Neutral Zone Forecheck: 2-1-2

The 2-1-2 is the pressure option. You send two forwards at the same time and try to turn the puck over before the other team ever reaches your blue line. It creates more offence than the 1-2-2 and it costs you more when it fails, so you use it when you have the legs and the score allows.

Reading the diagram: red circles are our skaters, black X circles are the other team, and the small black dot marks the puck. They are attacking from the right; we defend the left end.

F1 and F2 are the "2" in front. Both red arrows attack at the same time — F1 takes the puck-side attacker and F2 takes the other lane so neither of them can be passed to comfortably. They come from the outside in, cutting off the width so the puck has to go up the middle or backwards.

F3 is the "1" in the middle. He sits at center ice on the inside of the far attacker, ready to intercept the pass F1 and F2 have forced. If the puck goes past him, he becomes the third man back and picks up the trailer.

D1 and D2 are the last "2". They stay behind everything, wide of each other, backing out with the play. Their arrows show them turning up with the outside lanes rather than stepping up and getting beaten.

When it works you get a turnover at the far blue line and an odd-man rush. When it does not, F3 and the two defencemen have to know they are alone against three.