On today’s SHORT SHIFTS episode, Toph wants to talk 2-on-1s, but with a twist - from the D-side. Some awesome tips and tricks when defending a 2-on-1, Vechs gets to drop one of his favorite sayings, “play chess, not checkers," and we tee up the age-old debate on this for defensemen: to slide or not to slide!
TEN MINUTES ON THE CLOCK STARTING NOW!
We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites!
(upbeat music) Here we go live for a short shifts episode. 10 minutes are on the clock. Jeffrey Lavecchio has no idea what the topic is gonna be, but Jeff, should you choose to accept this topic? I think we're gonna have some fun today. Are you ready to go, my friend? What would you say if I said I choose not to accept this topic? I would say, okay, that sucks. I have 10 minutes to talk about it myself. Here we go. I choose to accept. Okay, so I wanna talk about two on ones, but I wanna talk about it from the defensive side. So not a ton of experience over for either of us as players. You being the shooter, me being the passer, love the two on ones offensively, but I wanna talk about how to play two on ones defensively. So what do you think, man? - I always like asking the goalie what they want, whoever your goalies are, what do you like, you know? - And what do they typically tell you? - Give me the shooter, don't let them backdoor me. No matter what, I have no chance if they backdoor me. If you let a backdoor scene pass happen, the odds of me saving it are very low. I want it to be on me, you know, if you want a deck or slide or whatever at the very last second, but no matter what, whatever you do, do not let them backdoor me. So I, as a coach, always would make my goalies say that in the beginning of the year. For two on ones, goalies, what do you guys like? What do you want? It's always that answer, no matter what. I think I've had one goalie in my whole life that I've talked to about that and is like, I don't really care, like, you know, whatever, I'll take whatever and he really didn't care. But every other goalie that I've asked said is always like, just don't let them, don't give them a breakaway in on me, but also don't let them backdoor me as the big one. So for me, I ask the goalies that, and then if that's what the goalies say, then we play it the way they want, unless they start getting lit up on two on ones, then we'll do whatever I want as the coach. - Has any goalie ever said not to take the shooter? - Yeah, there was one, there was one goalie that I actually played with who was like, no, I don't want, he was like, I don't want you guys to only take the backdoor, like I want you to play it like a two on one. And whatever happens, like, happens, I don't want you to just really shade to the open guy. I always like, and I think it's the hardest as a guy who's on the two on one is, you know, reverse engineering it, I always think it's hard when the D-Man obviously has a very good stick, understands spatial awareness, has a good gap, and shades to the open guy, so the guy without the puck first, but as you get closer and closer to the net, the really good ones find a way to make you take a worse angle or slide at the absolute perfect time and you can't get the puck through or, you know, like those are the hardest guys to play against who don't allow that pass. And at the last second, they jump over to you and do a good job with their stick or their body or whatever. - Shafee's the call, cat and mouse. You're kind of playing cat and mouse, you know, with between the shooter and the passer and, you know, not letting the shooter have a breakaway by shading so far over to the guy without the puck, but not going right over, yeah. And one thing I will add to is you have to understand hands and what hand the shooter is and what hand the non-shooter is. Because then when you talk about angles, you can take your stick and apply some pressure depending on the handedness of the player. And like that's a big deal. Like I think about like you Thaki, right? And I think about like if the player who doesn't have the puck is on their backhand side. So you're like a righty going down your left-wing side and you don't open up for a one-timer, go right to the guy with the puck. He's not gonna score on a pass to the backhand. He's just not, no player skilled enough at that level to do that, right? So like shoulder check and scan, like who's coming? What hand are they? And if they are going to the net on their backhand, like that's a very low percentage play to be able to get that. Now, if that guy opens up for a one-timer, now that's a different story. That's a much different story. Now you gotta try to keep your stick in that lane with that person and where they're at. I think, and what I will say too, from an offensive standpoint, I know we're talking about defense, but this is kind of relevant right now. My biggest pet peeve, biggest pet peeve and you see this in youth hockey all the time offensively on a two-on-one, is when the player with the puck is going down like the dot lane and then the guy without the puck, kind of like curls into the defense men's shot lane. - Idiot. - So it's like a drop pass. And then like all the defense men does is just like, stand there and just stick on it, you know? Like don't do that, stop dude. That makes it so easy for the D. And how often, dude, like how often, you coach youth hockey for a couple of years, how often do you see that? - Yeah, a lot of stupidity. Like you gotta be playing chess and the other guys playing checkers. And if you're both playing chess, outchests the D-man. If you're the D-man, outchests the forwards. Like you gotta, it's all about angles. Like toast set, we brought up angles. Like you gotta know where it's easier to score from. And also what areas offensively on the ice and as a defense men, what areas does the shooter wanna be in? 