Offsides
Offsides
Excerpt From: Hockey Plays and Strategies
Entry into the offensive zone can create one of a coach’s many pet peeves, the offside. High level coaches speak often about controlling the controllables. John Wooden, the great basketball coach, said, “I don’t worry too much about winning and losing. I worry a lot about practicing the details that deliver the win.” One of the details that deliver the win is to never, never, never put yourself or your team offside. Offsides come from selfish possession of the puck or lazy actions where the puck carrier in each case waits too long to make a play and his teammates go offside while trying to anticipate a pass. Yes, opponents can have a positional influence on the offside, but more often than not the offside is created by the team with the puck instead of the team without the puck. Coaches keep count of the offsides by play and by line. Puck possession is so hard to get and so hard to keep, why would a team easily give up a puck that they fought so hard to retrieve?
Continue Reading: Activating Defense Into Offensive Zone Entries