Top 10 thoughts on passing the biscuit:
1. Move the puck quickly. The longer you wait the more difficulty you will have completing the pass. The fore checker is eating your angles, the back checkers are picking up your outlets. MOVE IT NOW!
2. Pass to where your target is going to be not where he is. Every pass does not need to be a bullet. Every pass does not need to be tape to tape. Lead the puck to someone who is moving. Let him skate into the puck, this is an easier pass to receive and he can take it everytime with speed. Speed creates space.
3. Most of your passes should be short. 15-20 feet is all you need. Short passes relieve immediate pressure from the fore check. They create time, space and opportunity.
4. Learn to pass with accuracy on your backhand. It opens up more ice and makes you less predictable.
5. Give and Go. You have moved the puck now do your job and get open. A couple of quick strides is usually all it takes to support your team mate and give him an outlet.
6. Get your priorities straight. 95% of the time when you get puck you should be thinking about WHO you can get the puck to cleanly so your team can control the play. NOT how YOU can skate 85 feet to get a weak ass shot on net with 2 guys draped all over you.
7. Practice your passing as much as you practice shooting.
8. Practice disguising where the puck is going. Don’t telegraph the **** out of your pass! Practice moving the puck from difficult positions. Practice no look passing.
9. Drop passes are ghey unless you are sure they are on the money. Never shoot it back wards inside the blue line. Stop the puck dead and skate past it.
10. Passing is fun. A team of skilled passers beats a team full of danglers every time and it is much less work.
Now get to work!
Just to play devil's advocate....
1) As others have said, sometimes players try to move the puck TOO quickly....unnecessarily forcing passes to teammates before their partner is ready or before the lane is clear. Can't tell you how many horrible turnovers I've seen from defensemen trying to make a perfect 80-foot breakout pass to a moving target even though the puckcarrier has nobody pressuring him and he has 50 feet of open ice to skate and THEN maybe make a pass.
2) Passing to where your target is going to be is a great idea....unless where they're headed is into double coverage. I actually find that wingers not finding open ice and not making themselves available for passes is actually a bigger problem than puck hogs. Often one guy has to do everything because his teammates aren't working to get open.
3) Passes that are short also make it easier for defenders to cover two people.
4) Most intermediate and lower players can barely make or receive a pass accurately on their forehand, much less the backhand.
5) Give and go requires a bit of practice works great with teammates you have an understanding with. Most pickup and rec league hockey games are just whoever shows up on a given day. Hard to effectively work a play that involves talent and timing with a guy you've only seen a few times and know little about.
6) Most rec and even youth traveling teams have a wide disparity of talent on their rosters. Some teams have players that are so good/bad, that is actually easier and less dangerous to have a talented puckcarrier skate thru a pair of defensemen than to try to feed even a perfect uncontested pass to a player with no goals on the season and who frequently trips over their own feet.
7) Practicing passing requires a partner. Shooting does not. For those who have the luxury of open ice or a teammate whom they can do drills with it's great.....but for most everybody else, the only ice time is weekly games or pickup when the focus is the game or the scrimmage, not passing drills.
8 & 9) Here's my observation as a goaltender.....for rec levels upper intermediate and below, if you have an odd-man rush, every pass you make past the offensive blue line is a 20-50% reduction in the effectiveness of the scoring chance. People just aren't that good at making or receiving passes on the rush, under pressure.
Even assuming equal talent in both forwards on a 2-on-1, every talented forward knows how to skate in on goal and shoot. For a breakaway, the scoring odds are about 20-40% depending on the circumstances. For a player to throw a pass across AND get it past the defender AND put the puck on his winger's tape AND have the winger receive it clean without bobbling or missing it AND to have him get off a quality shot on target is asking a lot. The moment that puck gets passed across, I know I've won because I'm just going to take away the lower half of the net and may God help you get it elevated from in tight.....much less complete a return pass. If you can do it, I'll tip my cap....but I know you won't.
I even play in some more advanced rec levels. In the last year, I've been beaten by ONE double-pass on a 2-on-1. Not for lack of trying, for lack of execution. They simply can't do it. Could they be good at it if they worked on it? Sure. But if they were consistently good at it, then they wouldn't be stuck playing rec league hockey. A simple shot is a much higher percentage play, even if double-covered.