On Defense with Stu Grimson

ON DEFENSE
with Stu Grimson

When you watched Stu Grimson play hockey, you don’t usually reflect on “The Grim Reaper’s” mental approach to the game. But the 6-foot-5 former Chicago Blackhawk insists that pre-game preparation and on-ice concentration are the key ingredients to success for a defenseman at any level of the game.
“Preparation is a huge part of my game,” says Grimson, who early in his career earned the aforementioned nickname because of his physically intimidating style of play. “It’s very important to know what the opposing teams like to do and what their style is. You have to know your opponent so you’re not taken back by anything they do on the ice during a game.”
Grimson acknowledges the obvious: that he gets into his share of scuffles. But Grimson is quick to point out that he does not take to the ice looking to pick a fight.

Part of the game
“Those confrontations have evolved and are just part of the game,” Grimson says. “My first priority is always to go out and play solid defense and do whatever I can to help the team win. That’s all part of preparation, getting yourself with the right attitude, the right frame of mind.
“If your success comes through a physical style of play, well, some guys take exception to that.”
Another aspect of Grimson’s game is the ability to do more than just bang people. He has worked hard to improve his puck-handling as well as maintaining proper positioning in his own zone. No matter what you’re specific style is, he notes, you must be able to accomplish these two fundamentals of the game.
“No one wants to be one-dimensional,” he adds. According to Grimson, the most common mistake he sees NHL rookies or other inexperienced players commit is, again, regarding the mental aspect. He sees defenders giving recognized scorers too much respect.
“I see a lot of inexperienced players that play in awe of some guys,” Grimson explained. “A certain amount of respect for their capabilities is okay, but during the game you have to put that aside. Otherwise, it takes away from your aggressiveness.

Play with a purpose
“You always have to play with a purpose, regardless of who you’re facing.” An example of Grimson’s approach was evident during The Mighty Ducks’ 2-1 overtime loss to San Jose on Halloween Night in 1994. Whenever the Sharks moved into the Ducks’ zone with momentum, Grimson led a quick assault (sometimes outside the blue line) to knock the San Jose forwards off the puck before they could set up. While that aggressive approach isn’t uncommon, especially for Anaheim, it was especially important against a team with only one recognized offensive gunner — Pat Falloon.
“We felt it was important to keep him screened away from the puck by trying to take them out of their rhythm before they could ever get set,” Mighty Ducks head coach Ron Wilson said after the game. “We did that pretty well… When you give up only two goals in about, what, 64 minutes? You should have success.
And most of the time, you will. Especially when your defensive game plan begins originating well before the first faceoff.

Bob Cunningham a freelance writer based in Southern California writes for various hockey publications.

It’s Where You Want To Be!

Off the ice they are pretty much the same guy—quiet, family oriented and friendly. On the ice they may seem different as night and day—one is aggressive and charges up the ice while the other prefers to stay home and keep an eye on the net—but in reality, they are still the same guy. They are the guy that clears the front of the net and keeps opponents from getting on the scoreboard.

Keith Carney and Scott Niedermayer are two of the top defenseman playing in the National Hockey League today. With his three Stanley Cup rings and his All-Star game appearances, Niedermayer is on everyone’s radar. Meanwhile, Carney slips under it and is one of the NHL’s most underrated players. Whether or not fans are aware of his defensive prowess, few forwards in the league will doubt Carney’s ability to keep them from putting the biscuit in the basket.

“Keith’s success comes from his mobility and his excellent hockey sense,” says GM Brian Burke. “He plays a simple game and stays home.” Over his 13 year NHL career Carney has never had more than 5 goals in a season (2001-2, Anaheim) nor greater than 24 points (1999-2000, Phoenix) but his worth is not for his ability to score, but rather his ability to prevent the opposition from doing so.

Carney(3) and Neidermayer (27) on defense against the Phoenix Coyotes.

Carney does the things that never make it to the stat sheet but can help turn the tide of a game. He may be holding the puck in the offensive zone one minute and seconds later be skating back and breaking up a 2-on-1 attack.

