Tips on Deking the D

[hockeymom 2]

Thanks much for all your suggestions so far guys! We talked about them on the way home from practice tonight (she HAD lurked at school LOL) and she was fired up by your comments; already dividing up what she thinks she can put into play right away, what individual skills she needs to practice more (like she doesn't trust her toe-drags yet) and what she wants to work on with her new line.

Very much appreciate the Coach's Corner comments; she's hungry to improve and you've given her a lot of food-for-thought. Thanks!

[SB39 2]

Tell her the Coaches Corner says, "You go girl"

[repus 0]

The video defeinitely helps a ton at understanding what is going on.

She has a lot of speed which helps a lot however most of her movement is to try and skate past the player by going full speed the whole time. As is with earlier comments, slow down a bit, then speed up to go past the defensemen. If the defensemen gives you more room, then you can shoot from furthur back.

When deking someone, you need to think about what you want to do with the puck. If she plans to shoot on the goalie, the earlier comments about going wider earlier applies because it gives a better angle on the shot. With the path that she took on the video, you can see her speed is going towards the corner instead of at the net.

Going wider will also allow a closer cut to the defensemen if she wants to make a move on the goalie. Its hard to say how the defensemen is going to react to her going wider.

Based on the stick position of the defensemen, the read that I would have is the person is just trying to find a way to get in the way. Sweeping stick defensive moves rarely work and are easy to play against. Personally I like attacking the side that has the stick.

Being a left handed shot, she could do this and have a breakaway and/or draw a penalty by swtiching to her back hand to move to the right and then draw back to her forhand for the shot/breakaway on the goalie. The defensemen will then have to decide to grab onto her or not. Given her speed, it shouldn't be an issue.

Another thing to practice is pushing the puck through the defensemen's legs or between the stick and the feet. This is a really effective move if executed properly and allows you to move around the player faster.

Hope that helps

-dave

[chippa13 1844]

Interesting that noone mentions she should have headmanned the puck on the way out of the zone to the open teammate at the redline.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

Interesting that noone mentions she should have headmanned the puck on the way out of the zone to the open teammate at the redline.

It was mentioned a couple of times on the first page. That girl was wide open.

[Jake 0]

She should pass the puck.

[hockechamp14 0]

Yeah she had open ice and the other girl was going all of 3 miles an hour. For sure should have made the pass. She made a good play. It's best that you get it there and get it on net, too much can go wrong making too many passes and moves.

Deking is pretty simple, you just have to run all the options and visualize the D and the moves you can make off ice, and then eventually incorporate them on ice.

Like if I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to use an under the stick move in different situations it goes something like this?

1) Where do I want to end up? Do I want to try and get a straight shot to the net in the middle, or would I rather drive wide. Thinking about this lets you think of what shoulder to line up with on the defenceman and where you'll start your fake.

ex. I'm a right handed shot, so I like to drive on my backhand. I play left wing, so I'll want to drive wide on the left side on my backhand.

2) Which way do they shoot? Again, this will help you execute the move to get where you want, and is pretty simple.

ex. The D shoots left handed for the sake of my example, sometimes you just make things too hard but trying the wrong deke on a player who shoots the wrong way while you're in the wrong area for the move.

3) Where's the fake? Figure out where you're going to make them bite on the move, how you'll avoid a hit or thier stick, then get to the point decided upon on question 1.

ex. I'll use a fake to the outside for the move and the D won't likely bite until I put it in the "danger zone"

putting it together: So I line up on the outside shoulder of the defenceman make the fake to the outside (left). Well the D man most likely won't bite until I push the puck in thier stick range. So I push the puck forward, and as they swing across I slide it underneith. As thier left swinging towards the center of the ice, I can make a sharp cut inside as they don't have the body position to play me anymore, and I just drive to the net, then making my move on the goalie.

You figure out these three things working backwards sort of, then you can play in back in your head forward over and over making the move work out and getting the goal. Reading and reacting isn't something developed overnight, but spending time on these kind of mental excercises prepares players to perform.

[chippa13 1844]

Yeah she had open ice and the other girl was going all of 3 miles an hour. For sure should have made the pass.  She made a good play. It's best that you get it there and get it on net, too much can go wrong making too many passes and moves

Headmanning the puck opens up the option for a give and go. Also, the girl probably was forced to slow down when the pass out of the zone didn't come. Not to mention the girl with the puck had to get around a pinching defenseman first. Losing the puck there is worse than an errant pass.

[hockechamp14 0]

Yeah she had open ice and the other girl was going all of 3 miles an hour. For sure should have made the pass.  She made a good play. It's best that you get it there and get it on net, too much can go wrong making too many passes and moves

Headmanning the puck opens up the option for a give and go. Also, the girl probably was forced to slow down when the pass out of the zone didn't come. Not to mention the girl with the puck had to get around a pinching defenseman first. Losing the puck there is worse than an errant pass.

If you're going to say that then it's the other's girls fault for not making herself a viable pass option. By the time she was, the girl with the puck already had the space to skate it.

The other girl was too far forward to be a good pass option as the pass would have had to go through the defender's stick.

The other girl should have cut across because then she could have gone up the boards around the D or just made the pass.

Seriously, there wasn't anything wrong with taking the puck and going in that situation.

[nsa97531 0]

I didnt have time to read the whole post so this may have already been said but after watching the video if she worked on her lateral movement (crossovers) she seems like shes fast enough that she doesnt really need to deke. Also cutting to the net and transfering her body weight while shooting will help her tremendously. But overall learning how to do some quick crossovers would help her alot in her "deking" even though its more of just beating the defender with skating.

[hockeymom 2]

Wow guys - I can't thankyou enough... all of the debate and suggestions are great! Her comment after last night's game was - "did you see I went straight in again instead of creating a wider angle?"

It's really helping her to think differently about her game. Thanks!

[Chadd 916]

How about rushing up ice to the hash marks, or a bit past that, then hitting the breaks hard. After that make a quick pass or push back a step or two. Perfect shot.

That makes it very easy for the goalie to square up on you and stop the puck.

[chippa13 1844]

Yeah she had open ice and the other girl was going all of 3 miles an hour. For sure should have made the pass.  She made a good play. It's best that you get it there and get it on net, too much can go wrong making too many passes and moves

Headmanning the puck opens up the option for a give and go. Also, the girl probably was forced to slow down when the pass out of the zone didn't come. Not to mention the girl with the puck had to get around a pinching defenseman first. Losing the puck there is worse than an errant pass.

If you're going to say that then it's the other's girls fault for not making herself a viable pass option. By the time she was, the girl with the puck already had the space to skate it.

The other girl was too far forward to be a good pass option as the pass would have had to go through the defender's stick.

The other girl should have cut across because then she could have gone up the boards around the D or just made the pass.

Seriously, there wasn't anything wrong with taking the puck and going in that situation.

Ummmmmm, the other girl was wide open with a clear passing lane to her. Had she crossed the ice she would have made the pinching defenseman an obstacle to a pass.

[djinferno 2]

Thats Bull^&%^&^, she should of passed it and caught up for the 2 on 1, she beat the pinching D wich is fine but after she took her teamate out of the play by crossing onto the side the other D plays... She beat the left side D, she should of passed the puck then drove to the left side to set up for the one time shot... at the very least...

As for deking D's, speed is the name of the game, notice most NHL stars just blow by guy instead of slowing themselves down with dekes...

[mack 44]

I think I beat a d-man once but I account it to reach. Unfortunately that's nothing one can teach so uh...get bigger.