The World Cup has come to Canada!

And because a good coach is a good thief, it's natural to wonder what coaches can steal to inject some new life into their practices once the hockey season comes back around.

The massive pitch offers a unique perspective if you're used to watching the relative combined space of a normal sheet of ice, especially on TV. The soccer field shows the huge spaces between players and how the only way to truly find success is to get the ball to do the majority of the work. What if we applied that same concept to hockey? After all, is the pitch not just a massive neutral zone? Offside violations in soccer aren't stationary like hockey, so let's use that concept to design a drill to retrieve the puck and enter the offensive zone.

But the trick is this - let's avoid making decisions for the players. That's one consistent focus for Team Canada head coach Jesse Marsch: decision-making is the foundation of a successful practice. In soccer, there is so much space, but there are more defenders. The best players in the world are creative and make decisions quickly and efficiently. Let's not rob our hockey players of the opportunity to make choices.

This drill will require a lot of skill, so let's use Daniel Broberg's 7 Steps From Basic Skills to Smooth Power as a foundation. That course shows players how to use their edges and agility to improve the condition of the puck, which is exactly what we want to do here. No soccer balls required.

NZ Escape Rondo

The goal is to spot a puck in the neutral zone for two defencemen. Those two players have to get the puck across the offensive blue line with control while two forecheckers try to stop them.

Description

• 2 D on far blue line, have F outlet
• 2 F forecheck from close blue line
• Once through neutral zone, D can play 3-on-2 against forecheckers, or add players / second puck / etc.

Progressions

• D can pass and then jump up into play
• D scissor
• Only allowed to skate forward when you have the puck