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How to Defend With Angling, Danny Heath

Social media has transformed our daily lives, giving us instant access to news, learning resources, and connections with people worldwide. In the sports world, it has become a powerful tool for coaches like Danny Heath to showcase their expertise, share drills and ideas, and ultimately elevate the game of hockey.

Known as @danny_hype on Instagram, Danny coaches in his hometown of Mankato, Minnesota, using social media to provide valuable insights on skating, puck control, and hockey sense. His posts create a space for players to refine their skills and for coaches to expand their knowledge. More recently, he launched Project Hockey, an at-home dryland training program designed to help players develop strength and skills off the ice—giving them a competitive edge when they step back on.

We caught up with Danny to dive into one of the most challenging skills for players at every level: creating the perfect angle. Here’s his expert take on how coaches can teach and reinforce this critical skill through effective drills.

As a coach, the most common mistake I see AT ALL levels is a player's inability to angle and identify how to use their stick to close the gap. Even at the NHL level, nearly all goals are scored from a fumble of the puck OR a poor angle on the opposition. In many cases, a bad angle will open up the ice, create odd-player rushes and cost a team on the score board. A perfect example of this is shown below with Tampa Bay Lightning forward, Yanny Gourde.

Although there are many things to pick apart in this example, we want to focus on the inability to stop the play in the neutral zone, before any offense could be generated. With proper stick positioning and a quality angle, this play would have ended at center, but instead, it opened up ice for Washington to own and take full advantage of.

Regardless of a player's position, developing proper angling skills is one of the most important things they can do. Starting at the mite level, it's vital that these skills are learned early, with the habits being reinforced throughout their entire hockey career.

My tried and true keys to a successful angle are:

1. Stick positioning

When angling a 1 vs 1, a defender's goal should be to take away the center ice and force their opposition into "bad ice", ensuring there is no opportunity for a cut back. In defending a cutback, the defender should drag their stick behind their body while closing the gap and then quickly shift to "stick on puck" to completely take away the play.

2. Quiet feet

Avoiding unnecessary crossovers and lower body movement is a huge key to angling. Keeping a strong base and using a powerful inside edge will allow players to quickly change directions if need be. At the more skilled levels of hockey, offensive players will wait until defenders cross over and then make a cut in the opposite direction, leaving the defender vulnerable to be beat.

3. Contact through the hands

The last step of the angle is separating the puck from the player. If your league has body contact, hitting through the hands is a sure fire way to force a loose puck and gain possession. Without body contact, the defender can finish the play off with a strong stick on the puck, knocking the puck free for your team to control.

When performed well, a successful angle is a thing of beauty. Below Erik Karlsson demonstrates a textbook performance against his now team, San Jose Sharks. Karlsson uses his stick and body position to take away the center of the ice and as he closes his gap, cuts off the play with a solid hit, removing any scoring chance.

With those key points in mind, here are 5 of my go-to drills to reinforce the skill of angling. Do the work and take your player's game to the next level!

1. Karlsson's Angle 1 vs 1

Tags: 1 vs 1, Angling

The drill starts when X X2 skates down the wall with the puck trying to score on the net
X X1 reacts to XX 2 and angles the player down the wall away from the net
X X2 is NOT allowed to cut back on the other side of the Pylon pylon

2. Burn's Angle 1 vs 1

Tags: 1 vs 1, Angling

Coach dumps a puck into the corner for X X1 to retrieve
X X1 can skate right into the zone, but X X2 has to skate wide around the tire before cutting across zone and angling their opposition
Play out a 1 vs 1

Burn's Angle 2 vs 2

Tags: 2 vs 2, Angling

Coach dumps a puck into the corner for X X1 to retrieve
X X1 and X X2 can skate right into the zone, but X X3 and X X4 have to skate wide around the tire before cutting across zone and angling their opposition
Play out a 2 vs 2

3. Doell's Angle 1 vs 1

Tags: 1 vs 1, Angling

X X2 pass the puck cross ice to X X1
X X1 skates with the puck up and around the tires trying to beat X X2 back to the Net net
X X2 skates to the middle of the ice, mirrors X X1 and tries to angle them back to the wall

4. Doughty 1 vs 1

Tags: 1 vs 1, Angling

F skates down the wall, around the bumper and then drives the net for a shot on goal
D skates forwards, pivots around the bumper and then skates forwards and angles F

5. Marchand's Stick Battle (Game)

Tags: 1 vs 1, Angling, Battle

X X and O and Circle stick handle pucks in circle, while trying to knock the other player's puck out of the circle
Whoever still has the puck will play offense, exit zone and go in on a 1v1
Alternate sides of the drill

All of the drills above can be found in the CoachThem Drill Marketplace and have been put together in the Plans Marketplace under Newsletter > "Danny Heath: How to Defend With Angling".

A big thanks to Danny for sharing his knowledge with the CoachThem team. Be sure to follow him on Instagram for more great skill drills and videos!

You can also learn more about his at home, dry-land training program Project Hockey.