No matter how much skill your hockey team possesses, you will not win many games if you cannot get the puck out of your own zone. Clearing your zone effectively allows you to transition from defense to offense, which prevents goals against your team and provides your team with scoring opportunities. The more you practice your zone clearing drills, the better your team will become.
Chip
The chip off the board remains one of the easiest ways to get the puck out of the zone, as the puck does much of the work. You can start a drill where the defenseman chips the puck off the board to the center or strong-side winger, who can either carry the puck out of the zone or chip it to the back-side winger, who cuts across the ice in anticipation of a chip. The chip can be more effective than a longer pass because it's harder to intercept.
Five on Two Drills
Five on two drills involve a group of five carrying the puck into the offensive zone and a group of two working to gain the puck from them. This drill continues until the defensive players gain possession of the puck and clear it past the blue line. This teaches the defensive players to work hard for puck possession, as the offensive players outnumber them throughout the drill. As the drill progresses, you can add additional players to help the defensive players if they cannot clear the puck on their own.
Breakout Reversal
When a forechecker puts too much pressure on the puck carrier during a breakout, he must pass the puck to someone else. If the puck carrier's defensive partner yells for him to reverse, he rims the puck around the boards behind him, where a teammate waits. The strong-side winger then skates to the same boards as the puck and the center skates to an area slightly off the boards to provide support. The back-side winger can then skate to the middle of the ice, awaiting a pass or a chip off the boards. You can drill the reverse breakout by having forecheckers pressure the puck carrier from different sides and having the team react to the play.
Clearing the Zone Positioning
As with anything in hockey, you must keep yourself positionally sound to succeed. To develop a system for clearing the zone, have your team go through positional patterns and receive passes at each stage of this pattern. The more you practice these patterns, the more familiar your team will become with them. Every player on the ice should know the locations of his teammates at each stage of the pattern. This prevents players from panicking when they cannot get the puck out of the zone.
References
- "Hockey Plays and Strategies"; Ryan Walter, et al.; 2009
- "The Hockey Drill Book"; Dave Chambers; 2007
- "Hockey Drill Book"; Michael Smith; 1996
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