How to defend against highly skilled player?

[Playmakersedge 58]

Across the sport there are great pretenders.  That put there hockey costume on and get some kind of sense of accomplishment just doing that .  I'm talking about the kind of person that wares a pro team jersey and hock gloves to public skating.  They think they are that player who's jersey they have on . Then they go out in a friendly league and hurt someone.   Heck with that you want to play physical hockey I'll show you what it is .   And refs doing a poor job or calling a game one sided:  send the puck off the boards just  in back of them a few times . Straightens them right out .  Hits the boards then bounces off and gets there but . Wakes them right up 

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

On 11/25/2017 at 12:56 AM, Playmakersedge said:

Across the sport there are great pretenders.  That put there hockey costume on and get some kind of sense of accomplishment just doing that .  I'm talking about the kind of person that wares a pro team jersey and hock gloves to public skating.  They think they are that player who's jersey they have on . Then they go out in a friendly league and hurt someone.   Heck with that you want to play physical hockey I'll show you what it is .   And refs doing a poor job or calling a game one sided:  send the puck off the boards just  in back of them a few times . Straightens them right out .  Hits the boards then bounces off and gets there but . Wakes them right up 

¿Que?

[chippa13 1844]

Those posts are generally followed up with "sorry guys, my little brother got on my account" once the poster realizes nobody found it humorous.

[Playmakersedge 58]

1 hour ago, chippa13 said:

Those posts are generally followed up with "sorry guys, my little brother got on my account" once the poster realizes nobody found it humorous.

Really bad dyslexia:  I can't extract what you mean?  

[Stewie 721]

I’m sorry, but no matter how bad an official is at a beer league game, it’s not worth potentially risking serious injury by shooting at them. A T Shirt is not worth that much to me.

[Playmakersedge 58]

34 minutes ago, Stewie said:

I’m sorry, but no matter how bad an official is at a beer league game, it’s not worth potentially risking serious injury by shooting at them. A T Shirt is not worth that much to me.

I agree, it was a joke.  There was an official putting in input on the thread  .  I thought that my feelings about not hurting people in a rec league were clear in the beginning on what i wrote..... And thought the comment of pinking one off a refs but was such contradiction it was obvious a joke. 

Sorry about that folks. 

Heck you get t shirts in your league.  Mine never did .

[penalty box hero 4]

22 hours ago, Playmakersedge said:

Heck you get t shirts in your league.  Mine never did .

LMAO, dude that's hilarious -  I'm 39 years old and just this year got my first ever "beer league champs" t shirt - it's a disgusting bright green with white graphics, but it's like a trophy in my closet.  Then I decided to wear it one day, and my neighbor's 7 year old (one of my daughter's friends) told me my shirt was cool - for a self-taught guy who grew up in small town Missouri and was never more than a low B level beer league hack, it was a pretty great compliment, and totally made my day :)

[salibandy 21]

On 29/07/2017 at 1:28 AM, psulion22 said:

And as far as the topic of this thread, watching the body not the puck is essential.  But no one mentioned "blade mirroring" aka "stick on puck".  A defender can become significantly more effective if it just places the stick in front of and close to the opponent's stick wherever it goes.  It's much easier to disrupt a skilled player this way.   The old way was to keep your stick in tight so you could poke check.  That created way too much space for the player to make plays with the puck aside from just deking on you.  If you just stuck the stick out, the forward would know how far your reach was and could pass the puck through the "triangle" easier.  Blade mirroring is a much more active approach to disrupting the play.  I Here's an excellent video of Scott Stevens explaining it.  Just like Stevens, I didn't learn this until late in my career, just a few years ago.  I have become a significantly more effective defenseman since learning it.

 

The best process of playing defense is this:

1.  Keep close to the play going up ice.  The closer you are to the play, the less gap and space you have to the opposing forwards in the event of a turnover.  So you have a better chance of stopping that high level player if you can engage him as he gets the puck rather than when he has a full head of steam and a ton of space between you.

2.  When the play transitions, read the forward leaving the zone without the puck rather than the player in the zone breaking it out.  What often happens is that a defender bails early and just backs up so that a forward doesn't get behind you.  Obviously we don't want that.  But a lot of the time, you leave too much space from that guy just to keep him in front of you.  So when the other team gets the puck, read the player that's coming out of the zone and stay close to him.  If he gets the breakout off the wall, you're right there.  If not, you're in a better position when the play moves forward.  You don't want to be at your blue line, when the highest opposing player is at the red line.  You give too much space.  This also applies in the neutral zone.  If the other team is breaking the puck through the middle and puts the puck out wide, by reading the player coming through the middle, you can make a better decision on which player to engage and possibly force an off sides or a dump in.

3. Use the ice markings to establish "inside-out" position.  Essentially when playing D, you want to be inside of the faceoff dots, keeping the opponent outside of them.  When the other team is coming on offense, you want to position yourself at the dots (should be easy to identify since they run in a straight line down the rink).  Doing that will force the opponent to the space outside the dots, which is much less dangerous.  So when we're talking about that better player, you want to be at the faceoff dots, so you can lead him to the outside and he doesn't have the space to get back inside.

4. Control gap and go stick on puck.  Once you have the inside lane, you want to be close enough to the player, skating backwards as his speed, that you can get your stick close to his.  This will most likely cause him to try one of a few things - deke inside, skate outside, shoot, pass, or slow down/ turn back.  Proper sitck on puck should take away the shot and pass.  Stick on puck and watching his body should make the inside deke/drag difficult for him.  That should leave either skating outside and trying to beat you wide, or pulling up.  

