Had a chance to officiate a number of youth games over the weekend at a local tournament at the Midget, Bantam, PeeWee and Squirt level. It was great to see that the game has progressed in the sportsmanship side of things and the new rules have positively impacted the way the game is being played. Most players and teams by now have adapted to the not using their sticks for hooking and slashing and the hits are much cleaner than just a few years ago. However, on the hockey development side of things, it was pretty obvious we still have a long way to go. Of the 20 plus teams in this particular event there were about 3 teams that you might call well coached. It was disappointing to see such a low level of organized team play and coaches that were encouraging selfish play over teamwork. I attribute this mostly to coaches that have very little understanding of how the game should actually be played and even if they actually wanted to get their players to move the puck more have little sense on how to teach players where to go without the puck. With the above challenges I thought it would be worthwhile to make a list of tactics that coaches should look to incorporate into their team structure that would add to team play.
#1 Players must understand that the most important part of the game is moving the puck quickly. Far too often players think that when they get the puck it's me time. The head goes down and the stickhandling begins. This does not mean that they should wing the puck forward with the hope that someone on their team will pick it up. Rather it means move your feet to escape pressure, while at the same time get your head up and access the options you have. Carrying the puck yourself might actually be the best option, but mostly, that's not the case.
#2 Players without the puck must quickly make themself available for passing options and do so in a manner that is predictable to their teammates, use the entire width of the rink and in a manner that they can receive a pass. This means all players and especially defenseman, as the best option is often backwards away from pressure first, then forward.
#3 Players must understand that when going forward as a team they must push the puck ahead to open players who can receive a pass to make their attacks as aggressive and quick as possible. It is far easier to defend a team where one player gets the puck and tries to go coast to coast while his teammates slow down and let that player go pass them. That's about as smart as buying a Porsche and never taking it out of 2nd gear.
#4 The game in many senses, is a game of opposites. By that I mean if the puck is on one side of the rink the open ice is the opposite side. Often by first going backward to the puck side defenseman and then across to the weakside D you have not only moved the puck away from pressure, but also given your forwards the time to get open and also created easier diagonal passing options for the forwards to receive the next pass. This idea of opposites is also true all over the ice. When the puck is in the middle of the rink usually the best option is to the outside and vice versa or if the puck is down low in the offensive zone the best option is to move the puck up high. (I was blown away over the weekend when a Bantam coach blasted a player for making a smart D to D pass in the neutral zone because he thought that type of play was too dangerous. Needless to say this teams main tactic was the continuos blind passes into to skates up the strong side boards).
#5 Similar to the above tactic, use both D for most of your breakouts. There are times when one D can move the puck effectively by themselves to the forwards, but by not understanding how to move the puck from the strong side to the weakside with D to D passes or reverses it becomes pretty simple to forecheck a team that only uses one side of the ice. (Show me a team that always plants one D in front of the net on breakouts and you'll most likely be seeing the forwards standing around all over the ice instead of moving to open space) If you spend anytime on team tactics in practice, this is the one area that will pay the most dividends. The great bonus here is that you can use the exact same positioning for your neutral zone regrouping.
#6 The last tactic I'll mention here is one that is the easiest to implement, but in may ways the most important. When your team doesn't have the puck you must pressure your opponent as quickly as possible. Of course their are times when this is not possible or positionally would not make sense, but your team must understand that the easiest way to score goals is by creating turnovers and getting the puck to your opponents net before they can organize their defense. There have been numerous studies on goals and scoring created after turnovers and it statistically always far and away ranks first for goals created.
Rather than complicating this post anymore with additional ideas I'll leave it here, but keep in mind a practicing your Dzone coverage and a simple forecheck plan will also pay dividends. The great news is that you could teach these systems in a parking lot with walk thrus and not waste much needed ice time that can be better used for skating and skill development.
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