NO NET FRONT PRESENCE
As the NHL gets faster and more skilled, the players who excel at screening the goalie become rarer.
rotated the man cutting to the net to create lanes. If nothing materialized, the player would circle back, and someone else cuts through. It becomes a never ending cycle of different guys cutting to the net
It’s five guys constantly rotating, keeping the defense guessing.
In a normal net front presence hockey system, teams are usually able to cover the man in front, which limits offensive options. The man in front’s job is to screen the goalie, he’s not going away. That’s one less area of the ice to cover and one less player to get lost in the offensive zone.
Abandoning the traditional net front presence system your traditional zones and overloads don’t work. A more passive box means you’re giving up the high slot area, which is another dangerous location.
There are two ways to really defend this:
run man coverage with the defensemen, release at the dots, and play zone from the dots to the blue line. This covers the guys darting to the net, but closes lanes up top, limiting options.
The second is putting your standard overload defense into hyperdrive. Force the puck carrier wide and into corners, where you have the numbers and force the turnover.
The downside here is that this can lead to a high amount of clear-sighted shots.
this system isn’t just about getting shots, it’s about getting that man lost and getting high danger chances.
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