Reply To: Youth Practices

[Tom Molloy]

This mornings session. One goalie and 13 skaters-6 younger group and 7 older group. We usually have 2 goalies. I layed one net down and goales are scored by hitting only the mesh at the top of the net – any metal then no goal.

Theme of Practice: Puck protection, slip across move, BACKHAND PASSES WITH EYE CONTACT, creating 2 on 1's, taking the ice behind, close support, winning offensive 1-1's.

-10 minutes. – Individual work on shots or moves. I just monitor and give some individual tips.

-5 minutes – I demonstrated how to set up the defender for the slip across in front of the toes move. Key points; Fake going inside and the defender witll collapse to the middle then go outside. If he tries to check you by moving outside then slip the puck in front of him and gain the inside. They practiced this with a partner for a few minutes.

-5 minutes – goalie coach at one end. pucks spread out around neutral zone and we did chaos stickhandling. I stress protect the puck when you approach anyone. Avoid other players and the puck. 5 " full speed burst. Added make escape moves or going backward, sliding sideways or tight turns.

10 minutes. – Goalie coach took the younger 6 players and they lined up along the blue line. He passed to them and they went in on the goalie alone, then skated had to the red line.

– I took the older 7 and reviewed puck handling technique then did a 1-1 drill where 2 players leave from the middle and skate back to each blue line. The offensive player now turns attacks vs the defender who has transitioned skate from forward to backward. I stressed to make hard fakes and then take what the defender gives you and protect the puck.

10 minutes – half ice game at each end with the rules: A. at least 3 passes. B. all passes and shots must be on the BACKHAND ONLY.

10 minutes – Full ice game of 3-3 and 4-3 (2 groups) Rule: all passes and shots must be on the BACKHAND ONLY and at least one pass in EACH ZONE. The scoring team gets the puck and goes the other way (one goalie and one net face down with the top facing out and goals count if no metal is hit. One minute shifts and switch directions each shift.

15 minutes: – Full ice with everyone playing so it was 7 on 6. Same rules of at least one pass in each zone. Only Backhands allowed and the scoring team gets the puck and goes the other way while the other team must touch the red line before checking them.

I stopped them a few times during the game to encourage creating 2 on 1's, passing and then taking the ice behind (I used the Sedin twins as the example, giving close support and dangling with the puck to create space so they could make BH passes with EYE CONTACT) At rhe end we talked for a minute about what worked and what didn't and the kid's said the game was fun.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'