I’ve been saying for decades that PUCK PROTECTION is one of the most critical skills to teach in hockey – especially in the female game where no one can take you out with a body check.

You’d be hard pressed to find a better example of puck protection along the wall than this great clip of Team Canada’s Rebecca Johnston executing against Team USA in a 2021 Rivalry Series game.

In our Total Female Hockey Skills sessions, we teach many of the skills in this sequence to our players.

Here is the chain of events for the clip above skill-by-skill:

• “Slash” diagonal skating through neutral zone to support passer
• Taking puck from air to stick
• Drive skating
• Building a wall & an escape route
• Spinning away from pressure
• Scanning to find seams
• Attacking seams with quick feet, shin to protect and leading with the puck
• Reloading to the hash/slot to hunt rebounds

Here are 9 of the drills we used to teach the skills in the sequence:

And here’s an example how you might practice the skills in a game-like compete drill:

Feel free to share this with any friends, teammates, coaches or players who you think might benefit from the information & inspiration.

Work Hard. Dream BIG.

~ Coach Kim

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey