Originally published March 2024
Many high-level coaches eagerly attend NHL practices to learn how the best players and coaches go about their business.
A logical next step for them is to steal the drills that they see for use with their own teams.
Below are two drills frequently seen at the NHL level, and therefore frequently copied by lower-level coaches.
VGK Regroup 2v1
TOR Continuous 3v2
NHLers do these drills every week. They execute them with tempo and precision. But doing these drills on a regular basis won’t guarantee that your players will create quality rushes once the game starts.
Just because elite athletes do X, doesn’t mean X necessarily leads to elite outcomes.
As a coach at the minor hockey, university and pro levels, I’ve seen players do flow drills for years and years. The top-end players maintain their advantage. Less proficient players keep lagging behind. Darryl Belfry would call this perpetuating the achievement gap.
Flow or continuous rush drills fall short as a player development tool for several reasons.
1. They’re too easy
Playing 2v1 or 3v2 on a full sheet leaves attackers with too much time and space. Consequently they will skate at less-than-maximum pace and make plays that have no bearing on 5v5, full-intensity hockey.
(On the flip side, these drills are too difficult for defenders, who may start preemptively sagging and collapsing instead of playing a tight gap. Watch the Ds in the TOR 3v2 clip above)
2. These’s less need for teaching
Efficient rush play is all about details: changing speed and direction to manipulate the defenders, weighing a pass correctly to allow a teammate to shoot off the catch, holding the dot lane to improve shooting angles, etc.
It is possible for coaches to give timely, personalized feedback by observing a rep and then meeting the player(s) when they get back in line. But it’s also tempting for coaches to sit back, watch the players get a sweat going and do little more than banging their sticks on the ice whenever someone scores. Opportunities lost.
3. The skills are not executed in-context
The majority of flow drills starts in one of the following ways:
An attacker picks up a puck from a pile, without being pressured
An attacker receives a pass from a coach, without being pressured
An attacker receives a pass from a teammate, without being pressured
The without being pressured part is important. At no moment is a puck carrier more vulnerable than when he is touching the puck for the first time. A flow drill can’t continue when there is a break in the action - an errant pass, a turnover, etc. A wrecked drill frays coaches’ tempers, even if broken plays are dime-a-dozen once the game starts. Reacting quicker and more accurately on 50/50s is how better-organized teams take over a game. More opportunities lost.
A rule of thumb
Repeat after me:
For NHLers, flow drills are NOT for getting better.
They’re for getting limber.
The video above shows the tennis equivalent to flow drills.
ATP and WTA professionals all go through the same pre-match warmup.
Prospective opponents trade groundstrokes down the middle, tee each other up for volleys and overheads, then hit some serves to all four corners.
There’s (relatively) little pace, intensity or challenge. But it’s a perfectly good way to get one’s eyes/hands/feet ready for a match.
Just don’t only work on this for 10 years and expect to become a pro!
How to practice rush play, better
Idea 1 - Connect the rush to another phase of play:
In the wild, rushes are the product of either a successful defensive play (DZ coverage or NZ forecheck forcing a turnover) or an offensive advantage created (Breakout under pressure or NZ regroup bypassing one or more opponents).
The first moment of a rush, when a team shifts decisively from defense (or a 50/50 battle) to offense, is most critical. That moment goes unpracticed in the VGK and TOR examples earlier.
So practice it.
Precede a 2v1, 2v2, 3v2 or 3v3 rush with some in-zone play, whether OZ or DZ.
Have your rush attackers play off the cycle in the OZ and then pick up a second puck in the NZ for a quick re-entry.
Or have them defend in DZ until you give them a second puck to break out with.
They might already be a bit winded once they get that second puck. They’ll also have a harder time identifying options and pressure on their first touch. Good!
Idea 2 - Introduce a thematic skill:
It’s easy for players to fall into familiar movement patterns when executing flow drills, so introduce a new skill before the first rep and give continual feedback regarding how players are integrating it. Some examples:
Use linear crossovers between the bluelines
Draw defenders in and use slip and hook passes
Shoot off the catch
Enter the OZ on a diagonal (more on that)
etc.
First a player learns about a skill’s existence. Then they do it in isolation, without any pressure. Then they do it inside the controlled environment of a flow drill. Then they do it in a small area game or a scrimmage, where the consequence of failure is low. And then they’re ready to implement it in a game, when it counts.
Design more representative drills by reading the Hockey Tactics 2025 Ebook Today
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Print out relevant pages to post in the locker room for your players to absorb
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