“Carney has so much poise and confidence,” says Mighty Ducks radio play-by-play man Steve Carroll. “The Ducks don’t make too many mistakes with him on the ice. Carney can definitely get you out of trouble.”

Then you have Niedermayer. He has been tagged as being an offensive defenseman—which he is. But many are so focused on his offensive skills that they forget that he is the reigning Norris Trophy winner.

“Scott came up in the New Jersey system,” says Burke. “So that means that he plays exceptional defense. He seldom gets beat 1-on-1 and he takes away the passing lane from opponents.”

Niedermayer is a proven winner. He is the only player in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup, Olympic Gold Medal, World Championship, World Cup, World Junior Championship and Memorial Cup.

Part of what makes Scott so exciting to watch is not the fact that he scores goals. It is that he scores timely goals. Niedermayer has more overtime goals than any defenseman in NHL history with 8—and he shows no signs of slowing down.

Anaheim Head Coach Randy Carlyle knows a thing or two about patrolling the blueline. He won the Norris Trophy is 1981 as the league’s top defenseman. “The thing about these two,” he said. “Is that they both do things right. They keep things simple and they take care of their end.” Any team in the NHL would be happy to have just one of them, but the Ducks have them both in their flock and that’s just fine with Anaheim fans!

So how did these two get to be so great? Both learned the right way when they were young and both apply those same principles they learned as kids to the game they play today.

“The main thing is to have fun,” Carney said after a morning practice at the Pond. “You need to enjoy every chance you have to get out on the ice. You have to stay patient and play your position. Most goals are scored from in front of the net so you have to watch that area and keep it clear.”

“Communication is something that really goes a long way,” Carney continued. “It is simple and it helps not only yourself but your teammates. If you want to stay in front of the net and you want your defensive partner to go to the corner you need to let him know that. Simple communication goes a long way.”

Neidermayer prepares for a faceoff.

Niedermayer is on the same page with his teammate but had a few other things to add. “Skating is obviously an important part of hockey, even for defenseman. And, I know that it sounds simple, but positioning. If you stay between your net and the puck, then you will be in a good spot to make it harder on the opponent to score a goal. If you let them get behind you then obviously they have a free chance at the net.”

“When you have five of your players and five of their players all skating around in the offensive zone it can get a little crazy. If you communicate then there are no questions. You know what your partner is doing and then you can go from there and make a decision on what you are going to do.”

After all their years of experience and the early morning practices, it all really comes down to the same lessons their pee-wee coaches taught them—positioning and communication.

To some observers these two may look like the Felix and Oscar of defense, but be assured that this odd couple can co-exist and one can compliment the other—making for a great team defense.

Jason Reed is a freelance writer based in Long Beach, CA. A native Southern Californian, he started getting into hockey by watching Los Angeles Kings hockey games back in the purple-and-gold days. He has worked for the Western Hockey network since 2003 serving in various capacities and has been a co-host on the Power Play and Hockey Talk radio shows on CRN Digital Talk. He writes a regular column for www.hockeytalk.biz and his work has been seen across Europe in Face Off, where he has been a regular contributor and across the U.S. in newspapers such as Cincinnati Enquirer, Fresno Bee, Anchorage Daily News, Long Beach Press Telegram and OC Register. He is a regular contributor to OC Metro magazine Jason lives with his 8-year-old daughter Cameron and their dog Lucy.

The Left Wing Lock

The left wing lock is a controlled forechecking system that was popularized by the Detroit Redwings in the late 1990’s. Before I get into the details of this system, it is important to note that there are a few variations of the Left Wing Lock. Off course, a coaching staff should modify any system they feel will better compliment the strengths of the team.

The left wing lock looks like a basic 2-3 formation, where, once puck possession changes in the neutral zone or offensive zone, the center and right wing forecheck aggressively, and the left wing moves back in line (or top of the circles) with the two defensemen to form a three man wall at the blue line. Generally, the left wing is responsible for the left lane, the left defenseman is responsible for the middle lane, and the right defenseman is responsible for the right lane at the blue line. This tactic helps to avoid odd man rushes by having 3 players back at all times.

