Penalty Kill Defensive Zone: Diamond

The idea

The Diamond is the answer to a 1-3-1 power play. A standard box leaves the bumper — the skater sitting in the middle of the ice — completely uncovered. Rotating the box onto its point puts one killer high on the puck, two on the flanks, and one right on the bumper in front of the net.

Reading the diagram

The net we are defending is at the top of the board and the blue line is at the bottom.

F1 is the top of the diamond, closest to the blue line, and he pressures the puck at the point. The dashed arrows show him rotating to either side depending on which point man has the puck. D1 and F2 are the flanks on the tops of the circles, and the solid arrows show them stepping out to the half walls. D2 sits highest on the board, in the middle in front of our net, covering the bumper and the net front.

The whole diamond rotates around its middle. When the puck goes half wall to point, the flank on that side becomes the pressure man and the top man drops.

Why it works

The Diamond takes away the seam pass to the bumper, which is where the 1-3-1 wants to score from. The trade-off is a soft weak-side flank — so the rotation has to be quick.