Friday’s practice had only 10 skaters and to keep things light & fun we spent the last 15 minutes on a scrimmage. This practice, we’ll use a similar warm-up working on a different shot, do some breakouts (didn’t have time to get to it on Friday), then focus the rest of the practice on the Powerplay.

Warm-up Drill: Skating pattern with pull-push shot

Both corners leave at the same time, 3 players from each. All players should be practicing the pull-push shot (to be demonstrated).

1st player turns around the near cone, shoots on the close net

2nd player goes far around the center faceoff circle, and shoots on the far net

3rd player goes all the way around all 4 faceoff dots, and shoots on the close net.

Systems Drill: 1-3-1 Powerplay Setup

This drill has several iterations, the first of which will be simple (non-defended) passing practice. The 1-3-1 system is derived from soccer terminology where you have 1 defender, 3 mids, and 1 forward. This system is popular for all kinds of applications including breakouts, defense and powerplay.

In this drill, the defense as well as the two wide-mids on the side act as the “umbrella” or the primary means of passing and generating open space during the powerplay. As passes are made, they constantly stay as wide as possible to provide the puck carrier with as easy a passing option as possible.

The center mid is the “bumper”, who is in the prime shooting location. Because this area is highly contested, whenever they receive the puck, they generally shoot immediately, or perform a one-touch “bump” pass (hence the name bumper).

The forward is the “net” player, who provides traffic, deflections, and will also move around and behind the net to support the umbrella as an additional passing option.

Note that 2 of the “umbrella” players are always high and will prioritize defence in the event of a turnover.

A coach will pass a puck to the top of the umbrella. We’ll pass the puck along each side, practicing the “net” and “bumper” options before swinging back to the other side, giving everyone a chance to be part of the play.

Once each side has had a chance to pass the puck, the players will continue passing the puck and staying in their designated areas. A coach will yell “go for the shot” – at this point, players can either choose to shoot, or make a maximum of 1 additional pass before a shot is taken.

We’ll repeat this with a second puck before rotating through. Everyone will get comfortable with all positions.

Gradually we’ll add defenders to block lanes and begin the drill with a dump-in.

Systems: Powerplay Scrimmage

Ideally we’ll dedicate the last 20 minutes to a full-ice powerplay scrimmage, starting gradually with 5v3 as players get more comfortable with passing around defenders.

First 5 minutes: 5v3

Second 5 minutes: 5v3 (switch)

Third 5 minutes: 5v4

Fourth 5 minutes: 5v4 (switch)