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The short answer
Clip six things from a hockey game: breakouts, neutral-zone play, the forecheck, defensive-zone coverage, special teams, and the goalie’s positioning and rebounds. Eight to twelve clips per game is enough.
Start each clip earlier than feels natural. The goal against is the end of the sequence; the cause is usually a missed read on the breakout, a forward leaving the zone early or a late change, ten or fifteen seconds before the puck went in.
Film sees the whole shift
From the bench you are watching the puck, the clock and the door. You are calling changes, talking to the next line and keeping an eye on the referee, which means most of what the five skaters away from the puck are doing goes unseen. In hockey that is where the game is decided: the weak-side defenseman who drifted, the winger who left the wall before the puck was out, the center who glided instead of skating back.
Film fixes that, and hockey suits it better than its speed suggests. The rink is small and enclosed, so one camera holds every skater. The zones give the game a structure, much like the thirds of a netball court, so a breakout looks like a breakout every time and a broken one stands out. And it repeats: every shift starts from a faceoff or a change, and you get dozens of breakouts, entries and defensive-zone sequences each way in a single game.
The tool that matters most is the slow-motion replay. At full speed a two-on-one against looks like bad luck; at half speed you can see the forward who was caught deep on the forecheck and the change that left nobody back.
This post is about ice hockey. If your hockey is played on turf, the field hockey post is the one you want.
The six things worth clipping
1. Breakouts
The most coachable sequence in the game, because it is structured and it happens constantly. Clip every breakout that failed and two or three that worked, and start the clip as the defenseman goes back for the puck.
What to look for: did the defenseman shoulder-check before retrieving, so they knew where the pressure was? Was the strong-side winger on the wall and ready, or already leaving the zone? Did the center swing low to give a middle option? Most breakout turnovers come down to one of those three, and all three are visible before the first pass is made.
2. The neutral zone
The zone where possession is won and lost without anyone noticing. Clip your zone entries and your regroups.
The question on offense is whether you are carrying the puck in or dumping it in, and whether that was a choice or a habit. Controlled entries create far more chances than dump-ins, so count them. On defense, watch how quickly your forwards get back through the middle, and whether your neutral-zone structure, a 1-2-2 or whatever you play, actually holds its shape when the other team regroups.
3. The forecheck
Clip every forecheck that forced a turnover and every one that got beaten. The first forward’s angle is the start: is F1 taking away the wall and steering the puck carrier into F2, or skating straight at them and getting walked around?
Then watch the third forward. The forecheck that gets beaten most often is the one where F3 joined in deep instead of staying high, and the result is an odd-man rush the other way. That is a fifteen-second chain of cause and effect, and film is the only place a player sees all of it.
4. Defensive-zone coverage
Pause the footage when the puck goes low in your zone and look at the five skaters. Who has the net front? Is the weak-side defenseman between their player and the net? Are the wingers covering the points, or have they collapsed to watch the puck?
Most goals against at club and youth level come from a player watching the puck instead of their player. Clip every goal against and every shot from the slot, and follow the player nobody was covering back to the moment they got free.
5. Special teams
The most structured hockey you will play, and the easiest to review. A game usually gives each team three or four power plays, so clip them all, both ways.
On the power play, separate the entry from the setup. A power play that never gets set up has an entry problem, not a shooting problem. Once set up, whether in an umbrella, a 1-3-1 or an overload, watch the puck movement, the net-front screen and who goes after the rebound. On the penalty kill, watch the shape of the box or diamond, whether the pressure goes when it should, and whether you clear the zone when you win the puck.
6. The goalie
Clip every goal against and every rebound left in the slot. Rebound control, angle and depth, and movement from post to post all show up on film.
Be honest about the limits. A high, wide shot from center ice shows where the goalie was and where the rebound went, not the detail of their edges or their hands. For that, a second camera behind the net is what goalie coaches use. What the wide shot does show well is the other half of every rebound goal: whether your defense cleared the front or watched the puck.
Clip the cause, not the goal
The starter tags in ClipItCoach’s ice hockey set are outcomes: Goal, Shot on Goal, Save, Breakaway, Power Play, Penalty and Fight. They are good for finding moments in a long game, and the wrong thing to coach from, because by the time the puck goes in, the decision that mattered is ten seconds and two zones old.
Add a handful of tags for what you actually coach, like Breakout, Zone entry, Forecheck, D-zone and Line change, and set them to start a few seconds before you press the key. Every clip then already includes the build-up you are going to talk about. Our guide to clipping a game with tags shows how.
The line change tag earns its place. Changes happen on the fly, and a late or careless one is behind a surprising number of odd-man rushes against. Clipping them is how you show a player that the two-on-one started with them heading for the bench.
