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. IHS should always be used as a starting point and you can add/remove constraints to fit your team.

Practice Theme: This practice plan is focused on puck protection skills for players' to develop confidence in their ability to possess pucks under pressure.  This is a "position-less" practice where players should play both offensive and defensive roles in every situation. 

Key Coaching Points

Puck protection is a skill that should be utilized to create more time and space to make a play

Offensively, players are working to understand how they can use their positioning, puck skills, edgework and awareness to protect and possess pucks in various areas of the ice.

Defensively, players are working to separate the puck carrier from the puck and regain possession as quickly as possible.

The 3 key fundamentals of puck protection:

1. Be aware and recognize where pressure is coming from
2. Use your body position to shield the puck from pressure
3. Keep your head up to see your teammates and the opposition to make a play after protecting the puck