Finishing the Check

[Tarantula]

In the context they (my minor league coaches) used it, it meant body checking. Generally it was with regard to still hitting the guy if he got rid of the puck, if you already had him lined up, or anywhere reasonably close to it.
There seemed to be an unwritten rule that you could hit the guy fairly late if it was clean, not excessive, and the guy getting hit is aware it's coming, similar in some respects to current calls in the NHL, where you see hits regularly, 3 + seconds after the change of possession in some areas of the ice.

That sounds right, that usually was accepted and expected. Speeding up, leaving your feet, and getting a stick up wasn't. Somewhere that crept in. When I played you could square a guy who just passed the puck, even a bit late if he could protect himself. Penalties and problems ocurred when he couldn't. Talking low level midget hockey. Coach always told me to follow through even to just rub him out of the play. You got some grace if the opponent seen it coming. Same thing on the other end. Got hit alot after passing the puck but knew it was coming and if a clean hit no call and didn't expect one, and I got hit a hellva lot more then my slim frame could dish out.

 

[Canadiens1958]

That sounds right, that usually was accepted and expected. Speeding up, leaving your feet, and getting a stick up wasn't. Somewhere that crept in. When I played you could square a guy who just passed the puck, even a bit late if he could protect himself. Penalties and problems ocurred when he couldn't. Talking low level midget hockey. Coach always told me to follow through even to just rub him out of the play. You got some grace if the opponent seen it coming. Same thing on the other end. Got hit alot after passing the puck but knew it was coming and if a clean hit no call and didn't expect one, and I got hit a hellva lot more then my slim frame could dish out.

Curious, were you shown how to mitigate or discourage follow thru hits? How to establish a security perimeter?

 

[BenchBrawl]

Old thread, I agree with the spirit.Hits should be about stopping a player and regaining possession, not ending careers.I'm fine with hits that can hurt, but not those that have a high probability of injuries.There's a difference between distributing pain and distributing injuries.

A good, clean, pain-inducing but injury-free hit with the purpose of regaining possession is way more fun to watch than a dirty hit like Stevens on Lindros.There's nothing fun seeing a player laying on the ice unconscious.What's fun is seeing a player get up in a bit of pain, with a "yeah you got me good there SOB" look on his face, but where it's obvious he's playing the next shift and the war goes on.

 

[Tarantula]

Curious, were you shown how to mitigate or discourage follow thru hits? How to establish a security perimeter?

Not really, small town in SW Ont, mid 70's. Basically brace yourself. We were in the lowest league class, town of 300 at the time.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Passing or shooting you simply finish your pass or shot with the top arm elbow up like Gordie Howe and your stick at a downward diagonal held in both arms. Checker gets directed away from you with a twist guiding him along the shaft.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

here's the first time i heard "finish your check." i was scrimmaging a level up from my non-contact house league and because of numbers i had to fill in on D, which i'd never played before. so every time i outlet the puck a forechecker pushes me into the boards. nothing especially violent about it, more just annoying. a bit of a hold as we're going towards the board and the guy will give me a little shove and press me against the boards for a second before sprinting off.

eventually i ask, what's going on here? and the coach says "they're just finishing their checks." because when you watch on tv, the puck (and the camera) is already long gone before the forechecker finishes his check and you rarely see it.

my understanding is similar to this:

Finishing the check initially meant not getting caught in between once committed to checking, thereby taking yourself out of the play and creating a temporary man disadvantage for your team especially from the standpoint of on ice spacing. Once committed, stay with the man you commited too and your teammaes will adjust accordingly.

with two small additions: when you finish your check you want to "rub out" the other player along the boards to give yourself the jump on him as you both try to rejoin the play.

and you want to make the puck mover feel it every time he passes the puck, so he might think an extra fraction of a second or hesitate before he passes next time. take him out of the zone a little bit, so to speak.