'Cause he has more options. What puck position on his stick and shoulder and body position? Like toast set. If you're the guy carrying the puck and you stick handle it over to your backhand, if you're the D-man and you see that, like get over there with your stick out and your body like taking away the passing lane. Because again, that's a way harder pass. And it could just be as simple as they just went to stick handle and you timed it perfectly because they don't have their shoulder set, they're not open up. These are things that you've gotta be looking at on the defensive side. And things conversely on the offensive side, you have to know that they're looking for. And then you're both trying to fake each other out. D-man, the fake poke check are really good, especially at the younger ages. A really good like fake C-cut with a fake poke check. Usually gets a lot of forwards to bite at the younger ages and make a play that they don't want to make a play. And then you're there right away to turn around and go the other way. - Yeah, yeah, I love that. Another thing is like, if they're wide, like if they're outside the dot lane, let them stay out there. - Let them stay. - No need for you to go chase there 'cause then that's gonna open up ice for the player without the puck and you're kind of getting out of position. So like your job is like take away the guts of the ice. Like if they are out, like let them stay out. The funny part about two on ones, you'll get, and I've witnessed this, like you get a bunch of like high level coaches with a couple of beers in them and you talk about the slide on a two on one, you'll get some heated, heated debate. Should you slide? - Oh, yeah. - Should you not slide? - Sure, yeah. - Should you slide? Should you not slide? - At Cornell, they taught the slide and it like worked really well. You have to be really good at it though and you have to practice it a lot. You have to understand when to do it and when not to do it. So many players will slide way too early and then the player will just go right around them and pass it or they'll just toss it over your stick or they'll just take in and go right around you, you know? But like the time to slide is like if you see that the player is like wide and they don't have other options, they now have to pass the puck because they're at a bad angle to be able to shoot, you know, then that's typically a better time to slide. But like yeah, I don't know if you're a fan or not. I think if you're good at it, it can be a useful tool, but there are some people that will say never do it. Don't ever do it because like the higher the levels that you go, like the players will sniff that out a little bit more and in the pre-scouts, right? Like that's how detailed some pre-scouts can be. Like, hey, this team, they're taught to slide on two on ones. So if you get one, like wait for them to slide and then do your thing. So yeah, I don't know, what are your thoughts on the slide? - When I was younger, I hated it because a lot of guys weren't good at sliding. Like on my team, that would do it. I'd see them get beat all the time because they didn't time the slide well. When I got to like juniors in college, guys were way better at it and they did a good job, and then you get to pro and the offensive guys are so freaking good offensively that unless you're unbelievable at sliding, you know, or faking the slide and then sliding when they bobble it or whatever. - You don't see it at the NHL level. - You don't see it as much 'cause guys can pick it apart. And if you do slide, your body is out of control. Like if it goes off you and they get it back, like it's really hard to get up quickly. - That's the biggest negative to sliding is that you're taking yourself out of the play. - And potentially if you're not good at it, like if you're going back with some speed, you might run into your goalie and like then the goalie gets run into and now he's out of position and now it's like an empty net. Easy. - Right, right. So I'd say like I'd way more leave it up to individuals 'cause if you have an individual who's nasty at it, by all means you're nasty at it, do it. Little Johnny, you suck at it. - No, I think you have to practice it a lot. You have to practice a lot with your team to be able to do it. - Okay, 15 seconds left. The last thing I'll say defensively two on ones is recognize the pressure of your back checker coming back to you. So one on a two on one can come into a two on two and then what I always tell my niche, I'm going past 10, whatever. Like 'cause this is important. Like you are the general out there. If you're taking a two on one or you're taking even a three on two and you have back checkers coming that now we got to sort some stuff out. Like you are the general. You are the one that sees the play. You have to be the one that's communicating both verbally and non-verbally with your hands. You got him, I got him. You like take him, whatever it may be. And you know, at the higher levels, there's a plan to everything on accepting a rush with that stuff. But like you like understanding the pressure of the back checker and then sorting that out, making a potential two on one and do a two on two is so big because if you don't do it well, you make a two on one really easily into a one on all breakaway. So be the general, point it out, communicate. That's all I got. I know we went a little bit over, but that was a big one. - Share the show. - Share the show. Good job, thanks. (upbeat music) You [BLANK_AUDIO]
On today’s SHORT SHIFTS episode, Toph wants to talk 2-on-1s, but with a twist - from the D-side. Some awesome tips and tricks when defending a 2-on-1, Vechs gets to drop one of his favorite sayings, “play chess, not checkers," and we tee up the age-old debate on this for defensemen: to slide or not to slide!
TEN MINUTES ON THE CLOCK STARTING NOW!
We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites!
