Start and Stop Speed Drills

The pace and skill of attacking forwards has never been greater in hockey and as we’re seeing through two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the focus is increasingly on using that speed to create lateral plays – and chaos – directly in front of the net, below the hash marks.

All of which makes this the perfect time to share a two-part drill we saw Vancouver Canucks goaltending development coach Marko Torenius working on with Spencer Martin and Arturs Silovs in AHL Abbotsford late in the season. It’s a drill that Torenius, a Finnish goalie coach who spent eight seasons with SKA St. Petersburg in Russia’s KHL before coming over to North America this season, said he learned from Canucks goalie coach Ian Clark.

“It’s a really good speed drill that stresses your starts and stops and forces you to have fast eyes and good, fast rotations,” Torenius said. “We do it to support our on-ice movements. You have to get your eyes faster, you have to get good stops, you have to get good rotations in close.”