Rush Offense: Finding The 2v1 To Generate More Offense
How To Turn A 2v2 Into A Dangerous Scoring Chance
If you have ever watched youth hockey, you’ll know it can be a struggle. Without the numerical advantage of an odd-person rush, offensive rushes can easily turn into thoughtless/ineffective offensive hockey. Teaching and helping players find ways that they can work together is a massive step in player development.
When he was the head coach of the USNTDP, Don Granato said that the thing they have to teach in the first year of the program is for all of these great players to work together. This is a common item coaches are working towards.
Even-Person Rushes
Creating offense off the rush is a major piece of a team’s attack. During the season at the NHL level, rush chances make up about 30% of scoring chances.
When looking at numerically equivalent rush plays there is often difficulty in creating offense. Most of the time offensive players simply play two 1v1s.
One-on-one is the type of hockey you see at younger ages where the players that are stronger/figure out their edges early prey on weaker competition. This 1v1 advantage quickly disappears as opponents improve.
Then, as puberty starts to take hold of the players’ bodies, the differences in power allow another window where players can have great advantages and successes with 1v1 hockey. Again, as everyone catches up… success rate drops again.
If players don’t evolve their thinking, they ultimately stall in their development and never reach their potential.
Divide & Conquer
To best approach the situation, players can refer back to history where “divide and rule” or “divide and conquer” is credited to Phillip II of Macedon. His son learned from him and went on to become… Alexander the Great.
In hockey thinking, players should find ways to create mini-2v1s inside of even-person rush situations. Or the more advanced player may look to create a 1v2 to free up a teammate.
Like chess, there is a small advantage to the team with the initiative and seek out these small area advantages to create a numerical advantage and overwhelm the defenders one at a time.
The majority of defensive players play rush chances in zone coverage (shown as the blue bubble). Offensively we want to attack those assumptions by either swapping positions or attacking the space vertically (end wall to end wall) instead of horizontally (across the ice, side-board to side-board).
How to Divide & Conquer
In practice, the player further up the ice should have the onus to create a 2v1 to find and create the 2v1.
With The Puck
Rather than rushing into a low-percentage play, if a puck carrier finds themselves the furthest offensive player up ice they should identify the teammate who can help them.
Without The Puck
Too often players without the puck stay up ice and end up stuck at the offensive blueline with no speed and few attractive offensive options.
Instead, off-the-puck players can identify who will be the puck carrier and attack the space of the defender who is guarding their puck-carrying teammate.
Two Play Examples Off The Rush
Two specific examples we are going to focus on:
Cross and drop – The players swap positions horizontally and attempt to create confusion in coverage.
Overload – The players choose a side and attack vertically together.
Cross and drop
The puck carrier cuts across the ice and drops the puck to a teammate cutting behind them skating in the opposite direction.
At the moment when the attackers switch sides, the defenders have a decision to make. Do they play man coverage and switch sides or play zone coverage and stay on their side of the ice?
At that moment, there is an opportunity to read the defenders and understand where the opening is.
Did both defenders go to one attacker and allow for a mini-breakaway?
Did they both go with the same attacker and leave space for a clean shot or net drive?
Even if defenders have the same understanding they may not be able to physically stay with the offensive players due to speed differential or poor skating.
For the players on offense, there are some keys. Look for these in the video below.
Puck carrier:
Skating toward the opposite defender.
Skating in front of their teammate to provide puck protection.
Once the puck is dropped, they attack the net or pivot to open their body up for a quick shot.
Receiving player:
Skating behind the teammate dropping the puck.
Being ready to exploit space, whether that be a quick pass or driving the net for a clean shot.
Check out the video for examples:
Overload
The puck carrier moves across the middle of the ice toward a teammate’s defender to engage them while their teammate either drives behind that defender (almost always best for immediate offense) or follows behind their teammate for a drop pass.
The goal is to engage that defender as a perceived threat without driving too far into the zone and eliminating the space behind the defender that a teammate can skate into.
Meanwhile, the puck receiver skates beyond the defender to attack the space behind them. At that moment when the puck receiver is behind the defender, there is an opportunity to make a pass to them. This can be a direct or an area pass for the receiver to skate into.
Here are the keys for the offensive players:
Puck carrier:
Skating toward the opposite defender, but making sure to stay just inside of the blue line or higher up in the offensive zone to allow space behind the defender.
Ready at any time to make a pass:
Direct pass – Direct on the ice with some pace.
Area pass – Into an area where the receiver can skate into the path of the puck.
Leading passes – A pass that forces the receiver to skate where the passer intended. This is often needed when a teammate cannot yet to see the play.
Receiving player:
Timing the zone-entry to gain and maintain speed.
Skating into the space behind the defender.
Giving a target for a pass so the passer knows where to pass the puck.
Here are some examples:
Both of these above attacking options are great ways to create offense. If you want to think deeper on this then ask yourself: which option is better against zone coverage? Which one is better against man coverage?
Next time you’re on the ice… Find the 2v1 and attack.
Further Reading