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All youth players love to touch the puck and score goals, so players at 10U and 12U may frown upon having to play defense because they might perceive themselves as being less engaged in plays and having less scoring opportunity. Well, the goods news is that as players progress through youth hockey, the role of defense becomes increasingly important and more fun to play, especially as their forwards learn to cycle to puck back to the blue line and as the defense develop hard enough shots to shoot effectively from the point.
Further, those who can master the position provide their team with a significant competitive advantage by shutting down scoring opportunities and controlling field position. In this week's article, our founder Lance Pitlick shares some of his observations from his years as a NHL defenseman, and what attributes and skills made created those players who were the best at the defensive position. Here are Coach Lance's 5 top tips to be a successful long-term blue-liner.
#1. Focus on your skating, both without and with a puck. You might visualize that as skating forward with the puck, which obviously is key and happens frequently, but as a defenseman you must also focus on backward skating, quick transitions and escape moves. If you want to be a defenseman, you have to skate backwards as good or better than you do forwards.
#2. Body positioning. When the other team has the puck, your team flips to defensive mode and every player is responsible for one of his or her guys. Remember this simple concept, who ever you are engaged with: position yourself in between them and your goalie. This forces the player to skate through, pass or shoot through you in order to get to the net.
#3. Communicate loud and proud on the ice. Defenseman in hockey are like quarterbacks in football. They are the lead dog, barking out orders to the rest of the team on what to do. We tell forwards who to pick up on the backcheck, or who to lock down in a multi-player corner battle. Defenseman are bonded to their partner and have to be each other’s eyes when under pressure, providing verbal instructions on where to go or who the next pass will be going to.
#4. Playing in the defensive zone are hard minutes. They are stressful, require maximum grind to dig the puck off the wall, out of the house, and clear the zone. No one can rest until the puck is out safely. Offensive zone play is so much easier and a lot more fun in comparison! But the only way offensive zone play can happen is if the defense do their job, and then make a good, clean and crisp tape-to-tape first pass. Effective defensive play gets the group out of the D-zone quick, and playing in the offensive zone more.
#5. How to shoot effectively from the blue-line. Everyone wants to bring the heat and take the big booming slap shot. The challenge is that most players, especially at the younger levels, take the slap shot with their head down. This results in shots getting blocked and you are back on defense in hard minute zones.
Instead, I’d rather see the player walk the line, dribbling with their eyes up, looking for a wrist or snap shot opportunity. Your objective at the blue line with the puck is to get it through layers. The first and most important layer is the forward coming toward you. Find a seam around the body our under the stick to avoid a block or deflection. The puck should be 6-10 inches off the ice and shot with enough power to get it to the pile up in front of the goalie. If it gets through to the net you either score or generates a 2nd or 3rd shot attempt.
Edited in January 2025 from an original article written by Lance Pitlick in 2018. Based in the Minneapolis area, Lance is a former NHL player with Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers, played collegiate hockey with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, is top hockey training professional both in-person and through onlinehockeytraining.com, and is the founder and former owner of Snipers Edge Hockey.
