Why do some offences click and produce goals galore, while others struggle?
Brennan Sonne, Head Coach of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, used his Virtual Hockey Summit presentation to answer that question by first defining what the highest scoring area is on the ice, before giving tips on where to put yourself to find more success in this area, atypical deflections and net use.
According to Sonne, who spent four years as Head Coach of Les Ducs d’Angers in the top French professional league and also has three years as Assistant Coach for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips on his resume, the scoring area is from the offensive zone face-off circles to the net and the stats back this up.
Within 20 feet of the net, a whopping 55% of goals are scored, according to The Science of Scoring, created by the Ontario Minor Hockey Association. They tracked every NHL goal scored during the 2015-16 season to compile their analysis. Breaking down that 55%, 34% of goals scored from 10 to 20 feet out and 21% scored from 10 feet and less.
Sonne did his own study, alongside some other coaches, and found that of the 503 NHL goals they tracked, 59.5% were scored from below the offensive zone face-off circles, aka the scoring area.
If you can master playing in this area, your offence has the potential to click and produce goals galore.
“This is where most goals occur, so you should do everything you can to be high-end in this part of the ice if you want to create offence,” said Sonne, during his 21-minute presentation. “There’s more goals score on this part of the ice than all other areas combined.”
Check out Sonne’s full video for tips to make your team the best it can be in the scoring area.
This video is available exclusively to members of The Coaches Site.
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Brennan Sonne
Brennan Sonne is the newest head coach of the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL after spending four years as head coach of Les Ducs d'Angers in the top French professional league, and three years as an assistant coach for the Everett Silvertips.
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