Teaching creativity in the offense zone isn't as straightforward as some may think. It's not black and white like D zone structure or a neutral zone forecheck. It's about showing players their options and then allowing them to make mistakes during a game while being creative. The majority of youth players don't spend as much time on the ODR as they once did, which we all know is a huge part of creativity. Because of this, coaches need to lay the foundation by showing players their options and then allowing them to experiment by using SAGs with boundaries. This can be tricky while trying to avoid over-coaching in the offensive zone.
In the above clip, you will see the puck carrier come up the wall and have a triangle support with all three forwards. As he comes into high us, the D recognizes the puck carrier coming closer, and he will shift away from the puck carrier, filling lanes and staying in good support of each other with passing to the weakside defencemen who will begin their descent.
Drill
Here is a simple drill to implant the idea of using a weakside dive in a practice.
- Forwards will start in the corners
- One side at a time, on the whistle the forward will skate the puck up the wall.
- The coach will apply token pressure
- The weakside D will time the forward movement, and then being to make a dive.
Key Points:
- Communication
- Passing
- Timing
- Receiving
- Quick Release
