Utilizing releases in the offensive zone is a strategy to enhance puck procession under pressure by directing the puck to less contested areas of the ice. The specific locations of these areas can vary based on your team's positioning in the offensive zone, but you generally have three choices:

- Weak side release.
- Strong side release.
- Middle release.

As an old coach of mine often said, the puck travels faster than any player on the ice. Ensuring your team supports the puck carrier in strategic locations can facilitate puck movement within the offensive zone, disrupting the opponent's defensive coverage. Team Canada demonstrated this effectively in their overtime win against the USA during the 4 Nations tournament. The US weakside winger failed to recover quick enough to cover McDavid, and their defenseman was unable to reach Marner in time to prevent the pass.

How Using Hudl Can Help Your Team

In youth hockey, knowing how to support your teammates in the offensive zone is only part of the challenge. The other part is trusting that your teammates are positioned correctly so that you can pass the puck under pressure without hesitation. In this clip of my U13 AA Female team, our player had several chances to pass the puck under pressure but failed to see her options. This mistake led to a turnover, bringing the play back into our zone. By uploading our games into Hudl, and using their tools we were able to identify and corrected the issue, as demonstrated in the second clip.

Using The Middle Release

How To Practice Releases

Ozone Release - RG 5-2 Drill

• Give advantage to the Offensive team, by creating a 5-2 or 5-3.
• Start with the puck in a scrum situation in the corner.
• Once you blow the whistle the game is live.
• The offensive team is trying to release the puck to a quiet area of the ice by using a weakside release, strong-side release, or middle release.
• Once you find a clear path to the net for a shot, have all the players collapse for the rebound.
• Coach then will blow the whistle, and spot a new puck in the neutral zone.
• The same 5 players will take ice back in the neutral zone and regroup to re-attack the 2 or 3 defenders.
• Allow the players to play out the rebound quickly and then blow the whistle for the players on the opposite side of the ice to start.

  VIdeo Of Drill - Strong Side Release

  See FULL videos and post by visiting https://rsfperformance.ca/2025/03/creating-offense-with-rehearsed-releases/