October 13, 2006, Newsletter Issue #90: Effective shooting

Tip of the Week

I have informally collected a list of "Patterns" (things that work) and "Anti-Patterns" (things that don´t work).
Patterns include, shooting the puck on the net(forcing the goalie to play the puck), attacking the short side rather than the far side (the short side actually has more a better shooting angle because the goalie is must have a lesser depth position compared to the far side and rebounds of the back boards tend to come back into play rather than rim), slowing down during a net drive if there is sufficient space (throws off the goalie´s timing and permits shooter time for an extra move) crossing laterally when ever possible (forcing the goalie to move often opens a hole), using a defenseman as a screen (cutting behind a D prior to the shot obscures the windup and release) shooting from between the hash marks.

Anti-Patterns include lack of mid ice support for the puck carrier skating down the periphery (tends to lead to over long cross ice passes), hanging on the back door rather than constantly moving, and coming in too close to shoot (or not backing up far enough, the key here is that closing in on the goalie has much the same angles effect as the goalie getting more aggressive depth without increasing the goalie´s vulnerability to lateral passes. For example attack a paddle down block by walking out to the hash marks to gain space for the high shot).

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