On today’s SHORT SHIFTS episode, Vechs wants to talk about defense development and habits that young defensemen should be focused on to have success in today’s game.
TEN MINUTES ON THE CLOCK STARTING NOW!
We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites!
the the what's up everybody short shifts here jeffy j_u_ levakio to for christopher ryan scott is no idea when we talk about tote this week on the podcaster a week we had andrew albert's who sounded like he said he was more of a defense of defense in throughout his career right and back and we talked about this on the podcast and back when he was playing which really wasn't that long ago there was kind of two different types of defense it was like you're either defense of defense and or your air carlson you're kind of playing doe fence your your danny richmond to like you you're kind of playing defense but you're really there to play a little bit more offense in today's game and and albie uh... eluded to this like it's kind of positionless at times depending on a team you're on everybody's playing everywhere what should young defensemen be focusing on because you know summer are way too focused on points some i think are playing too much trying to be that defense of defense and where i think a little bit more now you gotta have both in your game to make it to those higher levels so speaking to the young defense without their or the young coaches that are working with younger defense you know p_w_s_ bantoms midgets junior players what are some things that that they should be looking for working on focusing on details that that defenseman need at the higher levels okay we could probably have a whole podcast on this but if we're going to nail it down to to ten minutes i think when you're looking at the modern defenseman first of all you have to be able to break a pocket you have to be able to break a pocket and the reason why is when you get to the higher levels so many teams are so structured in their neutral zone that they're trying to get teams to force or to dump us in and so you have to be able to retrieve you have to be able to retrieve and make a breakout pass you have to be able to retrieve and understand how to recognize the pressure that's on your defense been going to get that retrieval and be in a good spot to be able to support them so do it a lot of different retrieval drills whether it's individual or small group or you're adding it into your team practices like they have to be able to break out a pocket they also have to be able to close space fast they have to be able to close space fast what a lot of people are talking about the higher levels when it comes to demand is you know how can we kill a play how can we take time and space away as fast as we can and then get going in transition so really working on situational skating whether it's in the d-zone whether it's off a rush whether it's even in your in the offensive zone and you want to serve somebody and take away time and space whether it's the person with the puck or the person without the puck so how can you close play plays fast and a big part of that outside of the situational skating is what Andrew Alberts talked about on the podcast is your stick just having a great defensive stick being able to angle and close quick that's a huge huge part to be in a good defenseman nowadays if there are other things to work on to focus on like i think working on your blue line play offensively is really important so if you think about it like there's a lot of low to high now at the higher levels of hockey because all teams are trying to again close and and kill plays quick particularly below the goal line and in the corner so you're seeing a lot of releases out low to high so as a defenseman working on your shooting and working on your skating of how to walk the blue line get it to the middle really quick um you know that can really help too it's a great habit to have and again like you want to get the puck to the middle of the ice whether it's a low to high and you pass it to your partner or it's a low to high and you're frickin gone like sprinting to the middle because when you get the puck to the middle now you have options if you're just along along the wall you have to go one way but once you get to the middle now you got two ways to go now you've given yourself a potentially a shot lane you know to the net as well so blue line play i think is another one so if i'm gonna put it to three because we have 10 minutes on this i would say retrieval skills defensive skills in terms of closing plays quick and then your work at the blue line i love that are you are you trying to give the why on that too of kind of like why i think those are potentially the most important things to work on i love that i love that and and talking about closing skills i feel like when we were younger and coming up and early in our you know maybe college pro junior careers closing the gap was more of a demon skating at you and just trying to murder you but but occupiers now compared to when we were you know 18 to 23 even have so much more agility if somebody comes at you straight on they're you're almost always going to miss them if you've got a little bit of distance um is there a difference that you're seeing in the game now by closing the gap where the are skating more forward or they're up tighter just all the time because they're better skaters yeah i think just the way that people think about the game defensively is a little bit more aggressive and we're trying to defend like in the offensive zone like when did you ever when we were playing here a coach talking about defending in the offensive zone not once zero zero right so it's all about getting up on your gap like defensemen when we were growing up we're told to stay at the blue line right like stay at the blue line and then accept a rush and now you're seeing defensemen when there's a scrum in a corner the defensemen are right up on the winger you know like again taking away that the time and space so if the other team does get the puck and they pass it to that winger now we're right on them rather than now accepting the rush and like defensemen when we were growing up it was skate backwards and accept rushes skate backwards and accept rushes stay in between the dots right like just keep them to the outside and now it's it's not like that like there's there still obviously is accepting rushes skating backwards but the best way is to be up on those players so you don't have to do that so now you're you're skating forwards and you're angling rather than just accepting the rush in between the dots and and a lot of that has to do a team tactics too and like a lot of the like again there's so much more of a method to the madness with the track as well the track and the accepting of the rush so like it's just a different game man you know that like it's just it's a different game it's it's so different how how important is it for demon to get their shots through at the blue line yeah i mean is that is that a rhetorical question between that and getting in blocks or what is pretty obvious but i mean like so many kids they just want to hammer the puck as hard as they can and they would rather take an absolute bomb of a one t then take a little risk or that gets through and i i've seen that at the younger ages forever for at the 20 years well i i know i'll take it a step further yeah i'll take it a step further and like what a lot of high level coaches are talking about now when it comes to like getting shots through at the blue line is like your pre-shot movement your pre-shot movement so putting yourself even before you get the puck in a position or once you get the puck you might already have a lid already and so like if the forward is bringing the puck up and they get to the to the hash mark along the walls then we're moving like d always got to be scanning where that uh winger is in is it in your shot later they in your shot lane scan scan is scanning because maybe all it is is one or two steps one where the other and now if you're on your one time side like that player gets you the puck boom like you can one time it you have that lane already instead of that boom boom and then kaboom right and then just working on deception also like when you do get the puck at the blue line and being able to get players out of the shot lane so you get the puck and maybe you do a little head fake this way pull it back this way and then shoot or it's a fake slap shot and then we push it one stride and then it's a shot onto the net but i agree like the most important thing is get the puck to the net get the puck to that you're probably not scoring as a defenseman you're probably not there's too many people in front of you the goalies are too good it like too good too good yeah get to the front of the net to create chaos for potential second chance opportunities or you know you can even do the lidstrom too like what did lidstrom he probably got how many assists in his career from firing the puck off the end wall wide in an angle where it was coming right back out to the front of the net genius lata well and and d with a lot of you guys don't realize as a winger who's covering you the hardest thing ever is when you got an active d offensively who you're covering because you got to like stay low you can't get beat through the through like the top of the circle where they slice through kind of the zone you got to have your head on a swivel as soon as you as a dean and you should be watching that offensive player who's guarding you that winger watches toe caps rob shrimp said that in a power play mindset but we're talking about you as an offensive d-man look at that guy's toe caps where they pointed at and then just shade over just a little bit oh he turned his head to look down at the corner shade over just a little bit more you get that puck you will have way more time than you think but it's very hard as a winger to find an active d-man because then you got to turn your first instinct is to go out at him but if that guy doesn't move laterally first you are going to get your shot through and the quicker you get it off the better so hopefully that answered your question thank you all right cool time's up share the show you [BLANK_AUDIO]
On today’s SHORT SHIFTS episode, Vechs wants to talk about defense development and habits that young defensemen should be focused on to have success in today’s game.
TEN MINUTES ON THE CLOCK STARTING NOW!
We appreciate every listen, download, comment, rating and share on your social sites!
