How high-level team practice: Vol. 1

A look at some drills that top-tier teams run in practice.

Normally, this space on Thursday should have been for a Stars-based video study.

Unfortunately, because of how little the NHL cares about preseason games, I only have video footage from one Stars preseason game — a road tilt in Colorado.

It’s both frustrating and fruitless to try and get any read on a team from a road preseason game.

Instead I’m going to pivot today to another video feature that’s been percolating in my head, and I recently floated the idea to subscribers in our chat.

Because of my job, I watch a lot of hockey practice. Beyond lines and injuries, hockey media rarely, if ever, writes about practice.

I think that’s two-fold, it doesn’t fit the algorithm of story generation, and many people don’t care about what’s happening in front of them and are simply biding their time until they can interview players.

But readers at Shap Shots, and I think of us as a nerdier group that wants to learn, at least seem interested in what happens at a high-level practice. We also have some hockey coaches amongst our subscribers, so maybe there’s some practical usage here in sharing drills from elite teams.

So within the past week, here are some drills that stood out to me, which I filmed, from practices for the Detroit Red Wings, Michigan State, and the United States Under-17 national team.