"You have to be well balanced at the end of the year to score."

As Nate Leaman's teams advance deeper into each season, he's taken note of how much harder it is to score. Teams defend better, more often than not they have five people back. So for Leaman and the Providence College Friars, the offensive zone needs to be a productive place at the end of the season and into the postseason.

Hockey players, their teams, and their coaches can easily fall into the regular season trap of relying too heavily on one type of offence.

Having a good power play that wins games? Great, but what if your first round opponent knows how to stop you? Then what?

Let's say you score lots off the rush in the first half of the year, what happens if you face a team that back-checks really well and has a tight gap defence that forces you to dump the puck in? Will you be able to forecheck well enough to get the puck back?