Reply To: Need Advice: Preparing to Play More Skilled Team

[DMan]

Game 2: 5-2 loss. Played 2 good periods of defense, but went back to our old ways for the middle period. Had a 1-0 lead going into period 2, up 2-0 at one point, but eventually ended up down 4-2 going into the 3rd.

Overall thoughts: Our best offense came from our youngest players who 1) kept it simple in our defensive zone & 2) never stopped their feet when forchecking. This is our third line, and the least skilled & experienced of the bunch, but they had the best +/- rating and created our best opportunities. Goes to show that good work ethic & habits as important as talent, if not more. All in all, I don't think we're that far of from truly competing with these guys, but we certainly lack quite a bit in the offensive skill department.

Up Next: Get more disruptive on our fore-check…Tom, I think I will work on that 1-2-2 you mentioned, using Kai's Erkka Westerlund ppt and video. I used full-ice back-checking transition games to get ready for last week and will continue to do so…they are great conditioners, and great game simulators that encourage good habits. I also spent a lot of time on the man on, box behind defensive zone coverage and will keep refining this. I found a presentation by Perry Pearn on-line (http://flexxcoach.com/learningcenter/….$5 I think for "Premium Content"…I've attached a powerpoint file that came along with it) which gave me alot more confidence to explain it thoroughly. Also found a detailed explanation here:
http://www.hockeyshare.com/blog/tag/defensive-zone-coverage/

Thanks again for all the input & info.

Dave
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Dave thanks for the links and attachments they are really clear. Perry is now the asst. coach for Montreal. In the mid 80's he was the coach of NAIT in Edmonton and I coached SAIT in Calgary. He had a run of about 4 championships in a row which launched his coaching career.
The key is protect the inside first and everyone knowing their role and having good habits in the dzone.
We had a rough weekend vs Edmonton. Lost 1-2 on Friday and dominated the last two periods but their goalie stoned us. Yesterday lost 3-5. Gave them 2 free goals. One our D tried a d to d behind the net but hit the metal on the side of the net and it bounced right onto their player in fronts stick who tapped it in. We closed the gap to 4-3 and were dominating and had a pp and our goalie decided to make the breakout pass instead of letting the D pick up their icing. She skated to the top of the circle and tried to pass a puck that was spinning up and down. She only got half the puck and passed to a penalty killer who had a breakawy as she tried to scramble back. She scored and that took a lot of energy out of us with about 5 min. left. We probably deserved a split on the weekend but lost both. No games til after the New Year and I hope my 2 D and injured forwards are ready by then. They are in the top end of the team skill. We are lucky we play 80% of our league games in Jan. Feb.

Attachments

• ppearn_defensivezonecoverage.ppt (6 MB)