The fastest hands in the world won't beat many defenders if they are predictable, poorly positioned, or lack timing.

To dangle defenders, players need to develop technical skills, stickhandling and skating abilities, but more than that, they have to master one-on-one tactics. Those tactics are what makes high-level technique effective. The fastest hands in the world won’t beat many defenders if they are predictable, poorly positioned, or lack timing.

In order to identify the weaknesses in a player’s one-on-one game and improve them, its tactical process can be broken down into three distinctive components: the preparation, the feint, and the finish. An effective move, one set-up and closed just right, will leave opponents behind and incapable of recovering. 

1. Preparation

The preparation act of a dangle involves managing the gap, the speed, and the angle of approach, but before that, players have to recognize the offensive situation. They need to scan the opposition to identify specific cues that will help them choose the best course of action: the stick and hand positioning of defenders, the angle of their skates, their head movement, the distribution of their weight.

It isn’t possible to register all of those details, but a quick glance at an opponent’s overall positioning can still reveal an exploitable weakness. 

A defender who is off-balance, hunched over, or whose feet point away from the puck is a prime target for a dangle.

In the clip below, Kirill Kaprizov circles in the neutral-zone. Before receiving the puck off a turnover, he first scans the defensive line to find an opening and then the opponent approaching him to know how to beat him.

Feints are more successful when combined with a speed difference. Defenders have a harder time containing an attacker arriving at a high pace. That pace forces them to commit to a stop or risk getting beat wide. Attackers should pick up speed as they close in on defenders, or even better, change speeds, slow down and re-accelerate like Kaprizov above, to manipulate the defensive gap and make opponents hesitate.

Another element that improves the success rate of moves is the attack angle. An attacker arriving in a different corridor than the one of the defender (or at an angle) exposes the heels of that defender. With a quick feint, the attacker can turn the feet of the opponent and sprint behind him.

2. Feint

Puck positioning is crucial to the success of a dangle.

The puck should ideally be held in a deceptive position. That often means at the hip, a placement that allows the carrier to quickly make multiple different plays, but the puck can also be brought in front or to the backhand to prepare a fake.

In one-on-ones, the goal of attackers is to make defenders compromise their position, open up space between their stick and skates, or a lane next to them. A wide variety of feints can be used to do so: a weight shift, a look-off, a quick dribble, a change of puck position, a lateral cut, a fake-pass or a fake-shot.

Above all, timing matters when misdirecting defenders. A feint made too early will give time to the opposition to recover and one made too late won’t allow the attacker enough space to beat the defender.

As Kaprizov closes his gap with the defender, he fakes a pass or a cut to the middle of the ice. The defenders respond by pivoting. As he makes that pivot, the Wild winger cuts around him.

Once again, a quick glance at the defender is important inside the feint to see if the opponent bit on it, turned away, reached for the puck, or initiated a pivot. If the defender lost balance or committed to a move, the attacker can initiate the last part of the dangle motion, the step-around.

3. Finish

The finishing act of a dangle is just as important as the preparation and the feint. After moving the puck around or through a defender, the attacker has to make sure the defender can’t repair his mistake, quickly turn and poke-check the puck.  

The attacker can prevent that by cutting in front of the opponent after the step-around move. By skating inside the defender’s recovery lane, the attacker prevents that defender from accessing the puck. The attacker can also protect the puck even more by adopting a wide skating base and by bringing the puck out of reach with one hand.

Watch as both Kaprizov and Josh Anderson #17 cut the recovery lane of the defender they just beat to then take on the goalie.

Coaches should know where their players stand in their tactical understanding of one-on-ones and work with them to advance that aspect of their game. The above elements don’t have to be integrated all at once. Just adding one or two of them, like a change of speed, a better attack angle, or a deceptive stick move is enough to significantly improve the success of a dangle.