The Basic Set-Up of the Left Wing Lock (as soon as the puck is turned over in the neutral zone or offensive zone):

• The center and right wing forecheck the puck aggressively, forcing the opposition towards the left side of the ice, and as much as possible take away the middle of the ice by forcing the opposition to use the boards.

• The left wing moves back and acts as a third defenseman, protecting the left lane (either at the blue line or the top of the circles), and being aggressive and ready to pinch if the opposition uses the boards to chip or clear the puck away.

• The left defenseman protects the mid lane (cheating towards his left), keeping his feet moving, ready to react to a successful breakout by the opposition.

• The right defenseman protects the right lane, keeping feet moving, ready to react to a successful breakout by the opposition. Teams vary whether they want their right defenseman to be aggressive or not if puck is rimmed along the right boards. A coaching staff often tweaks the system to fit to the strength of the team.

• Players should maintain this defense until you succeed in getting back possession of the puck, or until the opposition is successful with their breakout (main responsibility for three players back at the blue line is to protect their own lane, do not break the wall)
For the left wing lock to be successful, the following needs to occur:

1) the forecheckers must steer the play to the left boards (oppositions right)

2) The defensive team will need to have a power advantage over the opposition. Part of this advantage is a result of there being more left handed shooters in the NHL (and youth hockey) than right handed shooters. So if the puck is dumped into the left corner, the opponents will have their right defenseman and right wing on the forehand but their center will probably be on his backhand (if they are all fighting for a loose puck in the corner). On the contrary, the defensive team will have their center, left wing, and left defenseman on their forehand.

3) The center needs to prevent any outlet pass through the slot area, forcing the opposition to use the boards on the left side, where the defenders left wing and left defenseman are waiting to intercept the puck. If the puck is chipped off the boards and intercepted by the left wing or left defenseman, and you are pressured immediately, it is recommended to re-dump the puck into the left corner, and begin to battle again. The longer you battle in your opponents end, the less time they are spending in your zone. At the same time you can take advantage of a mistake by your opponent for a direct scoring chance on net.

Although the ‘lock’ was made famous by the Detroit Red Wings and has been used to great success in their Stanley Cup runs in the past decade, they are not credited with inventing it. It is widely believed that the lock was invented in Czechoslovakia to work against the dominant Soviet teams of the 1970s.
How to beat the left wing lock:

Teams needed to work on different breakout strategies in order to penetrate through the left wing lock. Here are some strategies that teams use:

-Have very mobile and good skating defenseman that can quickly retrieve the puck and begin the breakout as quickly as possible.

– Focus the breakout towards your opponent’s right side, where you will now gain the advantage in the “forehand vs. backhand” theory, as well as disrupt the opponent’s set-up formation.

-With the removal of the red line in recent years, you can have the off side winger cheat and leave the defensive zone. This will cause the defensive wall at the blue line to break as one of the defenseman will come out in the neutral zone with you. This is a very aggressive strategy but will keep your opponents guessing at all times.

I once read somewhere where a coach can teach the left wing lock system to his team in a 30 second time-out. Perfecting it, off course, is a different story!

How to Run Practice

Mike Milbury teaches his players NHL fundamentals. ©BBS

We’ve all heard the phrase “Practice Makes Perfect.” But when it comes to hockey that old adage can get you in hot water. And as we all know, hot water and ice hockey don’t mix. A more accurate phrase might be “Practice Makes Permanent.” With that in mind this article looks at how to structure practices and get the most out of them?

I spoke with Guy Gadowsky, assistant coach of the Fresno Falcons of the West Coast Hockey League, who ran most of the daily Falcon practices this past season. The Edmonton natives’ hockey experience includes college, European pro Leagues and the IHL. This summer he was the head coach of the Oklahoma City Coyotes of RHI. He mentioned that every coach has his own style, which may change as needed during the season depending on how the team is playing.

