Hockey moves in trends.
A key trend in hockey is developing in front of our eyes, and it's not necessarily new to the game, moreso it's how we teach this trend. Kim Weiss taught us how to get the puck off the wall at TCS Live '24; Brian Slugocki showed us habits for creating offence in high danger areas; and Tyler Dittmer showed us how to move the puck through the middle of the ice.
At the TCS Live at St. Andrews College in the fall of 2024, Rachel Flanagan showed us how to start the attack in the middle of the ice - 200 feet away from the opponent's net.
There are two key states in the game: you either have the puck or you don't. I'm serious. You're defending or you're attacking. Of course you can put the puck in space while you're on the attack so you can recover it closer to the other net, but the concepts remain true. If we can leave our zone with possession, skate through the neutral, and finally enter the offensive zone with the puck on our stick, that gives us a better chance to score than dumping it in. But the other team is trying too!
That's why Flanagan answers the question of how to manipulate what the defending team is doing so you can attack faster and more efficiently.
- Set the Line: build a wall between your teammate and the defender, be a pass option
- Manipulate Forecheck: pull forecheckers towards you, butt to hands, eliminate the forecheckers stick
- Middle Support: with middle support and pass ready options, we're able to...
- Pop Pucks to Space: the structure of the attack in the defensive zone allows us to break out relatively cleanly
Flanagan is pushing the trend forward by teaching simple yet effective concepts. We all want our team to play faster, and this is how - get the puck to the middle of the ice with these concepts as a foundation. Each concept invites multiple drills too. Scanning the ice is important, and this is easy to teach. Put a puck into the corner and move left or right to force the puck retriever to scan and find the tape.
Teach these concepts to your players by running drills, adding details and pressure, reinforcement, and support with video or meetings or both.
Move the puck north as quick as possible, and stay with the trends!
Noteworthy Timestamps:
- 1:15 Defence creates offence
- 2:10 Zone exit concepts
- 6:00 Game clip examples
- 10:15 Teaching concepts
- 13:55 D Retrievals - Toe Turn Deception
- 16:00 Retrieval to Support 1st Progression
- 19:20 2nd Progression
- 21:30 D Retrieval - Net/Wall Reps
