Reply To: Efficient Use of the Ice – Designing Practices

[Tom Molloy]

I have added to my last post so I attached the original to keep it together.

I attend a lot of international coaching seminars etc. and just spent time reviewing papers analyzing a game. A lot of the stats are from the Finnish research where they film games and then break them down. So it is elite hockey and the percentages will be a little different at various age levels but essentially hockey is hockey and the game is similar everywhere.

What Happens in a Hockey Game?

Before we make a season plan or design a practice or decide what kind of offensive and defensive stucture we want out team to play it is important to have a basic understanding of what ACTUALLY HAPPENS in a hockey game.

Some statistics about a Hockey Game:

– the average game has about 5.5 goals scored. So if you can average 3 or more goals for and keep it to 2 or less goals against then you will have a good winning percentage. The old adage about winning 2-1 with great defense is bunk.

– each team will get the puck for about 180 attacks which means the puck turns over about 6 times per minute. Your player must have good habits like facing the puck, getting open, and follow the transition principle "you must defend so that you are ready to attack and attack so that you are ready to defend."

– in a game your team is on;
offense 35% of the time.
defense 35% of the time.
the puck is loose 30% of the time and the battle for loose pucks puts you on offense or defense.

So the question is what kind of forecheck will you use. Does a nzone trap make sense when the counter attack from there is successful 7% of the time.

Success of shots.

So the question is 'how do you get your team to shoot from the slot and put in rebounds and prevent the other team from doing this?

Attacks
– 60% of goals come from 30 counter attacks. (should you work on Quick Transition)
– 40% of goals come from 120 organized attacks (should your first choice be North-South or East-West.)

10% of these goals come from won face-offs.

Goals from Scoring area
5% of goals come from breakaways
35% of goals come from one timers or bang ins
30% are scored shooting in stride.
30% of rebounds or deflections.

Teams score on about 11% of the shots from the scoring area and the goalie stops 89% of the shots.

The players constantly switch from
Game playing role one – puck carrier.
Game playing role two – supporting the puck.
Game playing role three – checking the puck carrier.
Game playing role four – covering away from the puck.

Six transitions per minute from offense to defense to loose puck is a LOT of transitons between game situations and game playing roles.

It is easy to work on one way drills where you pass and attack vs zero opposition and these drills are important to get the basic skills of passing, skating, taking a pass, shooting, rebounds, etc. but if a coach only does this he isn't really preparing the team to 'play the game'. The same with playing defensive one on ones. They are important skills but the game continues after the 1-1 battle and those players will be in a different game situation and a different game playing role.

So it is a huge challenge to prepare players to be successful in an actual game. They need:
– the individual offensive and defensive skills.
– the ability to read the play and recongnize who to cover away from the puck on defense and how to effectively support the attack on offense by getting open, going to the net, giving width or depth to the attack.

Players also have to be able to play within the team structure in even and odd man situtations. This requires skills, game awareness and the ability to create opportunities to regain the puck or get a scoring chance.

So our challenge as coaches is to practice every situation in all three zones on offense, defense and loose puck battles.

Another important factor that I want to add is Decision Making.

Bob Murdoch coached after a successful playing career (2 Cups in Montreal) and 10 years in NHL. He then coached in the NHL and Europe for twenty years and was NHL coach of the year once. Bob came to my college coaching class and gave a presentation.

I have taken about ten minutes of his presentation where he talks about Transition and Decision Making.

When the player has the puck the decisions he makes with the puck determine the success of the team.
Good Decisions; i.e. make a play, regroup, gain a zone.
Bad Decisions; i.e. turn the puck over trapping your team.

If the Team makes this % good decisons the result will be.
60% – you will lose convincingly.
65% – you have a good chance of winning.
70% – big win.

https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/downloads/file/decision-making-and-transition/ is a ten minute video where Bob explains this. He refers to Dale Hawerchuk as rookie offensive minded player. Howerchuk learned how to play the whole game later but started as a one way phenom.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'