There's still a time and place for it.

Scoring goals is fun.

Alright, now that we can agree on something, let’s dig into tactics that will help us score goals more often.

There’s plenty of ways we can go with this, so it’s important to agree on something else: every team is different, and what works for your team might not work with my team, the Winkler Flyers. For my next series of posts I chose tactics that are fairly universal, however, to reach the widest audience.

The clips you’ll see represent a significant sample of the tactics we used to create offence last year. Certain things, like whether or not we’d focus on D to D passes instead of high cycles with the D were dependant on what our opponents were doing in the defensive zone, but for the most part, our tactics in the offensive zone were based on our strengths, not our opponent’s.

So with that in mind, let’s dive in. Hands up if you’re a fan of coaches screaming at their players to GET IT DEEP. Dump it in, pucks deep — the game is moving away from dump and chase hockey, right? Has been for years. Alright, we agree on one thing.

One other thing we can agree on, is that to score goals you need to spend time in the offensive zone. The more time we spent in the offensive zone last season, the more we’d wear down the defenders and create opportunities for offence.

So wait — maybe we should be dumping the puck in? Surely it’s better to carry the puck over the blue line with possession? I’ve seen a lot of work done lately suggesting entry with possession is the only way you can enter the zone, and it’s just not true.

Alright, let’s talk shop.

Zone entry against a tight gap

This is a fairly typical report of our zone entries against a very good team, and we can learn a couple things from it:

• We generate more offence when we carry the puck into the zone
• The Steinbach Pistons don’t let us do it very often
• We’re not recovering pucks enough off the forecheck when we do dump it in

Each of those points carries its own series of questions, but who cares, just carry the puck into the zone then! This is easy, right?! The problem is your opponent doesn’t want you to carry the puck in, and the best defensive teams in your league, such as the Pistons in our league, will confront the puck carrier at the blue line and force you to dump it in, especially inside the dots.

Sure, we spent almost 40 seconds in the offensive zone when we carried the puck in through the middle, but we only did it four times. You have to give credit to the opponent sometimes. We still had success entering the zone from the wall, but you need a strategy if you have to dump the puck in.

So let’s start with one of my favourites.

Soft chips 

What a clip.

The first key is that we’re carrying the puck through the neutral zone with speed. The Selkirk defender has a good gap, so what is our puck carrier supposed to do? Try to cut to cut inside the dots? Nope, then we’re offside and we have to turn back anyways.

Let’s go north, let’s put the puck into good space and see what happens. Jackson Arpin soft chips past the defender, and 16-year-old Grady Lane attacks with speed and turns up. Everyone is on the same page because we work on delays in practice constantly. Grady finds Drake Burgin because a Selkirk player over-backchecks, and now we’ve got loose bodies because we’ve created confusion. And who scores? The other defenceman, Kyle Lamoureux.

Now if that’s not fun hockey I don’t know what is.

Alright, what if you don’t have to dump the puck and you can carry it in with possession?

Kick-out

Want to enter the zone with possession? You have to work hard to put yourself in a position to do so.

There are different layers inside the blue line. Just because you can carry it over doesn’t mean you’ll get a clear path to the net.

Our wonderful captain Jaden Townsend demonstrates excellent habits from start to finish in this clip.

1. He’s carrying the puck because he got back hard and provided an outlet for the defenceman
2. He turns north immediately and moves his feet
3. He kicks the puck out instead of trying to split the defence
4. He goes to the net and retrieves the puck
5. He goes to the net again and scores the goal

What’s often lost in the debate between carrying the puck in with possession and dumping it in is the effort required to carry the puck in. Excuse my language, but it’s fucking hard to skate in on a clean rush every shift — impossible in fact. If you can enter with speed and you meet a wall of defenders, then you need another option or you’ll have a bunch of players who think they’re a hero who can go one-on-one and score every time.

Again, we worked on this in practice consistently. Kick the puck out, go to the net. Griffin Leonard makes a smart play to put the puck in space, and Towny wins the race and gets there first, and then gets to the net.

It’s funny how often a positive clip ends with getting to the net. Same idea in this next one, hit the blue line with speed and drive back the defenders on your way to the net.

Mid-lane drive

Go to the net and good things happen.

Not to the side of the net, not behind the net. Skate hard to the front of the net with your stick on the ice and make yourself an option for the puck carrier. That’s what happens in these next two clips, Don Cherry himself couldn’t have asked for more.

Watch for the stick lift on the first goal:

Sure, if there was a tap-in available every time that would be just as easy as telling your players to carry the puck into the zone every time instead of dumping it.

The key is to commit to the mid-lane drive every time to create opportunities. Again, the other team is working hard and trying to win too. Certain tactics give your team a higher probability of success. Driving the net creates confusion and makes life a lot tougher for the other team’s backcheckers.

Another tactic is the double net drive where both the centre lane player and the weak-side player drive the middle. This works great when a fourth player jumps into the play, but worst comes to worst the puck carrier can always put a puck on net and hope the chaos results in something positive.

In this clip the beneficiary of the double net drive is the next wave player following up who has a clear shot:

So I realize in an article where the title defends the need to occasionally dump the puck into the zone, every clip save the first demonstrate tactics for creating offence after carrying the puck into the zone. That’s because if you can, you definitely should carry the puck into the zone. Understand the layers inside the blue line and the options your players have, and stay strong on your non-negotiables, like driving the net.

And if you have to dump it in, then dump it in and have a forecheck plan for retrieval (which will be the topic of my next post).

Thanks for reading and stay safe!