ADM Kids

An adage suggests that possession is “nine-tenths of the law.”

Possession might have grown to have an even greater impact in hockey over the years. It’s never been more critical to have the puck, a fact that puts a significant emphasis on winning puck battles.

Dan Jablonic, a player development manager for USA Hockey, has some tips for 12U players on how to win those battles as well as thoughts on just why it is so important.

A generation or two ago, physical play in corners and body checking was a show of force. Could the bigger and brawnier team terrorize an opponent into submission? But the game has changed.

“The goal now is to win possession of the puck to make a hockey play, and I think that's where our game is so great right now,” Jablonic says. “We're celebrating winning the puck and making plays versus the old school where there's intimidation, things like that. The creativity is off the charts now with our players, and I think that's important.”

Size matters less than it used to as a result. Body position, athleticism, awareness and the ability to scan a situation in order to win a puck cleanly are gaining in importance for every skater on the ice.

“The game's changed so much right now that you have to be involved in the play all the time,” Jablonic says. “That's why we're seeing so many different-sized players at the highest level in the NHL. They're so good at their details to the game. And that comes with learning how to win the puck and having incredible skating skills, using angling and figuring out what the right read is on the play.”

Wanting to win a puck battle is one thing. Doing so is quite another. So what are some of the essentials to coming away with possession?

“I think the first thing is scan the situation. You're reading the play. OK, how do I go and properly use my skating skills to go in and win that puck, right?” Jablonic says. “Angling is incredibly important. You don't want to skate straight onto somebody because that really limits your options.”

The idea, Jablonic says, is to protect the valuable parts of the ice while forcing your opponent into the bad or more dangerous parts of the ice. It takes great stick work and problem solving in real time.

Those skills can be taught at 12U through lower-speed drills that increase as players gain baseline skills.

“We like to use the term ‘slow and close’ and then increase the speed as you go through those developmental sessions,” Jablonic says.

A sometimes-overlooked part of puck battles, Jablonic says, is puck support.

“How do we actually keep possession of the puck after we work so hard to get it,” he says.

Much of that has to do with what players who don’t have the puck are doing – which constitutes the vast majority of a player’s time spent on the ice.

When an opponent has possession, support comes from good skating and team defense that lets teammates close in on a puck-carrier to limit their options and eventually regain possession.

Once a teammate has the puck, Jablonic says, it is imperative to support that player by getting to different levels on the ice to create passing lanes.

“A lot of times as coaches we might look at a player that made a pass and say either they made a great pass or not such a good pass, but then when you look around, hey, how are the teammates actually supporting the play,” Jablonic says. “Does the player that’s trying to make the pass finding time and space? Do they have options?”

Jablonic says the process of winning puck battles starts as early as 8U even if body checking isn’t legal until 14U.

“When we pushed the checking age back essentially 10 years ago, not a lot of those skills were being necessarily taught at the younger ages,” Jablonic says. “It's just something that we’ve got a renewed focus now to understand that the minute you lace your skates up, there's instant conflict all over the ice. It's critically important for us as coaches that when it comes to competitive contact or body positioning to win puck battles it is treated just like a shooting or a stick skill.”

Promoting those skills in practices at a young age gives players five or six years to learn problem-solving and other puck battle essentials before checking becomes legal. It’s OK if some of it looks chaotic along the way.

In fact, it probably should.

“I think that's important for us, what we're teaching those kids,” Jablonic says. “Adding more conflict into our practices, the more we can make it look messy, make it look ugly, the better for those kids so that we can get into those games and they’ve seen it before.”