Just a quick report on today’s sessions…
Interesting day today at the Level 5 Clinic here in Minnesota. We heard from a bunch of pretty good hockey guys including Todd Richards (head coach of the Wild), Mike Sullivan (assistant coach of the Lightning), Mark Johnson (member of 1980 “Miracle” team and Head Coach of Wisconsin’s women’s team), Bryan Trottier (NHL Hall of Famer), and a panel of players from the 1980 American Miracle team.
One of the things I found interesting was Mike Sullivan’s take on defensive hockey (playing when the other team has the puck). He likes a very aggressive style when his team doesn’t have the puck, and showed us a few examples of his 1-2-2 forecheck that looked almost identical to our 1-2-2 Fooseball Forecheck. So – apparently it works in the NHL too 😉
THEN – he showed an example of his neutral zone attack… and guess what? it was just a neutral zone version of the 1-2-2 fooseball! First man pressured outside in, second two took away the outlet passes.
Anyways – the main key that made this forecheck so effective in the clips was that the F1 was EXTREMELY aggressive, and F2 and F3 were REALLY fast to seal off the passing lanes.
So – that’s my report for today. Until next time!
