(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
An offensive attack that has width, depth, and deception is a deadly attack. Like in soccer, switching lanes and running and overlap are great ways to confuse defenders, create time and space, and increase creativity.
This passing tactic called pass and follow, or overlap in soccer, is a great way to confuse the defenders and give yourself a chance to get creative on the ice.
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Example:
In this scenario we have the C has received a pass from the D and looking to move it to the W.
- When the W receives the pass he/she may want to move himself/herself to the middle lane of the ice so that he/she has more options with the puck to make a play.
- As the W starts to come to the middle lane the C will follow his/her pass they made to the W, overlap and come out wide in W’s original lane and is now open for a return pass.
If you stay in your lane it’s much easier for the defender backing up to cover you. If we start to switch lanes on the attack, we become much harder to defend and require the defensive team to communicate much more. When doing this we still keep that width and those options because we have a player in each of the three forward lanes.
Another great place is on the offensive zone entry. After receiving a pass you drive towards opposing d-man who is covering you. The player that gave you the pass now comes in behind you and makes it hard for this defender to decide who to take. We create a small two-on-one scenario which we talk about in offensive zone and offensive zone entry tactics in another video.
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