Reply To: Red Bulls win a big tournament

[TomM]

There are lots of ways to play the Torpedo. I will outline one way.
First you have to think a little differently.

Positions.
-2 Torpedo's or strikers who are always up ice on the forecheck.
-2 midfielders who come back in their zone and are part of the initial attack and forecheck and cycle on their side in the offensive zone.
-1 Libero or defensive defenseman who stays back.

These positions can either be assigned or can be read by the players who simply must be able to count to 5.

In your end you play one on and a box behind with the 2 midfielders and libero deep in the zone.

On faceoffs one of the midfielders either plays one of the 3 forward positions. Some teams have the centre and others a wing.

On a regroup the libero and midfielders fill the 3 low lanes and the torpedo's read whether they can stretch or give closer support depending on how much forechecking pressure. On a controlled breakout they would stretch in 2 levels.

Always have 4 on the attack. If the defenders are all back create a 2-1 on their widest defender while the middle two go to the net and mid slot. Also the weak side midfielder is always ready to go to the weak side for a back door pass or to pinch on a rim. When u lose the puck everyone has to get on their horse and come back hard thru the middle with the first backckhecker giving back pressure on the puck carrier.

If u go to the team play video's done in 2009 you can see the team practicing breakouts and regroups.

It is called Big Ice Hockey because you use the entire ice with width and depth and not just width as we do so much of in North America; though there is a lot of stretching now done in the NHL.

U can also decide whether you want a 2-2-1 kind of forecheck or a more controlled 1-3-1 with the torpedo's in the middle and doing a tandem. So u can decide whether to focus on pressure or contain. If they set up behind the net the 1-3-1 is effective.

This is one example. Another is to take the left wing lock and have the RD and LW as midfielders and the C-RW torpedo's and LD libero. Have the C be the low man in your end.

So whether it is 1-2-3-4-5 or assigned positionsyou can add a lot more depth to the game and constant forechecking pressure.