(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
In this video we’re taking that neutral zone regroup or transition one step further and talking about the entry into the offensive zone. Again you need to read, how much time and space do you have? How much pressure do you have? If you have no pressure you want to enter the zone with possession. If you have some pressure you might be able to enter the zone with possession. If you have to take pressure you probably need to dump the puck in.
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Example:
We’re going to start with possession because I really like a puck possession game and not being forced to dump it in. We are attacking against the opposing net and against their D.
- The opposing D have backed in a little bit and given us the blue line. We have options.
- F1 can either carry it in through the middle and as we get some pressure chip it out to the wall side FWD and now are entering the zone with speed.
- Or if you can carry it in over the line and then get that pressure from the D, making them make a decision, then we might be able to slide that puck through to secondary F2 with speed.
We often talk about wanting to enter the zone wide with speed. But here’s my thing. That’s exactly what the D are trying to make us do is enter wide now with speed but enter wide rather than through the middle. So I find entering through the middle can be dangerous offensively because then we can create some offense as we make these D make decisions.
Let’s say we want to address a ‘give and go’. So our defenseman has received D to D pass and we’ve hit the C, then boom, the C to a W, then the C keeps jumping and we enter the zone. So it’s a bit of a ‘give and go’ with the pass and a quick give to the side. Or it could happen in reverse. We pass to the W and the W right away hits the C and jumps and gets it back. A couple quick passes in the neutral zone changing the width of the attack from boards to middle back outside makes it quite challenging on the opposition D as well.
Critical piece here is that the puck carrier needs to have an outlet. What is an outlet? An outlet is a player available to receive the puck. So if we’re bringing it up the middle off of a D to D or any other situation this puck carrier can’t be isolated and alone. You need players on either side and if the battle is happening in here that maybe you even have the D as your outlets. But we want to try to get that puck as we get pressure applied to us to have outlet support to be able to enter the zone.
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