Crew gives tips on winning face-offs, possession, momentum, situational awareness and how to ensure your team has the right level of compete.

Having possession of the puck allows a team to be proactive with its offence and dictate how the game is played. Trying to regain possession means being reactive, scrambling and playing the opponent’s game more times than not.

Winning face offs is a key way to dominate possession.

J. J. Crew, Assistant Coach with the Western Michigan University Broncos, gave a presentation during our 2022 Virtual Coaching Clinic that is a game-changer in terms of possession. The former Broncos player is a specialist on face-offs and during his 18-minute presentation, he’ll more than convince you that dominating the dot leads to success.

It starts in practice, according to Crew, who will enter his third season as Assistant Coach this fall. The Broncos practice face-offs on a daily basis, either before, after or during practice; they watch video to scout their opposition in terms of face-off match-ups, schemes and how to exploit them; they also meet individually with their players to ensure face-off preparedness.

Crew, who formally worked as Director of Player Development at Western Michigan, goes into detail on forehand reps, backhand reps, taking away the opponent’s stick and bouncing pucks, before spending time on possession, momentum, winning mentality, situational awareness and how to ensure your team has the right level of compete.

Winning more face offs is but a video away. Enjoy!