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| Tips -
Defenseman Mistakes |
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When your a defenseman and
your doing a one on one, there's a lot of common mistakes
happening. The first one is the gap size and timing. If you are
sitting on the opposing teams blue line during the game and you
see a rush is going to be coming up your end, most defensemen
start to move instantly backwards, putting no pressure on the
rush coming up the board to him and almost always giving the
rusher a free skate out of his zone, through the neutral zone
all the way to the defensive zone.
-Two major things are wrong with that
1. When you see a rush coming and you are on the blue line, keep
the gap close so he is pressured, but not close enough that you
will be caught as he blows by you. You don't want to be too far,
that leads to the 2nd thing.
2. Why wait? What is the point of taking the opponent out once
you hit your own blue line if you can take him earlier? So many
defensemen are trained to skate backwards with the opponent to
their blue line then take them out. There's no sense in doing
that if you can take him out at the redline. If you have that
gap small from the second you identify the opponent rushing you,
you can make sure he feels pressured, and you have the choice of
when you want to take him.
To take him out, slowing down and blocking him is the best thing
you can probably do..
So keep that gap small and don't wait!
When your going with the 1 on 1 on one side of the ice, it's
usually preferred to have the opponent go down the boards then
through open ice as he is a lot easier to take out along the
boards. So when this is happening you as a defensemen usually
try to "sell" your preferred spot to the opponent instead of the
open ice. This is done by giving him more room to blast by you
on the boards so he picks that side, then just cream him, but
one thing we do as defense is give too much room on the boards
if he doesn't pick the side quickly. Going down he stays aligned
with you and doesn't pick open ice or boards so you continually
give him more room on the boards till he rips by you. But why?
The thing is, if your going down on a 1 and 1 and your opponent
isn't picking either side, you have nothing to worry about. If
you have given him a fair gap on the boards so it's a good
choice, and the open ice is still possible, you shouldn't try to
give him more space. Just keep skating down the ice straight. He
has to pick a side, its his duty to get by you, not yours to
give him a chance. This is a smaller mistake but its more
important then you would think. Just don't give him too much
room and let him decide, if he doesn't choose either side, keep
with him, make sure your gap is nice and small and take him out
before he can choose. |
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