defensive partner in the offensive zone. If you are not moving together it opens up kinks in the armour, and can allow for some odd numbered rushes for the other team 2 on 1, 3 on 1, or GASP a breakaway. In addition to better defense, moving in tandem with your defenesive partner allows for more scoring opportunities and better D to D passes.
You can see that in the first three diagrams the defense moves together, and fairly evenly spaced. Anywhere above this green line the defense generally has free roam. The positioning of the letters are not exact this is a general position and it can vary depending on the situation. You need to move to the center of the ice and retreat a little so you will be in a good position if the pinch does not work.
Depending on the situation you may need to retreat out past the blue line in order to prevent a breakaway and keep it a 2 on 1. You can use anything to keep the puck in. The best way to stop a puck that is coming up the boards is to form a complete seal with your skate, legs, and backside, stop the puck, then play it with your stick.
Having the ability to feel a play begin to develop and prepare and position oneself for it is nearly impossible to teach, but an intangible trait that the elite defenseman develop over many repetitions and through great instincts. Intelligence: Brains or brawn? If you go back to the list of Minnesota born NHL defensemen as listed above, yes there are some physical specimens, but it is not as though they are all and pounds — they are all great thinkers of the game.
Good players can get by on their physical skills, but hockey intelligence is what separates the elite players. Some of the most effective defensemen are smaller during their youth hockey days, learn how to play the game with their brain, and then hit their growth spurt to become elite.
Booming slap shots, swift skating and a big strong frame were not mentioned. While these are certainly important skills for all hockey players, I would argue that those are more gating factors for each level than differentiators. The higher on the pyramid a player goes, the less skill differentiation there is across a team or level.
For example, the best PeeWee players are usually the biggest, strongest and fastest players that get by on their physical tools. By high school, the gap is closed significantly with less skill differential from top to bottom.
The elite players are separated by their intangibles. Can these intangibles be taught? While you cannot send a kid to the rink or garage to work on poise or awareness like you can physical tools, there are certain hockey skills that can help kids develop these intangibles. Puckhandling is one of the most important skills that allow kids to play the game with their head up and develop poise, awareness and vision. I am often surprised by the disproportionate time kids are instructed to work on their slap shot versus puckhandling skills.
Depth defensemen that could present challenges and difficulties that take multiple views to fully understand skills integration. The seismic shift from size, strength and toughness is being slowly actually rapidly replaced by mobility and skilled sticks and feet, while above all, cerebral ability rules. This is the defenseman primer, but everything below falls into one of the categories in the Four S's of scouting. Here's what i would look for when assessing defensemen.
I'll break it down offensively and defensively. As Dion Phaneuf makes his Senators debut, watch Henrik Zetterberg blow right past him to score a beautiful goal.
Key point here is that as good a backwards skater as a defenseman may be, forwards can exploit that. Or how about this gap? Forward walks off the half boards and takes the shot. Instead of closing down the gap, the defenseman freezes and waits for the shot block — an old school, passive method of defending. Forget the gap, block the shot. Rakell's 2nd goal pic. An example of a more rigid rushing job — and some open lanes — by Washington Capitals Matt Niskanen.
Niskanen calls his own number and takes it all the way. Morgan Rielly scored a highlight reel goal that encompasses the end to end rushing , individual effort and slick, skilled hands.
I swear, if the Leafs end up getting points because Jonas Hiller can't stop a beach ball.. I mean yay Gardiner? JT Brown goal pic. The ability to do this, in full stride, under immense pressure, and make an accurate tape-to-tape pass is a key component.
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