Reply To: What Happens in a Hockey Shift

[john]

Side note. I'm a little nervous to post this. I agree with the creativity part and love the quote "are we teaching them hockey or are teaching them a drill?". In my area and even in my org I hear "we dont use any systems because I want the kids to be creative". I laugh when I hear that because these people that say this dont know systems and use that statement as an excuse or to validate them. You have to have some type of system in place so the kids know where to go. How can do you support someone who is all over the ice? I dont think we need to lock the down with systems but general understanding or philosophy has to be in place. Because to me executing the system or style of play is the creative part. There are still decisions to be made when executing a system. You have to be creative to support, to find that open ice.
Its fine line to walk and I agree we need coaches to allow the players to be creative. I just wanted to caution some coaches to still give guidance and not just a blank statement of "get out there and be creative". Because what does that mean? I bet if you asked the players they would all have different answers, so how can they execute?
To Toms point locking players into a system where kids sit back and wait is boring for the players and will end up quitting. Making plays is where the fun is at. Skating and being smart how you angle and steer is what I look for.

For the college team I coached we used the center drive to create odd man advantage but for the most part it was more about puck carrier and/or supporting player finding open ice. I found that to be useful because finding open ice provides time and space to make plays.

Defense zone is will over skill. We had one pass and out because our goalie was weak. Tried to limit our risk.
Neutral zone was all about speed. You get through the N Zone north and south. Never stop at blue lines, had a 6 foot rule. 3 feet on both sides of blue line you never stop. Just get through that area because stopping or drop passing and whatnot would create us to turn over the puck. Thats a transition area of the ice. Again that limits my risk but I felt if handled the N zone better than the opponent that would give us more scoring opportunities.
Offense zone. If on the rush would use center drive but for the most part it was about finding open ice with F3 high reading the play. I used the center drive because would give us a 2 on 1 in the high slot.
Forecheck- for the college team we used a couple. But for the younger teams its more about angling and steering opponents to the outside. I dont use the word "read" as in read the play. Read= anticipant. For younger kids they understand the word anticipant better than read. However we talk using both words because some players move on to other coaches and it?s my job to prepare them for the next year.

Thats it, I think thats a simple philosophy. Maybe Im wrong