Gadowsky’s personal style is to get a little blood flow going even before stretching, then incorporate conditioning into every drill he runs, rather than trying to cram all the conditioning into the very last part of practice. The coach prefers to go into goalie warmup drills right after stretching, then move to the more “combative” drills, such as 1 on 1’s, and 2 on 2’s, saving “team system” drills for last. Yet he makes sure that each drill includes some element of conditioning.

A lot of sense

This makes a lot of sense when you consider that hockey isn’t a game that’s played in fits and spurts. You want to be able to give 100% effort from buzzer to buzzer. Players who become accustomed to saving their energy for the “end of practice conditioning” will probably have strong finishes, yet may well need them because of a lack of effort early on.

Adds “Gads” — as he is known to his team mates — “With ice time as valuable as it is, plus it’s boring to be on the ice standing around for three hours, I like to keep practices to an hour and a half at the start of the season, then later on no more than an hour and fifteen minutes, so that the guys are still awake and intense. You want to get your skating in every drill.”

He recalls practices in college when guys wouldn’t put out in every drill, knowing that if they did, they might not have enough left at the end, thereby looking bad in the coach’s eye during the tough conditioning drills. “You don’t want guys pacing themselves, and you want to change things frequently enough to keep their imagination; you don’t want to blow their mind, or their body.”

Continuing, Gadowsky points out, “You don’t want guys to be able to do the drills in their sleep; you want drills where players have to think.” No matter how many ice rinks are going up, there will never be enough ice to go around. “As a kid, when parents would say ‘O.K., you’ve got just one hour, so go get ‘em’, then to spend half an hour on one knee with the coach talking just infuriated me!”

One thing that my co-coaches and I experienced with our Mite team this year, was that if we ran drills with just two to four players skating at a time, those standing in line would end up goofing around, and invariably someone would get hurt (at least his feelings) and start crying. As mad as we got at the kids for this, we really just had ourselves to blame since we set up the drills. To avoid this, we learned to set up “stations”, where we were actually running three or four mini-drills at a time, leaving very little time for any player to stand around. It made practices flow much more smoothly and the time seemed to pass more quickly as well. Yet we accomplished much more by not having to discipline misbehavers, who actually had gotten bored. Planning — along with plenty of help from assistant coaches — is the key here.

Precise plan required

Any coach who shows up for practice without a precise plan of what he wants to cover, thinking instead that “I’ve got lots of experience, I can just wing it,” is doing his players a disservice. He might do just as well to stretch them out, then say, O.K., SCRIMMAGE!

Think of it this way. If you were lost in the woods, even if you had a map, it would be difficult to find your way out unless you could determine where you were located. The best way to determine what you need to cover in practice is to do an in depth analysis of each player to determine strengths and weaknesses.

As difficult as this might sound, when my assistants and I sat down with our team manager and took an hour to evaluate what were the most critical individual and team skills for a player, then graded each player on those skills, it was amazing how many of our players needed work on the same areas of the game. Once we knew what our key areas for improvement were, we could then incorporate those skills into as many drills as possible so we could work on them each night.

Another coaching technique, taught to me by long-time youth hockey coach Jack White, who has turned out many pro caliber players, was to take a skill, work on it, then build on it, with each subsequent drill that night having the original skill at its core. By the end of practice we may have completed 15 or 20 different variations of that same skill. This certainly got the players thinking while they worked, and gave practices a good flow.

Good practices seem to go quickly, while bad practices, like bad coaches, seem to go on forever. The coach who sticks with the same three or four drills for a whole practice, thinking this will force his players to “make it automatic,” is really more of a drill instructor than a coach. One needs to be a little more creative, if he is to avoid “blowing their mind, or their body,” as Gadowsky put it.

