What this is The Roll is our simplest defence activation. The forward on the wall carries the puck down toward the corner while the D comes up the same wall behind him, and the two trade places. It gives us a fresh set of legs on the puck and pulls a checker out of position.
Reading the diagram F3 has the puck on the wall and the red arrow shows him carrying it down toward the corner. The short dashed arrow is the hand-off, and D1 skates up the wall to take the puck over. F3 continues low and takes over the spot D1 just left, so we never end up with four players on one side and an open blue line.
Key ideas It is a trade, not a bonus attacker. The forward always fills the D spot on the way past.
What to look for
- Defence rolls up the same wall behind the puck carrier
- Short hand-off at the hash marks, not a long pass
- Forward drops out and fills the vacated blue-line spot
- Fresh legs attack off the wall
Coaching cues
- Come late and come fast
- Hand it, do not pass it
- Somebody always has the line
- Talk before you go
Common mistakes
- Activating with no exchange, leaving the line wide open
- Arriving too early and clogging the wall
- Hand-off made blind into pressure
- Forward not swinging back to cover
Keep going
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