Then send clips to the players they are about. Groups for your forwards, your defense and your goalies mean the D watch the breakouts and the forwards watch the forecheck, instead of everybody sitting through everything. Hockey often plays twice a weekend, so keep the review short: a few clips on one theme before the next skate. See the twenty-minute film session for how to run it.
What to count across a season
A few simple counts, taken from the film each game, tell you more than any amount of unstructured watching.
| Count | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Clean breakouts | Whether your defense and wingers are connected under pressure |
| Controlled entries versus dump-ins | Whether the neutral zone is giving you possession or giving it away |
| Odd-man rushes against | A forecheck that over-commits or changes that come too late, usually one or the other |
| Shots against from the slot | Whether your defensive-zone coverage protects the net front |
| Power plays that got set up | Whether the power play’s problem is the entry or what happens after it |
| Penalty-kill clears | Whether the kill is getting relief or spending two minutes in its own zone |
Start with odd-man rushes against if you only count one thing. They are easy to spot, they lead straight to goals, and tracing each one back almost always lands on the same two or three habits.
Filming hockey
- Position: center ice, at the red line, as high as the rink allows. The top row of the stands or a mezzanine is ideal. From behind the net the far zone collapses into unreadable depth.
- The glass: shooting through scratched, smudged glass softens everything and catches reflections. Get above it if you can. If you can’t, put the lens flat against a clean patch, which cuts out most of the glare.
- Frame: keep all five skaters in shot, not just the puck. Pan slowly with the play from zone to zone rather than zooming in, because the player you will want to talk about is usually the one away from the puck.
- Light: the white ice can fool a camera into darkening the whole picture, so raise the exposure a little if the players look dark. Keep the shutter fast enough to avoid blur on a fast game, and if dark bands roll across the picture, the rink lights are flickering: try a shutter of 1/120 (1/100 where the power is 50 Hz).
- Cold: rinks drain batteries quickly. Bring a power bank and keep the phone or camera warm between periods.
- Keep it running: record through whistles and line changes rather than stopping and starting. The changes are part of what you will review, and one recording per game uploads as one video.
Our guide to filming your own games covers tripods, phones and settings.
Where drawing helps
Most hockey clips need nothing drawn on them. Three situations where marking up a freeze frame changes the message.
Showing the lane that was open
On a failed breakout, freeze the frame as the defenseman picks up the puck and draw the pass that was on: up the wall, to the center swinging low, or D-to-D. The player sees the option they missed rather than hearing about it.
Marking coverage in your own zone
A ring on the uncovered player in the slot, and an arrow from where the nearest defender was to where they needed to be, turns a goal against into a coverage lesson in ten seconds.
Drawing the penalty-kill shape
Four lines between four penalty killers show whether the box held or got pulled apart, and which player let it happen. See what telestration is for more on drawing tools.
On AI tracking: ClipItCoach’s AI player tracking covers soccer, basketball and rugby. Hockey is a hard case for any tracking system: a small, fast puck, players bunched along the boards and at the net front, and a different five on the ice every forty-five seconds. For hockey, drawing on a freeze frame is the dependable tool, and it works on any footage.
Common questions
What should a hockey coach clip from a game?
Breakouts, neutral-zone entries and regroups, the forecheck, defensive-zone coverage, special teams and the goalie’s rebounds. Eight to twelve clips per game covering one or two themes works better than a long reel. Start each clip at the cause, which is usually ten or fifteen seconds and a zone or two before the goal.
Where should you film an ice hockey game from?
From center ice at the red line, as high as the rink allows, ideally above the glass. Keep all five skaters in frame and pan slowly from zone to zone instead of zooming in on the puck. If you have to film through the glass, put the lens flat against a clean patch to cut out reflections.
How do you review the power play and penalty kill on video?
Clip every power play and penalty kill, both ways. On the power play, separate the zone entry from the setup, because a power play that never gets set up has an entry problem. Once set up, watch the puck movement, the net-front screen and rebounds. On the penalty kill, watch whether the box or diamond held its shape, when the pressure went, and whether you cleared the zone when you won the puck.
Can you film a hockey game on a phone?
Yes. A phone records more than enough quality for team review. Mount it on a small tripod as high as you can at center ice, frame all five skaters, and let it run for the whole game. Rinks are cold and drain batteries quickly, so bring a power bank.
Does AI player tracking work for ice hockey?
ClipItCoach’s AI tracking covers soccer, basketball and rugby. For ice hockey, the drawing tools do the job: they work on any footage and cover what coaches mark up most, like the open passing lane on a breakout, the uncovered player in the slot and the shape of the penalty kill.