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A Good Game for Developing Passing and Stickhandling: Crash the Net

This is an excerpt from Coaching Hockey With Small-Area Games by Dave Cameron.

Level of Difficulty
Moderate

Minutes
10-12

Players
Full team—can go both ways from the red line

Objective
To promote rebounds, net-front plays, and pucks around the net.

Setup
Place nets back to back on the red line. Players are in the benches, and coaches stand behind the blue lines. If you have several coaches that is fine because for this game, the more coaches the better as long as they are divided equally. Coaches have pucks behind them in the event a puck is missed on a pass.

Procedure
On the whistle, three players come out of the box and work to get possession of the puck. After they gain possession, they can pass to their coaches (the coaches on the far blue line from their bench) and then work to get to the net (the net facing away from their bench). The coaches must quickly make a play toward the net to create a rebound, deflection, or puck scramble. If that team can score, the coaches throw a new puck into the game. If they do not score and the other team gains possession of the puck, they can pass to their coaches and work to get to the other net.

Coaching Tips

• With the nets being close, this game goes fast and changes quickly.
• Players should work on getting position around the net and keeping their sticks down around the net. They work to find loose pucks on scrambles and try to elevate pucks on rebounds.
• If players see that lanes are blocked for the coaches, they should work to become available in the direction of the net for a shot-pass deflection.
  
  

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