On February 10th’s practice, we refined our main topic from the prior class, “skating to the puck”, while introducing some basic breakouts to the mix.

Warm-up Drill: Skating around the face-off dots

We started with some powerskating as a warm-up before getting into our first skills drill.

Skills Development Drill 2: Double Criss-Cross Drop Passing

We did several more reps of the “double drop pass drill”. In this version, we added a complication: the second drop pass was a fake drop-pass (not illustrated above). A coach was added to play some light defense to help articulate how difficult it is to defend the criss-cross (because it’s really a 50/50 guess on picking which direction the puck will end up).

A couple tips on the drop passes:

• Drop the puck a bit earlier than you initially think you need to. It takes the recipient some time to adjust and properly accept the puck. If you’ve dropped it in the proper location (with your body between the defender and the puck) the defense shouldn’t be able to steal it anyways.
• You can practice drop passes on your own – at an outdoor rink or anywhere else. Pick a spot on the ice with any sort of visual indicator (a line, a mark, a leaf – draw your own “drop zone” with a bingo marker). While in motion, execute a drop pass at the drop zone approaching from either side, ensuring to get practice on both sides. Your goal should be for the puck to come to a dead stop within the drop zone (not to slide out of it).
• Faking the drop pass is as simple as bringing the puck to the drop zone, lifting your stick (doesn’t need to be high) as if you were leaving the puck behind, but then pulling it back to a stickhandling position. Once you’re comfortable with that, add a bit of extra head and shoulder rotation towards the direction of the “fake drop pass” for a bit of extra deception.

Skills Development Drill 3: 2-Pass Half-ice scrimmage

Not illustrated but we spent about 8 minutes on a half-ice scrimmage where each team would have to do 2 criss-crosses (drop pass or fake drop pass) before they could shoot.

We spent some time discussing when it’s appropriate to stay wide and/or drive the net versus when the player without the puck should come behind the player with the puck providing an opportunity for a criss-cross or drop pass.

Skills Development Drill 4: Basic Breakouts to 1v1 (continuous)

In this drill we introduced basic breakout positioning (at the hash marks, butt-to-the-boards) for wingers and looked to maximize reps making and receiving the pass from a defense to the winger.

In the low-rec version of the drill, the defense (passer) would simply line up at the back of the line, and the winger (recipient) would turn around the cone and come back in for a shot.

In the mid-rec version of the drill, the defense (passer) would close the gap with the winger (recipient) and engage in a 1v1 battle before continuing the drill.

Next class we’ll work on some defensive nuances the winger should consider during the breakout, and then look to add a center to the mix.