(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
Hockey has evolved tremendously over the years. Defense has become a mix of man-to-man defense and zone coverage. Each position, each player on the defensive team has an area of the ice that they’re meant to cover. But they also have a player that they’re meant to cover. Explaining is much easier to do on a chalkboard than in real situations…
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Example:
- We have our D1 and our C covering the opposing F1 and F2 in the defensive zone corner, on the left side.
- D2 is in the net front area covering the opposing F3.
- LW is strong side covering the opposing D1.
- RW is weakside sagged covering the “fort” and watching the opposing D2.
Listed above is an example we have gone over previously, with whom is covering who. By being set up like this we have our man-on-man match ups. Our five with their five. That’s the easy part. What happens when the other team gets creative when somebody… slips up, when they switch sides, when their D activate and leave the blue line. This takes communication!
In a perfect world, if the opposing D1 left the blue line, the LW could stay with him/her throughout the duration of coverage in the defensive zone. That is possible to do but sometimes a player may run a little bit of interference on me. Depending on the league you’re in you can get away with that more or less depending on the rules.
Scenario:
- Opposing F1 is skating up the wall with the puck towards his/her D1 who is skating down the wall. They run a little switch play and F1 drops the puck to his/her D1.
- Once the opposing F1 drops the puck he/she sets a little pick on our LW while he/she is trying to stay with the D1 going down the wall.
- Once this happens our D1 and our LW need to communicate and yell, Switch!
- Now our D1 has to switch off and cover the opposing D1 who has come down the wall on the play who is now the puck carrier.
- While the LW backs off the wall a bit to regain defensive positioning and pick up the opposing F1 who is now high in the zone strong side, and may even try to cut to the middle.
We are now in a new man-on-man situation. So, how much you want to switch and when to switch can get a little bit technical. But at the end of the day you start in a zone and identify a man. You should stay on that player until something physically happens where that’s impossible to do so. And with some verbal communication, normally the word “switch” then you and your team-mate knows to switch off opponents.
Maintaining defensive side pressure is really important. If you can anticipate this play and the pick and skip having to switch off coverage with each other, it will help. As well it is the simplest way to go about this.You should never just call “Switch!” as you see these players start to come together too early because that could cause issues.
Man-on-man coverage is about taking an opponent, staying on the defensive side, and staying with that player until you get possession and transition to offense until the goalie saves it. Until they score, hopefully not that one, or until something physically happens where you’re needed somewhere else more desperately than you are by covering your initial player. That’s a little bit about the confusion that can happen during man on man coverage.
Check out the video and see a more detailed visual breakdown. I’ll see you in the next video!
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