Power Kill or Penalty Kill?
No one likes to be HUNTED out on the ice.
For the vast majority of every game in girls hockey, the team without the puck tends to HUNT HARD on the fore-check, back-check and D-zone coverage to try to get the puck back. We tend not to see many/any controlled breakouts in the women’s game where the attacking team has the time and space to exit their zone without pressure. It’s usually GO-GO-GO with a hard 2-1-2 or 1-2-2 fore-check with pinching defensemen hunting the walls.
But then, what happens on the PENALTY KILL?
[Note: I did a full 20 minute podcast episode on this exact subject this week – you can check out the full Power Kill Episode here]
In many of the minor hockey games I watch, we tend to be far too PASSIVE when we are short-handed. This seems to be correct intuitively – we have one less player, so maybe we shouldn’t hunt quite as hard. We tend to be more likely to give our opponents time and space to exit their zone, enter ours and set-up their power-play. We look to take away passing and shooting lanes with our stick & body positioning, but we aren’t aggressively taking away time and space from the puck carrier. I’m not saying we all start PKing like the Tasmanian Devil out there – although at some of the lower levels and age groups of girls hockey, this might actually be the best option in terms of forcing turnovers.
THE POWER KILL MENTALITY
I do, however, suggest that we all adopt the Power Kill Mentality. This has become a pretty commonplace term/concept at the top levels of hockey for the past 4 or so years. I first really embraced it after watching Team Canada’s top penalty kill pairing at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Blayre Turnbull and Emily Clark did a phenomenal job of putting their opponents in a blender with their relentless pressure up ice. They did NOT let the bad guys breakout easily and then definitely didn’t allow them to enter Canada’s zone easily. They had amazing stick/body positioning, speed and intensity to force bad decisions and turnovers as far up the ice as possible. They stole pucks, sent the power-play back to breakout again and again, and even scored a few short handed goals.
While your players might not quite have Turnbull & Clark level skills to execute at the Olympic level, they most certainly can adopt a more aggressive mentality on the PK. An aggressive fore-check and relentless denial of easy zone entries are the hallmarks of a great PK. If they can’t get in your zone, they definitely won’t score. But what about when/if they do get into your zone. Should you still be as aggressive?
APPLYING RODEO PRESSURE
For the past decade or so, teams at the top levels of game have been using RODEO PRESSURE when defending the power-play in-zone. I believe it was the Boston Bruins who first brought it to the NHL level back around 2010. I first learned about it from Dan Church, the long-time head coach of the York University Women’s Team. This system involves sending 3 of your 4 penalty killers hard into battles for the puck, leaving one lone player as the safety valve if the puck moves from that battle.
Sounds crazy, right? Stay with me here.
You’ll see an example of the rodeo pressure by the penalty killers in the clip below. They go hard with 3 off the face-off, with one player looking to keep the puck/player in the same spot while her teammates seal off the top and bottom passing options. This mini triangle keeps the puck in one place and makes it hard for the power-play team to get set-up in the first place.
I know… I thought it was a little too risky at first, especially if the puck gets moved out of that battle successfully. If and when the power-play team does release the pressure, the safety valve has to get into shot lanes quickly while her 3 teammates sprint to get into their PK formation (box, diamond, whatever the plan is). Long story short, I tried it and it worked. The players LOVE doing it – probably because they are so used to pressuring hard during 5v5 play that this seems a bit more natural to them.
So how do you know WHEN to apply rodeo pressure?If you’re going to play this way, you’ve got to know the right cues to read. Once teams adopt the rodeo pressure mentality, they are going as hard as they can (like a rodeo rider trying to stay on the bull) on:
– face-offs
– entries
– shot recoveries
– rims
– changes of possession
Even if you’re not sure if you want to adopt full rodeo pressure on your power kill, you still need to be apply to read the cues which show you when to hunt hard on the PK. Players should be hunting the puck carrier hard on the PK when:
– the puck carrier turns their back
– the puck carrier is fumbling the puck
– the puck carrier is telegraphing where they are going to pass the puck
– the pass receiver is about to receive it on their backhand or in a compromising position (ie they are too tight to the boards to receive it clean)
So play with a POWER KILL MENTALITY, think about applying RODEO PRESSURE in your defensive zone and know the CUES you’re looking for to HUNT HARD and make the power-play’s life difficult.
Please feel free to share this message with any friends, teammates, parents and coaches who are looking for a little extra information & inspiration to help them take their game to the next level this season and beyond!
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This is a PREVIEW of what’s COMING SOON with THE ORANGE MACHINE. Imagine this same message with more video examples of the power kill, the rodeo pressure and skill drills and practice plans to support the teaching/learning of all of it! We’re planning to launch The Orange Machine in the coming weeks – stay tuned!
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Work Hard. Dream BIG. Power Kill.
~ Coach Kim
Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS
Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey
