(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
In this next neutral zone forecheck, the 1-3-1, we have D1 that slides up in between the two forwards along the red line and D2 slides in behind supporting being more defensive usually along our blue as a guideline. The F1 again is quite active and F2 and F3 are again trying to hold the red lines. If F1 pursues and the opposing D passes it up to a W then than our F1 is ready to jump, just like in the previous video.
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The thing that is good about this European or Swedish style 1-3-1 is it creates a lot of congestion for cross ice passes through the neutral zone. But something that it neglects are these little pockets with passes off the boards, they leave small gaps in behind. This is a good way to defend early passes by having the red line clogged up. The only downside to it, would be that it leaves little pockets in behind the W’s for chip plays.
The options for your team in executing this 1-3-1 are to either assign a specific D to be the one that’s up and a specific D to be the one that’s in behind. Perhaps one player is maybe a little bit more responsible, or you just dismiss that idea to designate one or the other.
Another important part is for the D to be able to read off of each other, and communicate. If one D slides up into the middle with the FWD’s then the other D must read and back up into the D2 slot. There are advantages and disadvantages to that because if there’s any miscommunication, they will be wondering what’s going on.
So again fairly non-typical in rec leagues or North American style, but it’s certainly worth exploring because it’s interesting if you’re having trouble with a team that’s really using the width of the ice well.
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