One of the biggest issues with most teams is that they pass too hard and only go tape-to-tape... as I've explored (link to that background piece) in the past, the best players and teams use more area passes than others.

I've struggled for years to come up with activities that help develop touch on their passes within game context and encourage more area passes. This simple, yet effective activity/drill is the one I've found most effective. This helps guide players toward seeing possibilities beyond tape-to-tape passes. I have an area pass warm-up activity to help prime and develop these passes at the bottom.

2V2 AREA PASS SMALL-SIDED/AREA GAME

Constraints:

• The Small Area is half-ice and is longer rather than wider. This gives space to lay area passes into and having the wall close also allows for banked passes.
• Scoring wise award 2 points for any goal that comes from an area pass.
• Play games to 4 goals and have reward/consequence (eg. losing team skates a hard lap or pushups)
• Play out each 2v2 for 20-30 seconds. Have the players not in the 2v2 stand along the outside border to keep pucks in and contain play.
• If a puck goes over the goal line (top of the circles in this case), the coach spots a new puck or calls for a rotation of the next 2v2.

AREA PASS WARMUP

I like to use this warm-up activity to prime and help activate their area passes/touch. Here is how that warmup activity works:

• Players line up on the Neutral Zone (NZ) faceoff dots facing each other. Opposite lines go at the same time.
• The player (F1 below) with the puck skates toward the line opposite of theirs and passes the puck.
• The player that passed the puck transitions facing the puck either inside or outside and skates back up the ice toward their beginning line. 
• The player (F2 below) receiving the pass makes an area pass opposite of the direction the player transitioned.
• The player skating onto the puck goes around the end of their line to meet the puck on the other side.
  • Bank off the boards if the player transitions toward the middle of the ice.
  • Soft pass, just off the line, to the middle of the ice if the player transitions toward the boards.
• The goal is for the puck and player to meet directly over the blueline/behind the original line the original puck carrier came from.
• Finish with a quick 2-touch or soft catch shot from distance.