The Defensive Zone in Ice Hockey

Video Transcript

"30.Alright, now we're in the defensive zone. Let’s say you want to protect the puck from the forwards, from getting the puck in the net. That's you're net. You try to protect that net. You try to protect your goalie. What you're going to do, this is your left defensemen, be positioned over here. You would be covering their right wing and possibly their center. But you're going to be covering the boards all the way to the center in front of the net. Same with the right defensemen. You're going to be covering the boards on this side. Maybe even behind the net a little bit, all the way to the center and you're going to cover their center, the forward center, who would be positioned in this area. So you've got a lot of responsibility as a defenseman, protecting the net here and basically sweeping your coverage, all of this area. Now you're forwards, you've got your center in the middle here. He's going to be protecting the high area to the blue line all the way to their center, who should be hanging out down here. And you've got your left wing. He's going to be stopping, trying to stop the defensemen here from getting the puck and getting a nice slap shot off to be deflected. So, everybody's position in the defensive zone matters. If somebody messes up, it can cause a lot of problems and that's how goals get scored. So you want to protect and play defense the best you can. And then you've got your other forward protecting against their defense over here. So, two forwards are going to basically protect inside their blue line from those boards to the top of the circle, maybe even a little lower, all the way to the center of the rink. That would be for the right forward and then the left forward, he'd be doing the same thing, just on the opposite side. From the top of the circle, boards, blue line, all the way in here. And you're constantly moving, following where the puck is. You don't want to chase the puck. You just want to know where it's at and cover their guys, cover their men. That pretty much covers the defensive side."