Or at least like we used to ‘in my day.’
I enjoy analysing the subtle ways hockey has changed ‘since I played.’ My pro career ended about 10 years ago, and much of hockey has not changed. Besides a higher skill level, a number of small details have evolved, and this is an interesting one. The backchecker doesn’t hand off his man to the D anymore.
I used to hand off the puck carrier to my D:
It was fairly commonly accepted that as a forward I was supposed to backcheck hard, but if I couldn’t catch the puck carrier by my own blueline, I was supposed to communicate with my D, and let him take the puck carrier and I’d pick up a trailer (their F3, not a trailer behind a truck).
What teams do now:
It turns out there isn’t a hard and fast rule.
One Eastern Conference NHL Team: One NHL head coach recently shared with us that on his team, the backchecker to hounds the puck carrier all the way into the defensive zone. They double team with D1 if they can, and the backchecker becomes the low forward in the defensive zone.
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Another NHL perspective: In the photo to the right, Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Johnston shares a few options with coach Mike Sommer. Another way to look at the situation is to eliminate a hard and fast rule of passing off to the D man at the blue line like ‘back in my day,’ but that it is up to the D and the backchecker to communicate and decide what they will do. They will hound whenever possible. Having the blue line as the marker may in fact give the backchecker a target of where he can ‘give up on the back check’ and say, ‘oh well, I couldn’t get him in time.’
What does your team do?
I’d really like to hear, and so would all the coaches that follow this blog. Please comment below and tell us what rules you have, or don’t have, for your backchecker!
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