Is it possible to overcome weak defensemen at this point in the season? I'm not sure our D has had a shot on goal all season, I mean sometimes the puck dribbles down towards the goal but often times it's 3-4ft wide in either direction. Constantly getting caught up ice, tripping over their skates on pivots every game, pinching too late and getting beat on a chip, bobbling puck at the blue line in offensive zone and turning over, positioning, poor passing, it's just bad all around and it's every weekend. All this just leading to goals, goals and more goals. We try to boost up their confidence in practices and play a less aggressive style of offense but doesn't seem to be helping. All their parents do is blame the Goalie which is just wrong.

Searching for answers.....

Really what you need is better forwards. The forwards skate half speed on the back check and glide into the offensive zone putting zero pressure on. Forecheck - what is that? They don't battle for the puck at all. And then we got forwards who either just stick handle until they lose the puck or fling it around like a hot potato. And the centers - OMG - they all try to go forward on the face-offs, making it easy for the other team to gain possession because, of course, any good center goes draws the puck back. The worst to watch are the centers who attempt to go forward to the net on offensive zone face-offs even when on they backhand side! And the wings cannot catch a pass from the D on the breakout to save their lives. Maybe the worst is the forwards who absolutely will not change on the fly - sometimes staying on the ice for two+ minutes. Actually maybe the worst is their parents who complain about line changes like, "we had possession why did they you tell my kid to dump it in and change?" Overall, we may have weak D and the goalie doesn't stand on his head to make saves, but the problem is the forwards. The D cannot do it alone.

You two are insufferable. What sounds more insufferable is the games you guys are forced to watch. What age and what level hockey are you talking about ? I assume it is Mites, based on some of the issues you are talking about if it is higher then you must be aware that you are playing a pretty low level of hockey and that is part of the game when you play at that level.

How to overcome it, cut them next season. IN fat tell them and their parents they are being replaced if they cant figure it out in the next few months.

My kid plays PW and has been a defenseman for his entire youth hockey experience playing club. He started out as a center/wing and then migrated to the defense position because at mites, he could skate. As the teams become more "complete" at PW there are fewer odd man rushes due to the forwards backchecking.

If you want to overcome a weak defenseman, have the coach run some backchecking drills. The lack of backchecking combined with a slow-footed defenseman will expose any team.

The previous poster, while amusing, had some solid points. Defenseman get frustrated when they've worked hard to get the puck, start the breakout and are heading up ice only to put on the breaks quickly because a stick-handling forward has given up the puck with zero offensive zone time. They also get frustrated when the puck-carrying forward would rather stick handle his way out of a situation rather than send it to the point.

Teams that can put together a practice where the forwards are involved in backchecking and the defenseman are involved in the transition and offensive zone will win a lot of games. Even with a very weak defenseman, you can win a lot of games with a solid d paired with the weakest d and a line of backchecking forwards.

When should D understand that you can't pass directly to the opponent, that is bad. I thought this was learned in mites but seeing it at the PW level.

Yeah, there we go, the season is 28 weeks long (4-5 day per week of hockey), but lets wait for the 8 weeks summer to work on it.

simple, cut the kid(s). Plenty of skaters out there that can play D.

Segregating the D and F for "skills" or at least part of those "skills nights" would be a good approach. I mean, have you ever seen them working on backwards skating, angling, 1v1's, D to D reverses, effective D positioning, etc. at skills? You know, the type of drills and teaching done at an 8 week summer program, but not during the 28 week season. I know the D benefit from the all around skills that are emphasized for the entire group, but some D-only component would be beneficial.

Sounds like my kids team. I think if parents were more focused on their kids and not so worried about what other kids are doing, youth hockey wouldn't have that reputation of having crazy parents. I've heard parents tell their kid that that goal that was scored wasn't their fault . It was another kids fault. Awesome way to teach responsibility. Being a team player is very important and is encouraged but I as a parent are more concerned with his individual development. When he comes to me frustrated I just remind him to support his teammates and be encouraging and that he can only control himself and what he does and how he needs to work hard and prepare for each game. Hopefully if he finds himself in a better situation he'll be able to step up his game.

You should rotate the forwards back there ASAP. Firstly, it will help the parents realize that their kids stinks too, secondly if it great for their development to see the game from the D position and lastly it will help everyone realize how important back checking is..... you should do some of this anyway but definitely at the level this sounds like... if the kids can't get a puck to net and are falling over you are talking mites and or very low level hockey so just mix it around and make sure they are having fun.

Sounds like you have a team of dusters, Coach. Teach them to skate in practice. Teach them positioning before/during games.

Defesemen is the most thankless job on the ice. Forward score a couple garbage goals and fail to backcheck an entire game and he gets praise; goalie has a 10 save shut-out and he gets praise; defensemen is only noticed when something goes wrong and he gets no credit for the wins. Easily the most difficult position on the ice (positioning, skating, split second decision making)and why a kid would want to do it is beyond me.

Maybe have your superstar forward backcheck for once?

Everyone please take the hooks out of your mouths. This thread was started by a disgruntled goalie dad who objected a couple of weeks ago to a thread about bad goalies making identical statements.

Applaud him, he sucked you in.

And I thought it was posted by Bruce Cassidy complaining about Tory Krug.... What a disaster he has been this season and with that contract he might be trolling the local rinks looking for his own coaching job.