Beat the Defense

Beat the Defense means to get by one or both of the defensemen.

Beating a defenseman is one of the most important and useful skills the player needs to know as a forward. There are 4 proven techniques for this.

1. Approaching the defensemen along the boards, chipping it by the defender and skating around them, either on the goal side, or using the boards to the player’s advantage.
2. Get the defensemen to commit to a backwards crossover – giving the player options to make a move.
3. Get the defensemen to bite on a fake or a real stop.
4. Toe drag around a slower defender to change the angle and shoot on goal or to make a play.