On February 18th’s practice, we worked with 4 skaters on the Leaside Flames U11 Gold team (reduced number due to long weekend and busy game schedule) on defensive positioning in the zone (post-rush). This included a focus on the following core concepts:

• Gap Control (continued reps from prior session)
• Maintaining proper defensive position in the defensive zone, including protecting the front of the net
• Gaining and maintaining body position in order to retrieve and/or protect a puck
• When to “switch” and communicating with your defense partner
• Quick transition to offense, identifying and making the breakout pass

Overall observations and recommendations:

1. Gap control should be continuously practiced and encouraged – muscle memory can take weeks or months to fully develop and is difficult to ingrain in a couple practices
2. Weak-side defense were good at recognizing the need to protect the front of the net (not “biting” to over-commit to the puck on the strong side) but should be slightly toward the strong side of the net (being in the lane of any incoming passes as opposed to being behind them)
3. Players understood when to follow and when to switch (like puck carrier skating behind the net) but should be encouraged to communicate with each other when doing so (by saying “switch”)
4. Players were skilled at protecting the puck and pinning an opposing player’s stick to the boards (to take them out of the play), this skill should be practiced further
5. Players were good at identifying the breakout pass but pass strength should be further practiced to avoid inadvertent d-zone turnovers

Defensive Drill #1: Line Skates

Just to develop a couple individual skills required for the subsequent drills, we started with a couple line skates:

• Line Skate 1: Backward start, transition to forwards for 3 quick strides, transition back to backwards
  • Players tended to shy away from properly closing the gap out of fear they’d get beaten – also tended to try to skate backwards the entire way; if encountering a wide-driving forward with a lot of speed, defenders should be encouraged to flip to forwards to match speed before resuming their backward strides
• Line Skate 2: Protecting the puck from a backchecker (constantly switching sides)
  • Slow-speed drill, objective was not to escape the backcheck nor for the backchecker to steal the puck; drill is to get used to feeling the backcheck from either side and protecting the puck as appropriate

Points of continuous encourangement for players:

1. Get more reps flipping from backward-to-forward-to-backward so better understand the timing (when to do it for maximum benefit – currently happening a bit too early or too late; this is difficult to coach precisely, players need a lot of repetition for trial-and-error learning)
2. When protecting the puck from a back-check, players should be encouraged to turn into the pressure (cutting off the backchecker and maintaining body position) as opposed to turning away from the pressure (providing an open lane for continued backchecking) – they were good at this but is always worth reminding as it’s a natural tendency to try and skate away from pressure

Defensive Drill #2: Stationary Puck Protection

Just to cover another individual skill before the game situation drills, we spent some time doing stationary puck protection (no touching the puck – body positioning only) to reinforce a few key points:

• Keeping both hands on the stick to brace yourself against the boards (if pushed from behind or falling forward)
• Maintaining close proximity to the boards for safe play (avoiding battling in the danger zone about a sticklength away from the boards which could result in awkward falls into the boards)
• Pinning the stick to the boards with the body, given the opportunity, to totally neutralize the opposing player

Defensive Drill #3: Puck Retrieval and Breakout to 1v1

In this drill, the defender would race a coach to the puck in the corner. Instead of taking a straight-line to the puck, they would gain and maintain body position against the coach. Upon reaching the puck, they would continue to protect the puck from the coach, attempting to pin the stick to the boards if given the opportunity.

Meanwhile, the attacker would choose to skate to and post-up at the boards by the hashmarks or the hashmarks toward the center of the ice (intentially random to force the defender to acquire their target for a breakout pass).

Once the defender has successfully pinned the coaches’ stick the the boards (or the coach says “escape”), the defender would gather the puck, take a couple “escape” strides and make a breakout pass to the attacker, wherever their location.

The attacker would clear past the cone, and the defender would close the gap for a 1v1.

As an added complexity, defenders would be encouraged to identify the location of their breakout pass during the retrieval or battle with the coach (as opposed to afterward).

Points of continuous encourangement for players:

1. Same as above, but being able to shoulder check while gaining and maintaining body position and/or battling along the boards is a skill that should be repeatedly practice.
2. Players should practice snap passes and/or putting additional spin on the puck to improve passing strength (passing accuracy was generally good)

Defensive Drill #4: Attackers in the corners

In this drill, an attacker is stationed in each corner. 2 defense begin in front of the net, and a coach acts as the “center”, supporting the defense as appropriate.

Coach #2 at the top of the zone, with the pucks, dumps a puck into one of the corners. That attacker is “activated” and attempts to score. The strong side defense moves to challenge the attacker, while the weak side defense covers the front of the net.

The attacker “wins” by scoring; the defender “wins” by clearing the zone or successfully passing the puck to the coach (center).

Upon either situation, coach #2 dumps a puck into the opposite corner, activating the other attacker. This changes which defense is strong-side and which is weak-side (forcing them to quickly switch roles).

This repeats back & forth allowing them to get used to constantly switching between challenging the puck vs. covering the net.

Points of continuous encourangement for players:

1. There are situations where the defense should not follow the attacker (like behind the net) – the players were aware of this. However, they should be encouraged to be more communicative with each other – saying “switch” or “help” as appropriate.
2. If the strong-side defense is beaten (it happens), the defender covering the front of the net should be reminded they should now treat it as a 2v1 situation – block the pass until the puck carrier approaches the net and becomes the highest threat.