5.  Close the space and force the play.  If the player tries to go wide, you keep stick on puck and skate at an angle towards the boards, taking away the room he had.  If he turns back, read his inside passing options (step 2 above), and close the space and attack the puck, keeping stick on puck and watching the body, if you can.

Stick on puck is the key because, just like explained in the video, it allows you to make "passive" plays on the puck - disrupting shots, passes, and dekes - just by having your stick in the right place.

Another tip: try to play on your strong side - RH on the right, LH on the left.  It gives you a longer reach to the inside (read; the dangerous area) because your stick will be in your inside hand.  It also means chip outs, breakout passes, and plays on the boards will be on your forehand, which is more effective.

This - stick on puck. Too few players do that. There was a Penguins defenseman who used to do it so well, can't remember his name for the life of me.

[caveman27 208]

On 11/8/2014 at 2:56 AM, JAG said:

Ok. There is a bit of back story here, but I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

I grew up playing ice hockey. Started at about the age of 6, and played all through high school (Varsity captain sophmore, junior, senior years). I was OK. Not good enough to play competitive college hockey, but good enough to stand out in high school. I played forward, was the leading scorer on my team and one of the leading scorers in the league. This was nearly 15 years ago.

I also played roller hockey. And was VERY good at it. I wasn't allowed to play in tournaments in my age group (or the 3 years above my age group) because I was too good. At local games, I would be on a "team" with a goalie, and 1 other skater, and sometimes, the other team would have 10-15 guys on it. I'm not kidding.

I played professional roller hockey for a year in college, but quit to focus on school. It has been 9 years since I last touched a hockey stick.

The 2013/14 NHL playoffs got me to start paying attention to hockey again. I started watching after 9 years, and then I joined a few roller hockey leagues in the area. I was surprised/depressed at how little my muscles remembered from my younger days, even though my brain still remembered what I was "supposed" to be doing. It has taken a little longer than I wanted to get back into the swing of things, but I'm having fun.

One major thing that has changed, is I've started to play Defense instead of Offense. I lost a lot of my speed throughout the years, so I have been working hard at getting better at playing solid D. In the beginning, I sucked. I was all over the place, and was getting deked out by some of the worst guys in the league. But thanks to youtube, I have learned quite a bit, and have been getting better.

OK.

Now the question. And this is probably for some of the more advanced players on here.

In one of the leagues I'm in (we'll call this league Intermediate league), there is a player on an opposing team who is well above the "intermediate" level. He actually plays in the "Intermediate +" league, but I think he wanted to play multiple nights, so they let him in this league. He is killing EVERYONE. he has double the amount of points of the next best player in the league. His team is undefeated mainly because this guy just scores almost every time he touches the puck. He skates well, he stick handles well, he shoots well. He's a great all around player. But I've had enough. I need to learn how to stop him.

Oh, and he's new to the area and the league. No one had seen him before this season.

We played this team the first game of the season, and he completely blew us away. He could have played by himself, with just a goalie, and they probably still would have won. I have gotten a LOT better as a Defensemen since that game, and the whole team has really come together to work as a team. We are a far better team now than we were when we last played them.

However, when we play this team on Monday, I know we are going to have our work cut out for us. This is a pivotal game for us, as we need to win this one and the next one to make the playoffs. I need to be better against this guy.

He is bigger, faster, and stronger than pretty much everyone in the league. But it doesn't make him invincible. I know we can stop him, I just need better coaching.

Does anyone have ANY defensive tips they can give me? Anything to help limit the edge he has on everyone?

I know this was long winded, but thank you in advance!

Joe

I go to youtube for defenseman advice/help.

One thing that improved my defensive play (since there's no checking in the league I play in), is the concept of "stick on puck". This helped a lot. By keeping my blade near the puck-carrier's puck, if he passes or shoots the puck, my blade would block or redirect the puck. This prevented a lot of pass plays, took away puck possession or blocked a shot on net. This does nothing if he can dangle around you and avoid your poke checks.

Defensemen need to work together, so it can't be just you vs. him. If he's on the ice, then you need proactively play defensive and start moving back when he touches the puck, particularly if he likes to break away on his own. This will take away a possible pass, if any of his teammates like to join him on the break out. If it's two-on-one and he's got the puck, cover the open man and let the goalie take the shot. Or if it's two-on-one and he's the open man, cover him and let the goalie take the shot from the other guy.

[Vet88 674]

7 hours ago, caveman27 said:

If it's two-on-one and he's got the puck, cover the open man and let the goalie take the shot. Or if it's two-on-one and he's the open man, cover him and let the goalie take the shot from the other guy.

You have left out one important point. cover the open man, "take the middle away" and let the goalie take the shot. You can't let the player with the puck walk in front of the goal so your job in a 2 on 1 is simply this - cut the pass off and take the middle away. The secret to cutting the pass off is to not think about the player who has the puck but to concentrate on where the puck is in relation to the supporting player ie get between the puck and the supporting player, not the puck carrier and the supporting player. 

[JoeyJ0506 192]

On 12/1/2017 at 4:09 AM, salibandy said:

This - stick on puck. Too few players do that. There was a Penguins defenseman who used to do it so well, can't remember his name for the life of me.

Paul Martin