Reply To: Need Help – Neutral Zone Forecheck

[Tom Molloy]

A neutral zone forecheck is designed to cause the turnover in the neutral zone as opposed to aggressive pressure in the offensive zone. A lot of times it is because of the dump in to change lines and F1 cannot create pressure but it is also a team strategy whenever you only send in one forechecker whose job is to cut the ice in half and steer the puck carrier wide. Of course most teams simply do the hinge where the D with the puck goes wide and puts it back to his partner in the middle lane who then hits a F flying up the weak side boards.

Most forechecks with only F1 in are neutral zone forechecks. In the old 1-2-2 F1 steers while F2 and F3 take the wingers and D1 and D2 protect the middle. A more agressive 1-2-2 has F1 steer and F2 and F3 lock the wingers on the breakout.

A 1-2-2 neutral zone trap has F1 aggressively steer F2 make it look like the wing on the wall is open and then pressure while F1 pursues and F3 move to the middle lane, D1 stand up and D2 take the wide lane.

A 1-4 plugs up the neutral zone and tries to cause turnovers and offsides. It is used a lot when teams think they are outmatched.

A 1-3-1 can be aggressive in the offensive end if the halfbacks pressure the first pass but usually it is a passive forecheck that tries to cause turnovers in the neutral zone.

So usually any forecheck with F1 being the only player in is designed to cause nzone turnovers.

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