If I’m honest, our team isn’t ready for cycling and complicated offensive-zone patterns yet. We’re still at the stage where a lot of kids rush plays, fire pucks as soon as they touch them, or panic in the slot. Before we can talk about movement and layers, we have to get comfortable with something much simpler: receiving a pass, making a clean play, and shooting from a dangerous area without rushing.
To start building that, we’ve been using a very simple, very repeatable three-man passing and scoring drill. It isn’t flashy, there’s no flow, and everyone is mostly stationary—but it’s been exactly what we need right now.
Here’s how we run it.
We set up two identical stations, one on each side of the ice. At each station, we have three players:
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one at the top of the circle
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one on the goal line
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one in the slot
The sequence is always the same:
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The player at the top of the circle passes down to the player on the goal line.
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The goal-line player passes into the slot.
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The slot player catches and shoots, stationary, trying to get a quick, clean release.
After the shot:
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the passer from the top of the circle rotates down to the goal line
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the goal-line player rotates into the slot
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the shooter skates out and takes the top-of-circle spot to start the next rep
Once the shooter on the right side has taken their shot and rotated, the left side starts their rep, and we just keep the pattern going. Because it’s predictable and stationary, we can run four stations if we want and keep lines together for comfort and chemistry.
It doesn’t look like much from the stands, but it’s quietly working on a lot of things we need:
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catching and releasing pucks in the slot without rushing
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making a simple, accurate pass under no pressure
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getting used to receiving pucks from different angles
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understanding that the puck doesn’t always have to go straight to the net from the boards
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and for our goalies, learning to track a shot, reset, and be ready for the next one quickly
Right now, the goal isn’t to simulate our forecheck. It’s to get our players comfortable seeing the puck move low to high and into the middle, and to build confidence shooting from the slot. We’re not adding movement or cycling yet—no overlap, no down-low switch, nothing like that. Just pass, pass, catch, shoot, rotate.
Has this drill “fixed” our offensive-zone scoring? No. We’re still a work in progress. But it’s given us a starting point. It’s slowed the game down enough for our players to feel what a good pass and a good shot from a dangerous area actually look like.
I think sometimes as coaches we feel pressure to jump straight to full systems—F1, F2, F3 routes, low cycles, high rolls—when our players aren’t ready for that yet. This drill has been a good reminder for me that there’s nothing wrong with going back to something stationary if it builds the habits we’re missing.
We’ll layer in movement later. We’ll build out of this into more game-like looks.
But for now, if they’re not ready to cycle, this is where we start.
About the author:
Jesse Candela is a regional scout in the OJHL, a U10 Rep A coach, and a contributor to The Coaches Site. He shares real experiences from the rink—what’s working, what isn’t, and how he’s learning to teach the game to young players.
