Reply To: low dzone play

[Tom Molloy]

Pops, I just listened to Bjorn Kindings talk at the conference during the World's in May. He shows how the defense is collapsing with everyone low but also how they are overloading on the strong side and outnumbering the attackers. He also goes thru how the third man in the play such as a breakout is crucial with this defensive overloading.

If F1 and F2 are caught deep then they must come back hard thru the middle, they have to beat the D up the ice. D1-2 and F3 are all above the puck so all you are giving up if they read properly is a 3-3.

In Austria we always had 4 players on the attack and overloading one side on the forecheck with the LD supporting at the right point. The RD went all the way in on the right side alone with the C and RW and the LW hung back. On the left side all three F were in supported by the LD. Last year they went to total hockey with the first 3 in forechecking on the puck side and 4 and 5 back.

The offenses have to catch up with the defensive play to create more scoring chances.

Hockey is one of the only sports that shares ideas from around the world at these international symposiums and now that the IIHF has put the presentations online it is easy for all coaches to access them. I don't know if they have implemented the lower individual price yet.

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