Breakouts

(From Hockey Plays and Strategies by Ryan Walter and Mike Johnston)

We use three standard breakouts: Up, Over, and Wheel

In all situations we rely on the Defenseman without the puck (D2) to call out the play. It is important to also let the Defenseman retrieving the puck (D1) know how much time and space he has. Another common thread in all three plays is that we want the Center to support low, he will usually Take Back Ice to build up speed, and the timing of his curl is important - we do not want the Center too high too early.

1) UP

When D2 yells "Up" it means that we are going to look to breakout by passing up the strong side to either the Wing or the Center.

Note how the Center Takes Back Ice to build speed, the Back Side Wing (RW) cuts across, and D2 stays in the middle of the ice so that he can make a defensive play if we turnover the puck.

2) OVER

If the strong side is clogged up, D2 can yell "Over" which means that he wants to receive a pass behind the net to try and breakout on the other side. It is important that D1 makes this pass quickly and doesn't bring the forechecking pressure over to D2 with him.

With the Over play the Center once again supports low, the Back Side Wing once again cuts across, and now D1 who made the original cross ice pass needs to get in front of our net in case of a turnover.

3) WHEEL

Our third breakout is for when we have a strong skater retrieving the puck and he has a forechecker trailing him. D2 yells out "WHEEL" which lets D1 know to continue skating the puck behind the net, cutting tight with the net to use it as a screen.

For Wheel D2 stays in front of the net, the Center again supports low, and the Back Side wing cuts across high.

Breakout Summary:

The Defenseman who is not retrieving the puck is responsible for deciding the play and yelling it out. Our primary breakouts are Up (passing up the strong side) Over (passing D to D behind the net to get the puck over) and Wheel (having the defenseman skate with the puck around the net.) Additionally we are are allowed to change lines after icing, which means shooting the puck the length of the ice can be a smart "breakout" when we need a change. The call for this is simply "ICE".