The first tip is to play body on body. You typically want your stick in front of you when you're coming down the ice because that allows you to take away passes across the ice, also allows you to steer the player where you want, and if he makes a deke to the right or to the left, you're ready. You don't have too much room to move. Now, when I'm coming down the ice.
I want to align my outside shoulder with Dan's inside shoulder. I'm giving him more room to the outside, which is where I want him because it's harder for him to make a pass here, harder for him to make a shot on net, and I can play him into the corner. So what happens if it's a one-on-one and the player with the puck is in the center of the ice? Well, you can send him to the outside there, or send him to the outside there.
Typically, you want to send him to his backhand. Most players are worse on their backhand than they are on their forehand, so if you can get them on their backhand, they're gonna be more uncomfortable making that pass or taking that shot. So Dan's coming down, take a look, I know it's his backhand's there. I'm gonna give him more space on that side so he takes that side, and I can make him uncomfortable. The next tip is to match the player's speed. You almost never wanna get caught really committing to a poke check because you're gonna get caught flat-footed.
Sure, sometimes you're gonna take the puck away from the player, but if you miss, he's gonna one step, he's gonna be around you and be completely alone with the goalie. So try to match the player's speed when he's coming down the ice because then you can stick with him all the way into the zone, keep that good gap, and keep on putting pressure. The last tip for playing one-on-one through the neutral zone is your gap. You don't want your gap to be too close to the player because if he's expecting it, he can easily make a play to another player, and then you're out of the play.
But you also don't wanna be too far back because then he can choose where he's gonna go down the ice. He can go to the right, go to the left, maybe make a pass, slow up. So typically you want about a three stick-length gap coming through the neutral zone, and then as you get closer to the blue line, you're gonna close that gap, close that gap and be more aggressive on the player, try to play him into the boards, give him a nice slash. Alright guys, those tips should help you play a little bit better defense.