Since virtually all pro roller hockey players play pro ice hockey through the winter months, Gadowsky emphasizes practices at the start of the roller hockey season designed to get his players more comfortable on their wheels. “Eventually we might see a situation where we will see roller hockey players and ice hockey players, but now the best roller hockey players are professional ice hockey players. You don’t want to get into a lot of tough 1-on-1 battles when guys are still trying to get comfortable with their turns and stops. Initially there is a bit of a difference there, (from ice to sport court), where a lot more emphasis will be on just basic skating.”

Gadowsky also mentions how in ice hockey you can cover up your mistakes by stopping and going the other way, whereas in roller hockey you don’t have that luxury. “A lot of our drills are based in terms of proper angles, and reading the play as early as you can because once you commit yourself to an angle you can’t change it.”

Roller vs. ice

Those who play roller hockey regularly know that at the higher levels of roller you see more side to side movement as opposed to ice hockey which is more up and down your position. For those who can make this transition from the ice to roller, there are a lot of opportunities opening up which didn’t exist as recently as a couple of years ago.

Coaches who demand more from their players, may not be the most popular guys to play for. Players who get in the habit of doing enough to get by, will never be happy with a demanding coach, because what was your best yesterday, isn’t good enough today. “Business as usual” never enters the rink of the demanding coach. Players who seek out that level will never find it from a top coach, because it’s always changing. Players who have trouble accepting this will find it difficult to advance to the top ranks in hockey.

In discussing two brothers, life-long coach John Olver once told me, “This one brother, who appears more talented today, won’t ever make it. The other brother will, because he’s coachable.” You must be coachable, meaning willing to always learn more, if you are ever to make it to the top.

The bottom line for a coach is this: Your players don’t have to like you; they have to respect you. There is nothing that will earn their respect more than being able to get more out of them than they ever thought possible.

If that is what it takes to get the most out of them, coaches must be willing to sacrifice some friendship with their players, . Be it ice or roller hockey, remember, “you play the way you practice.” So get in the habit of pushing players past their level individual comfort levels. It’s only by stretching their boundaries that they can move on to the next level.

Hip Checks

How to throw a Hip Check
You don’t see hip checks in the NHL much now a days. Players and coaches have realized that most of the time a hip check is a low risk-reward play. The risk of either taking yourself out of the play if you miss the opposing player simply isn’t worth the reward of the solid hit. More often than not, both players are taken out of the play.

When all the planets do align

Hip Checks

How to throw a Hip Check
You don’t see hip checks in the NHL much now a days. Players and coaches have realized that most of the time a hip check is a low risk-reward play. The risk of either taking yourself out of the play if you miss the opposing player simply isn’t worth the reward of the solid hit. More often than not, both players are taken out of the play.

When all the planets do align

Hip Checks

How to throw a Hip Check
You don’t see hip checks in the NHL much now a days. Players and coaches have realized that most of the time a hip check is a low risk-reward play. The risk of either taking yourself out of the play if you miss the opposing player simply isn’t worth the reward of the solid hit. More often than not, both players are taken out of the play.

When all the planets do align

Passing Drills for Defense

Passing Drills for Defensemen
Here’s a great series of passing drills that will benefit all players, but in particular defensemen.

The back and forth passing practiced in the Quad Passing, and Cross Ice Passing drills are valuable skills when playing defense. D to D teamwork often involves a lot of lateral passing, compared to up ice passes sent up to the forwards on a breakout.

Always be

Passing Drills for Defense

Passing Drills for Defensemen
Here’s a great series of passing drills that will benefit all players, but in particular defensemen.

The back and forth passing practiced in the Quad Passing, and Cross Ice Passing drills are valuable skills when playing defense. D to D teamwork often involves a lot of lateral passing, compared to up ice passes sent up to the forwards on a breakout.

Always be

Passing Drills for Defense

Passing Drills for Defensemen
Here’s a great series of passing drills that will benefit all players, but in particular defensemen.

The back and forth passing practiced in the Quad Passing, and Cross Ice Passing drills are valuable skills when playing defense. D to D teamwork often involves a lot of lateral passing, compared to up ice passes sent up to the forwards on a breakout.

Always be