In this video, we show the final product of what we are trying to achieve in a game. As you can see, by having a 4th player jump in on the rush, you are creating about six options for the puck carrier, making it extremely difficult for the defending team to shut down. Here is a breakdown of how you can teach this concept to players as young as U13. With these progressions, your team will become dangerous off the rush quickly!

Before getting to a more complex 4 player drive that you will find in our last progression, take a look at the drill below. I stole this drill from Dan Bylsma on his chalk talk series that you can find on the coaches site and is great for teaching a foundation for the bigger picture. Run this drill so both sides are going at the same time. Have coaches positioned at the dot for each rush, acting as the strong side defencemen. Make sure the puck carrier attacks fast through the neutral zone inside the dots towards the coach (strong side D) this will push the the defense backward into their zone. Before entering the offensive zone, have the puck carrier kick out the puck to the wide lane player, and then attack the coach while finishing his or her route as the middle lane driver. Once the players become comfortable with the idea you are trying to teach, you can do this drill with multiple different zone entries.

The next progression demonstrates a simple 3-0 that is beginning to show how to incorporate the wide dot lane attacker.

Now bring it home with a four-player attack, the key on the zone entry, is for the 4 players to make a "diamond" look once they finish their routes. Ensure the players are becoming aware of who is F1, F2, F3 & F4 and what lanes they need to fill. The fourth player needs to use their timing skills to avoid leaving too early in the drill. They want to enter the zone as the diamond player in the 2nd rush of attack.