Aberdeen,

I'm not sure if my first post went through , but I will try once more. I will give you my two cents worth on this topic. But there are better hockey minds on this site than mine.

If the cycle is in the corner.

- The 1st D man plays the puck carrier stick on stick up the boards., staying with his man. Many players stop and chase the puck , but this creates a 2 on 1 etc. He must follow his man on the inside stick on stick to the net. Taking away the pass. If the offensive player goes up and out to far he must release him and reload to the net.

- The second layer of support is usually the centermen. ( or first player back in de zone). He then moves in and plays the next man stick on stick as the original D man did. He stays with his man stick on stick taking away all passing lanes.
The centerman must play a support role not an over aggressive role . Must always stay on the defensive side of the puck. He follows his man up the wall in the same pattern as the original Dman.

- If the puck gets cycled again , the net front D man must support the centermen in the same manner . Kind of like defensive cycle without the puck between the two Dman and the centermen.

- A good support player if in the correct position can take away a pass or redirect behind the net.

Hope this helps .

RookieCoach

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Tom,

I need to understand this correctly.

What I was trying to say was if the D man is stick on stick with the first forward . If that forward cycles the puck back to the corner at around the hash marks. The D man stays with him to the net. But if he (forward) skates up over the top of the circle without the puck, he can release him and reload to the net. ?
But if the forward carries the puck high , the D man stays with him because of a possible high cycle with the opposing Point man.

Thanks for the clarification.

RookieCoach
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If the player with the puck skates high in the slot the defender must stay with him no matter how high he goes. He would be causing
Everyone to switch if he drops him.