Please Note: The Practice of the Week is usually designed to be utilized across multiple age levels.  With that being said, we highly encourage you to adjust the drills based on your team's age and skill levels.  These drills and practices can be modified to become more basic or more advanced.

The drills and games in this practice are designed to help your players work on breakout principles

Focus Points

Below are the main focus points for each position that we want to work on for this practice

Defensive Retrievals

1. Scan the ice - you need to make it a habit to shoulder check to be aware of your surroundings when retrieving pucks
2. Retrieve at an angle - if time permits, work on retrieving the puck at an angle so that you can accelerate off the wall or out of the corner to create time and space to make a play instead of just wrapping the puck around the wall
3. Support your partner - be in a position to support your partner by providing an easy bump/reverse or outlet

Also encourage your defensemen to not just wrap the puck around the boards.  Make a tape to tape pass and work to get up ice to join the rush. 

Wingers

1. Scan the ice - before the puck arrives, look up ice to see what the defensemen is doing to read the pressure
2. Get to the wall - before the puck gets to your spot 
3. Get off the wall - get separation from the wall once you control the puck so you have more options for a clean exit

Centers

1. Stay low and slow - you need to provide an outlet for your defense and wingers.  It's important to time your route so that you make for an easy outlet
2. Look up ice - this will help you read the pressure and give a passing target for your winger either directly or by skating up ice for an easy chip
3. Communication - your defense and wingers can be under a lot of pressure when trying to breakout - communicate when you are open to help relieve that pressure