Practice is a great time to try unique twists on standard drills that get your players thinking outside the box. Working in a small area forces players to use their teammates to create scoring opportunities and use elusive skills to boost their puck handling ability.

This is a practice drill that is proven at the NHL level. It keeps both players and goalies constantly engaged and uses their creativity and conditioning in ways not found in a typical practice to improve their performance.

• Set-up two nets – one in its regular position on the goal line and the second net ‘stacked; in the middle of the ice, half-way between the goal line and blue line. Both nets are facing the same direction.
• Game is played 3v3 – teams can score on either net
• In addition, one coach (or additional player) is positioned on the each side of the boards. They act as support or ‘safety valve’, one for each team.
• Players cannot take the puck from the ‘safety’ players.
• This game reinforces concepts such as creating offense from behind the net, hunting the dot, give and go, attacking off the wall & the Royal Road, puck protection & deception.

The first clip is from the 2019 Buffalo Sabres Development Camp. In this version, coaches act in the role of support players on the side-wall.

The second clip is from the Sabres again - this was from practice as they wrapped up pre-season prior to starting the 2019-20 season. In this progression, they have eliminated the side-support players making this a straight 3v3.

In our third example, the Edmonton Oilers ran this game in practice the week before the season started. They have used players instead of coaches in the side-support players. This keeps more players engaged and challenges the side-players to read, react and make quality passes.

Try this next practice – players will love it and they have no idea how many skills they are working on, never mind the conditioning effect.

Video Coach is a series of articles which reviews a video clip from game action and then breaks down the sequence into frames identifying key skills, individual and team tactics, strategy and hockey IQ. Video is a great teaching tool that can be used by both players and coaches.

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