A Small Area Game worth stealing

Montreal Canadiens 4v3 SAG

As I promised my Twitter followers, I’ve gone to the first two days of the Montreal Canadiens’ training camp to steal all of their drills (full thread here).

The most interesting one I’ve seen was a 4v3 small area game that neatly challenged MTL players’ abilities to play on both sides of the puck.

Here’s what it looked like:

I’ve used odd-numbered small area games abundantly with my players and love how effective and fun they are. In my summer groups I seldom have the numbers to go 4v3 without running into fatigue and recovery issues. For a full team practice like MTL’s having more players involved is an excellent idea:

1. Fewer players are on the sidelines, waiting for their turn

2. The three defending players can pressure as a unit to force turnovers, instead of just being on survival mode

3. Seven player in a small area forces players to make quicker and more nuanced reads

Here’s all you and your players need to know in order to make MTL’s SAG work in your next practice.