For defencemen shooting from the point, “you want to get to at least the dot line before shooting.” That’s from Tyler Dittmer’s on-ice presentation at TCS Live in 2024.

I am a full believer that every time the puck is passed from low to high in the offensive zone, to the point, a scoring chance is a guaranteed outcome. I tell the players all the time, and it helps with buy-in from forwards who have been conditioned to cycle the puck in the corner until the heat death of the universe. Retrieve the puck in the corner and go low to high and it’s a guaranteed scoring chance.

There’s some brainwashing involved of course. The defenceman receiving the pass on the blue line still has to make a play. But when you use terms like “guaranteed scoring chance” in the same sentence as “blue line” and “defenceman”, you’re making an indirect impact on confidence. That’s hope at least!

Tyler’s presentation is huge from a standpoint of showing all players, not just defencemen, how to make those shots. I focused on D-specific techniques because that’s a huge part of my team’s offensive zone play this season. We need to keep things simple and create time and space, but I was seeing too many D shoot wide from the boards the moment they received the puck, so Tyler’s concepts really helped.

I want my D getting shots through from the point consistently. Nothing drives me crazier than shots getting blocked consistently. Of course when my team blocks shots I’m thrilled, but when the opponent blocks them? Eff that. Get it through! And Tyler is teaching me how, beautiful.

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