Pressured Breakaways and a Drill to Simulate Situation
Last year, I wrote a drill idea on my blog. The Quarter Pie Breakaway Drill has been one of my most used drills in clinics and day camps. While I enjoy watching breakaways as much as anyone, many team drills that have a breakaway element devolve into a shoot-out format rather than a game-speed breakaway with real backside pressure. To that end, I usually employ pylons to create limited space for the puck carrier in order to allow a goalie to more easily practice the scenario. I finally put the drill into my media tab under the Advanced Drills folder in a printable format. Please have a look and let me know if any of you have any ideas or questions to improve it.
I'm not sure why I overlooked uploading it from before, but the spark that brought it back to mind was watching several in-game breakaways that I thought both the goalies and defending backcheckers played incorrectly.
It may be important to distinguish what a "pressured breakaway" is from a "clean breakaway" and a "shoot-out attempt".
Pressured Breakaway
In hockey, this should be the most common breakway situation. An attacking player has gained puck posession with no defending players between him and the opposition goal. The defending team in response has a defender skating behind or on one of the rear flanks of the attacking skater, usually within a stick length or closer. The backchecking defender is skating at a pace that he is threatening to catch up or strip the attacking player of the puck.
Here is a good example of a pressured breakaway.
Clean Breakaway
A breakaway situation where the attacker has gained posession of the puck with no defending players between him and the net. The nearest backchecking player(s) are several strides behind. The gap between the attacker and the defender may be widening during the breakaway. This will give the player more options when attempting to score. The gap between the attacker and defender may be closing. The situation where the defender is getting closer to the attacker may cause the attacker to adjust his breakaway tactics and may start to limit his options.
Here is a very good recent example of a clean breakaway.
Shoot-Out Opportunity
The shoot-out is a special situation where an attacker is offered the most advantageous scenario to score a goal with a goaltender in the net. The rules are written in black and white in hockey rulebooks across the world, but it seems that there is a very elastic interpretation of the letter of the law in favour of the players rather than the goalie. I highly recommend that everyone be very familiar with these rules. You can find them for Nova Scotia on page 58 of the Rule and Casebook for Hockey Canada.
There are many video examples, but here is a recent in-game penalty shot.
In general, I would order the difficulty of the three breakaway scenarios reverse of how they are listed above. Shoot-outs are obviously the most challenging, followed by a clean breakaway. Pressured breakaway, while no means easy, should be the scenario that gives the goalie the best chance to defend against a goal during the breakaway.
Typically, the pressured breakaway lends some advantages to a goalie.
Max from the Cole Harbour Wings playing the shot option on a breakaway.
Speed of Attack
In order for the attacking player to stay ahead of the backchecker, he must maintain a high level of foot speed. Quite often, the attacker will need to stay in stride. While he'll have speed, that speed can be a disadvantage to the attacker as much as it may be a problem for the goaltender. The faster the player drives to the net, the sooner he must make a decision to shoot or deke. The point of commitment is likely much further out than the other breakaway situations.
The constant speed will allow the goalie to maintain a consistent retreat and allow the goalie an easier task to maintain proper gap control during the retreat. Of course, if the goalie is totally lacking in footspeed in the retreat to handle players skating hard towards the net, the goalie will have real issues.
Keeping their stride in order to maintain a lead on the backchecker can make things difficult for the attacker in many way. Many players are challenged to shoot in stride and tend to want to glide or to get to a favoured leg before shooting. This weakness may eliminate the shot option for the attacker and force them into a deke while driving to the net. Many players also have a hard time stickhandling or utilizing stick fakes while under pressure and while in stride. The lack of in-tight puck movement lets the goalie know that they can commit earlier and worry less about being taken in by a fake.
Limited Lanes
If the backchecker skates hard, he may be able to not only keep the attacker moving faster than they want, the defender may also be able to limit the direction the attacking play can cut during a deke. If the pressure of the defender is close enough, it may be very easy for a goalie to read where the attacker will have to go during the deke. Essentially, the goalie has reduced one of the posts that he must defend on the deke. When the decision process is simplified, it should allow the goalie to be more successful in following the attacker's move.
Backside pressure, if it is strong enough, will also eliminate last second cut backs to the other post which is a very popular move in shoot-outs. It is something that one should never be observed in a pressured breakaway and it is usually a result of improper backside pressure.
Limited Stick Position
The defending backchecker who is within a stick length of the breaking forward should be able to limit the side the attacker can shoot from. In order to shoot, the attacker usually has to draw the stick back and open the blade to the goalie (either on the forehand or the backhand). This could expose the attacker's stick to a timely stick check or legal hook to throw of the shot.
Most times, the attacker realizes that to open their stick on the side where there is backchecking pressure is present will result in a lost breakaway chance. As a result, the attacker may be forced to shoot on the unpressured side of the body. This can be a real disadvantage to the shooter, especially if forced to their backhand and the goaltender realizes that the player is forced to that side.
Ideally, backcheckers should try to gain the center lane to the net, firstly. This will limit the attacker from having the option to cut/deke left or right and hopefully will totally eliminate the attacker from cutting back across the grain after deking in one direction or the other.
The second objective of the backchecker would be to do his best to eliminate an option for the attacker to open his stick blade on either side of his body. Preferably, the defender wants to force the breaking forward onto his back hand.
This save by Detroit's Howard shows how important it was to have Filpulla's stick pressure on Gilroy. Gilroy was forced to continue in one direction and not given the option to go to his backhand. Howard still made a dandy trapper save, but it was made a lot easier when he knew what side Gilroy was forced to shoot.
To take a couple of examples where the pressured breakaway situation broke down, we can watch the following video of Chara and Rask being unable to find an answer for the Flyer's nifty Voracek. While Voracek had the center lane and there was little chance for Chara to gain it on the speedy forward, Chara stopped striding to pressure Voracek to the far side. A weak stick poke was all that Chara could manage that didn't prevent Voracek from skating or moving to the pressured side.
The next example starts with McGrattan giving the Duck's D-man the old "how she going" play off the boards, but the defense recovers well enough to keep pressure on McGrattan. The pressure kept McGrattan going in one direction, prevented him from pulling the puck back onto his forehand, and eliminated his in-tight stick handling. The bulk of this goal falls on Hiller's normally skilled shoulders when McGrattan slides a soft backhand underneath Hiller. Hiller's reaction is telling and he knows he is wearing this goal, though most would classify it as a breakaway and not his fault.
Here Reimer is too deep on a pressured breakaway where the attacker was forced to his backhand. Even the announcer tipped my hand with the comment...