Hockey Forward

The Forwards

The basic job of the hockey forward (the center, the right winger and left-winger) is to put the puck in the net. The forward is the goal scorer and your teams can’t hope to win unless you can score. But that is the only part of your job.

The hockey forward gets the puck and tries to score goals and has to also take it away from the other team. That’s were checking comes in. A well-balanced player has to be good on both the attack and the defense. There is not much room in modern hockey for a one-way player. The forward has to do both.

Skating

Skating is the most important skill for the forward. The game is so fast that, unless a player is exceptionally gifted, he has to be a strong skater if he is going to stay in the NHL. He should spend as much time as you can skating. Do stops and starts. When you’re tired, drive yourself a little harder. The next time you will find it comes easier. Skating is hard, discouraging work.

But if you want to be a good hockey player, I think you will find it worthwhile. Remember there are a lot of players in the NHL who weren’t great natural skaters. a very famous hockey player named red Kelly was turned down by some NHL scouts because he said he couldn’t skate fast enough. But he worked at it and became one of the better skaters in the leak. If you lack speed, don’t give up. If you work hard enough you can improve your speed tremendously.

Checking

I can’t say enough about checking. Some players can become great goal scorers and others just can’t. But every hockey forward can learn to check if he’ll just work at it hard enough. And there’s always a job for a good checker. Many hockey players stayed with her teams because they were great checkers and penalty killers. It’s the theory of father David Bauer the coach of the Canadian Olympic team and my team manager at St. Michael’s College that a player can check effectively without taking penalties. I think I proved that last season when I served only 2 min. in the penalty box the entire season.

When I first went to St. Mike’s I was a poor checker. I thought the only thing that mattered in hockey was scoring goals. I soon learned that this is only part of the game.I think the key to checking is stopping and starting. As for the practicing you been doing on your skating comes in. As long as you can stop when the puck carrier stops in start up again when he does, he can’t get by you. And sooner or later he’s going to make a mistake and you’ll get the puck. Here’s one small tip that I found very effective. Never look at the puck. Instead, look at the opposing player right in the eye. If you do this and keep stopping and starting with him, you’ll soon get the puck back and go on the offense.

Positional play

Hockey players should stay in his own spot on the rink. If you’re a right-winger, stay on the right side. Gordie Howe may be able to roam all over the rink, but you’re not a Gordie Howe. If you go up and down your wing and stay in position, the puck is going to get to you. It’s when you’re not there that the puck always seems to come and you missed a great chance for goal.

Passing

In modern hockey, we feel the puck should do the work. So instead of carrying the puck, we pass it to the man in front of us. Then we skate as fast as we can and he passes it back to us. I think passing is a phase of hockey that too many young hockey forward neglect. They spent hours working on the shooting but never practice passing the puck. You should be able to pass the puck equally well backhanded and four handed.

If you have a sweep around every time you want to pass, because you can’t do it backhanded, you’re going to telegraph to the opposing player and the pass will likely be intercepted. So when you are practicing passing, spend time on your backhand. You should pass the puck firmly but not so hard that you don’t have it under control. this is something you only learn from experience.

You should also work out with your line mates how one where they like to pass. After you played together for a few games, I think you’ll soon know where to put the puck so your teammate can get it without breaking stride.

Shooting

Your big job as a hockey forward is to score goals, and that means that you have to put the puck in the net. The key to a good shot is strong wrist action. I suggest you build up your risk by squeezing a rubber ball for a few minutes every day. When you’re are practicing shooting, remember any game that you won’t have much time to get the puck away. So practice getting it off in a hurry. The key to a good shot is in the wrist action. By snapping the wrists you get the puck in the air in a hurry.

Try to put as much as possible on every shot but also learn to control it. When I am practicing, I tried aim shots of every part of the net. One of my favorite places is right underneath the top crossbar. The goalies usually crouch down, and if you fire one up high away from his hand, the only way he can stop it is with his shoulder. And then quite often it will still bounce off into the net.

I think I get about five goals here from firing shots right up underneath the crossbar. This shot requires a real flick of the wrists. Only through experience will you learn how to control it. And when you get a chance in front of the net, never relax. Even if the net is wide open, fire the puck as hard as you can. Any number of things can happen even in an open net. A player can get back in a hurry and put a leg or stick in front of a slow shot.

I’ve left the slap shot on the last. I don’t think the average young player should worry about it too much until he is mastered the race shot. The slap shot takes a lot of time and effort to control, and unless you can put it on the net, it’s not much good. But from outside the blue line it is useful. in the slap shot, instead of flipping the puck with the risks, you literally slapped that with your stick.

At first, anyway, don’t take too healthy a cut. Once you got it under control, then you can slap it a little harder. But remember the slap shot has its place. You should never use it when you are in close were the wrist shot is much more effective. The puck has to be on the net to go in. And even a lot of NHL players have trouble keeping a snapshot on goal.

Back checking

If you followed my advice on positional hockey and checking, I don’t think any coach will complain about your back checking. Once your team loses the puck, it is your job to get it back again. And that’s why you back check. You pick up the man on your wing and go down the ice with them and of course try to get the puck back. After all, that’s the idea of the game.

Summing up

The young hockey player should above all concentrate on skating. Unless you a strong skater you don’t have much of a future in the game. If you find you are not a strong skater than just delegate yourself to become a fine checker. As I mentioned earlier, there’s always a place in hockey for the man who can check. And finally, you should work on his shooting. practice hitting various spots in the net. There is nothing that can increase your goal production more quickly than being able to put the puck where you want it as a hockey forward. And that comes only from practice.