Everyone wants to score more goals. Teams, coaches, players, and parents all agree that scoring is how you win games. But too many people watching minor hockey believe the final touch, the shot that crosses the line, is all that matters. Kim McCullough asks her players to contribute to every goal from 200 feet away. Attack off the breakout, leave the zone with speed, move through the neutral zone with purpose, enter with control, and the puck ends up in the back of the net. It really is that simple.

Since this presentation, McCullough has continued building on that same 200-foot philosophy at the highest levels of the women's game. She remains Director and Founder of Total Female Hockey, and she now leads Team Iceland's Under-18 Women's National Team, guiding the program to silver medals at the 2024, 2025, and 2026 IIHF U18 Women's World Championships. She's also back on the bench at home, running the U9 and U11 AA/A programs for the Toronto-Leaside Wildcats.

Deception and Pressure

In this presentation, recorded at St. Andrew's College, McCullough demonstrates the fundamental habits behind breaking the puck out of the defensive zone. It starts with habits: your feet, your stick, and your eyes create the deception that makes you hard to check. That's the way out under pressure, confuse the defender, sell the fake, and execute the breakout. McCullough opens with a simple retrieval drill off the wall to get every player moving and reinforce those habits before adding any pressure. Coaches looking for a full session built around these same habits can pair this with her practice plan for better breakouts.

McCullough has also presented at TCS Live in Ann Arbor, where one of her key takeaways was building a "Make the Next Play" mentality. As she layers in scripted, passive pressure, those habits matter more, and they get harder to execute. That's why she always circles back to the basics before pushing toward full pressure.

"Let's not forget our eyes. Read that pressure, scan the ice."

Full pressure shows up in the second drill. Both players skate the puck inside the dot lines, and you can see exactly how the habits built at zero pressure carry over, both along the boards and out of the zone. McCullough adds acceleration without pressure first, then brings pressure back in to reinforce the same breakout habits. Whether it's the first turn or a second cutback, players learn to sell false information and use deception to get the attack moving the right way.

Move the Puck

Next, McCullough adds a backchecking player to pressure the retrieval before the breakout pass opens up. It's a simple drill, but there's no script, because there's no script in a real game either. Building the habit into the sequence is what lets players read and react without thinking. In one rep, a player forgets to shoulder check while turning away from the play, and the breakdown that follows shows exactly why that habit matters. Without it, the attack stalls before it even leaves the defensive zone.

"We don't throw pucks away."

In under 30 minutes, McCullough progresses from picking pucks off the boards with no pressure at all to full-pressure breakout games, closing with a competitive 2v2 (see her 11 Best 2v2 Games for more in this vein). She leaves room for coaches to add their own wrinkle to each progression, as long as the underlying habits stay intact. By the end of the practice, the players are just playing hockey. There's not much conscious thought left, because McCullough has already built the habits, with and without the puck. That's when real skill takes over.

Noteworthy Timestamps:

0:00 Intro
1:30 Off-Wall Retrieval Passing Basics
3:05 Adding Deception
6:10 Adding Pressure
8:50 Breakout Retrievals 1-2-3
10:30 Adding Pressure
13:38 2-on-0 Progression
16:00 Adding More Pressure
20:15 Easy Out: Basic Breakout Game
22:40 Breakout to Get Out: 2v2 Game