SportsGamer Community Limelight Feature Article

Nabo's Hockey School: Lesson 2

SportsGamer is featuring another article from the community today. Forum member nabokovfan87 shares his teaches us the basics of NHL 09.

Let’s get into some new material now. Anyone here ever heard of the saying “keep moving”? Well, it refers to hockey, and how if you sit there at the blue line it will take you longer to get skating and get down the ice if need be, or it will take you a bit longer to get to the other side of the rink and keep that puck in the zone. So if you are on defense or offense, you need to keep skating. If the play is stuck, standing there isn't going to do anything to change positions or shift other people around. Let me put it to you this way, if you skate, your opponent skates, and when that happens you create an opportunity for a big hit or a big shot on net.

The final saying I will leave you with is regarding when you are on defense, don’t pass the puck into the center of the ice. The reason being, if you do it once, and the other team ends up with it, that means either an automatic 1 timer or a . Use the boards, or just start taking the puck out and when the other team is out of the way for sure, then pass it to the other side if you must.

For the rest of today’s lesson I would like to get the basic purposes down for each position.

Center: You are both the 3rd wing and the 3rd defender. Your goal on the ice is to get in front of the net on offense and block the goalie, hit the one timer, or just tap the rebound into the back of the net. On defense, you need to be sure that the front of the net is clear. Your job is to chase the puck around in the zone, force the offense to keep passing, and if it gets crowded in front of the net you need to be sure that no one on the offense has a chance to get the rebound.

Wings: As the name suggests, you need to play the outside and cover from the center of the ice to the boards. On defense you need to cover the points (the opposing team’s wingers), and on offense you need to keep the puck moving, keep the play going, and basically hold onto the puck until there is an opening to shoot or a good chance.

 

You can find his full article here. Be sure to share your thoughts as well.