I've been writing, thinking about, teaching, and obsessing over one common thread as a new season dawns:

Attacking from the defensive zone.

A lot of modern defencemen consider themselves offense-men (I forget who I stole that term from, if it's you please come forward) - they want to roam all ove the ice like Roman Josi and put up a point per game. Wouldn't that be nice! The element they often overlook is that regardless of how many points you earn as a defencemen, more likely than not your contribution begins deep in your own zone breaking the puck out and starting the attack. 

But what if you didn't have to return to the D zone? What if you could start the attack from the neutral zone, or better yet ...

You see where I'm gong with this. 

Imagine my surprise as I watched Rob Zettler's presentation at TCS Live '24 in Ann Arbour, Michigan, D Mantra: Defend Early, First Touch and Skate to Win. If attacking starts in the defensive zone, then defending starts in the offensive zone. A modern defenceman might want to put up points, in which case it's beneficial to start with the puck in the offensive zone as much as possile, because that's where goals are scored. 

"I love defencemen skating forward. Bobby Orr used to do it."

It sounds too simple to be true, but I've found that this approach really resonates with younger players in junior or college. Tempt with the opportunity to play offensive minutes by showing them the value of defending early, up-ice, with good techniques and habits. For Zettler the key is proper techniques with their skating. He wants his defence to kill plays early and get the puck out of the other team's hands as early as possible. In one of his first clips he demonstrates Victor Hedman's ability to defend by being on top. Hedman skates down from the offensive blue line to seal the wall by keeping his stick to the inside. Hedman is easy, right? How about Darren Raddysh? Not as much of a household name, but with the proper techniques it's effective no matter how much star power you possess. 

Zettler works his way back from the offensive zone to the defensive zone. After defending on top he demonstrates surfing and good gaps in the neutral zone across the blue line to kill the play before it really starts. 

Check out this snippet from Zettler's presentation and view the full video here a membership to The Coaches Site.