(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
The ‘rim breakout’. In a rim pass, the puck is passed along the boards from one corner to the other, or even up to a open W on the half wall. Although this is an option , generally you don’t want to have to ‘rim’ the puck. You would rather make that tape-to-tape direct pass.
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In the video I will show you an example of a defensive zone faceoff where we’re naturally under pressure from the other team and a ‘rim’ can help us advance the puck before the opposition has a chance to react. Before you get to the video lets touch on it below…
Example:
- We are lined up for a faceoff on the right circle in our defensive zone.
- Our C wins the faceoff back and our D1 gets the puck.
- The LW needs to know that he/she must hustle straight to the boards.
- The D1 rims the puck hard which turns it into a foot race between our LW and the opposing D1, but we have the jump on them as we know this is our play before the faceoff takes place.
- The LW can pick up the puck in stride and be gone with it.
- By that time it’s very hard for the forecheckers to get over there for a forecheck.
- A more detailed rim can even have the RW cutting across our D zone for chip play by the LW to get the puck behind the opposing D1.
So again thats a ‘rim’ breakout option from a defensive zone faceoff. Another option we would prefer to have happen would be for the D1 to skate around the net and make a tape-to-tape pass to the LW, but you can see that skating time takes a little bit longer.
The reason why the rim in certain situations is not ideal is because it can be challenging for a player to pick up that rim pass off the boards. In our skill section you can find a video on the way that we prefer to pick up or rim.
There are a few different ways to do it, but the one that we show you involves standing off the side wall and picking it up with your stick rather than getting your butt against the boards and taking it off your feet. It’s a much quicker way. Watch when you watch hockey on T.V. watch how 90% of players in today’s game take the puck off a rim on their stick rather than in their feet.
Naturally, on that face-off play we spoke on, if the LW doesn’t know the rim is coming, then the play is lost and you probably turn the puck over to the other team’s defenseman. So it takes some communication and discussion. The better you are as players at picking up a rim off the boards the more effective you are, rather than having a tragic rim pass which they can be.
Thanks for watching we’ll see in the next video!
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