Notes From the Net I'm still no coach but I do know that we all played a much better hockey game on Friday evening. I don't think the proof is in the score though! It really helped to have everyone playing where they should have been. I also think it helped to have someone on the bench reminding everyone about line changes. But the biggest difference I saw from the net was your attention to positional play on the ice. I have been looking for some resources that emphasizes that and found a couple of things. The first is a simple hockey simulator. You can use your mouse to move the puck around th eice and see how various people's positions change. It's kind of fun! The second link is to a sketch of positional play in the defensive zone. The last one is a forum of various coaching tips like passing, neutral zone play and many (over 70) files you can peruse. Have a great week and see you on the ice!
 I'm no coach but I do see a lot of things from my vantage point. One thing I have seen a lot of during scrimmages is offsides. I thought I'd do a bit of researching on the call.
In hocky, play is said to be offside if a player on the attacking team enters the attacking zone (see below) before the puck itself enters the zone, whether it is being carried by a teammate or sent into the attacking zone by an attacking player. If a defending player carries, passes, or otherwise intentionally sends the puck into his defensive zone, any attacking player in the zone is not offside. However, if an attacking player is attempting to shoot the puck into the attacking zone and it deflects off a defending player, an offside violation can still occur. This is unlike the icing rule, where an unintentional deflection by the other team will negate an icing call. Here's a clip of a missed offsides call in an NHL game. When an offside violation occurs, the linesman (or woman!) blows the play dead, and a faceoff is conducted in the neutral zone closes to where the offside was. It also stops the momentum that the attacking team had and this is a big deal! There are two determining factors in an offside violation:
Note that the puck must enter the attacking zone for an offside call to be made; a player being over the line does not result in an offside call until the puck crosses the line, and that a player cannot put herself offside, such as by carrying the puck in while skating backwards. Though the basic offside rule is always the same, there are different rules for the situation when the puck is shot in while a player is offside, but the defending team gains control of the puck.
Play is stopped immediately if a player from the attacking team touches the puck in the attacking zone while he or any of his teammates is offside. Offside is also used to refer to a player lining up on his opponent's side during a faceoff. There is no penalty for this, though the faceoff may not be conducted while a player is offside.
Here's another example of an offsides call that our team will need to be aware of.
Zones
The blue lines divide the rink into three zones. The central zone is called the neutral zone or simply center ice. The generic term for the outer zones is end zones, but they are more commonly referred to by terms relative to each team. The end zone in which a team is trying to score is called the attacking zone or offensive zone; the end zone in which the team's own goal net is located is called the defending zone or defensive zone. The blue line is considered part of whichever zone the puck is in. Therefore, if the puck is in the neutral zone, the blue line is part of the neutral zone. It must completely cross the blue line to be considered in the end zone. Once the puck is in the end zone, the blue line becomes part of that end zone. The puck must now completely cross the blue line in the other direction to be considered in the neutral zone again. |
