Today Vince, a How to Play Hockey Member watched this video on how to take a rim pass, and wondered how to then protect the puck under pressure. I’m sitting in a cafe so a screencast video would be a bit ineffective for you, but here is the video he watched from Module, which we’ve given away FREE, and my 1o tips below how to then protect the puck in this situation.
10 Tips: How to Protect the Puck off a Rim Pass
- When you get a puck on the boards in your own zone under pressure, you may need to protect the puck. Just pretend you are a Sedin.
- Keep your butt between the player and the puck.
- Watch for their stick and body positioning out the corner of your eye to see from where they are reaching, and fade away the other direction.
- Under pressure from a pressing F3 forward or pinch by the other team’s defenseman, your goal should be to try to make a short quick pass to the closest open player as quickly as possible.
- If you can’t get your feet up ice and get out of the zone or make a play because of the pressure, consider chipping it back down into the corner back to the D, or even harder around the net to the far side.
- Only chip to your centerman in the middle if you are 100% sure you can make the pass as you don’t want to give it away in the middle.
- If you are totally unsure, just try to counteract the pressure from the pinch, and ‘eat’ the puck on the board, shielding it with your body and stick, while you call/wait for help. That is protecting the puck.
- Don’t be afraid to literally yell ‘HELP’ so your centerman or Defenseman can be your eyes and give you direction.
- If you are up high much closer to the blue line, rather than the hash marks, the defenseman is much more likely to pinch, so you can actually ‘counter-pinch’ and try to knock their stick away or control it, allowing the puck to get over the blue line and out of harms way. If you have a bit of control you may be able to chip it 12-18 inches off the ice on the boards past his/her leg.
- My best advice again, is to simply watch the Sedins, they are the best in the world on the boards!!
