(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
In this video we’re going to explore entry into the offensive zone beyond the blue line and beyond the grey zone. We’ve touched on some of this in the offensive tactics theory and terminology but it’s important to connect it here to the neutral zone possession and entry into the offensive zone. The first one we’re going to talk about is, 1-2-3 principle of attack and then we’ll create some variations off of that.
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Example:
- We have control of the puck and are attacking on the opposing two D, 3 on 2.
- F1 is going wide with speed.
- F2 should be driving the outside of the net either from the side or from the middle.
- F3 can come into the middle from the weak side to create a triangle.
The problem with the F3 being that high forward in the highest levels is that in today’s game there’s so much backside pressure that FWD is often covered. Here is how this one has kind of evolved…
- F1 is driving wide with speed
- F2 and F3 are driving the net, they call this the double net drive.
- Now the fourth trailer whom is a D that has jumped into the play, generally the weak side D from the original break out or re group will be open.
You’ll see a lot these days that the pass might even have been quite high and even into the weak side of the ice as well as high. The triangulation is really important no matter where you’re coming from and the fact that we have width and depth to the attack is really important.
The next one we’re going to review is the drive and delay. We’re getting through the grey zone down low and delaying towards the boards, we force their D back and we’ve created some space in the 180 degrees of options that we discussed in an earlier video.
We have pressure driving through the net and now because this delay has taken a little bit more time and we’ve got the puck a little bit lower perhaps our D are open on the strong side or the weak side and we have a third FWD coming in. So now our triangles may take these kinds of shapes incorporating our D into it with the drive and delay. The key is to push the opposing D back and delay towards the boards and create some space. Really good players will even be able to drive out that D and get to the middle of the ice so then by the time they delay their have space available.
So there’s a couple of examples of entering the zone through the ‘grey zone’ creating some offense. But you’ll notice that triangulation, and width and depth are the keys to entering attacking against those two D.
In a future video we’re going to talk about the different scenarios that could occur. These are generally against two D and backside pressure coming from the opposing teams backchecking FWD’s. Most likely we’re going to have to keep it even more simple and possibly use those chip-ins across ice, soft chip, hard rim, or driving wide and getting pucks on net and crashing the net for rebounds. So the more numerical advantage you have the more options open up. The more even the play is, the harder it is to create the offense.
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