Zone entry and the Active Defenseman

by Brett Smith

You hear it all the time -- "We need to activate our d-men" -- but what does it mean?

In the context of a zone entry, an active defensemen joins the rush helping the forwards break into the zone and set-up possession. The active defensiveman is another key on the carabiner that could unlock the opposition lockbox.

With NHL teams now typically sitting in a 1-4 or 2-3 defensive crouch, the on-rushing team has to be more creative than ever when it comes to incisively slicing though a blue line stacked with players. Enter the 'active defenseman'.

In this zone entry, the defenseman first allows a puck carrier ahead of him to leak to one side of the ice - drawing coverage. Once coverage is drawn the defenseman charges up the off-wing and ideally is hit in-stride with a cross ice pass.

Watch below as Gaustad breaks out of his zone, draws coverage and then slides a cross ice pass over to an on-rushing Roman Josi. The Active-D breakout works perfect and a set up pass to Eric Nystrom ends up in the back of the net.



In this Senators zone entry, the puck is sent to an on-rushing Cody Ceci who looks to take advantage of both teams making shift changes.


Finally, here's a variation on the same theme. Watch as the breaking forward swings a pass back to Seth Jones. The big D-man then completes a little give-and-go, spotting the same forward waiting at the blue line.


Timing is everything when it comes to activating a defenseman, and forwards aren't going to pause an odd-man rush just to send a cross-ice pass to a trailing defenseman. However, if the Sabres appear to be having trouble entering the offensive zone - you may want to pay attention to how effectively then defensemen are joining the rush.