A decade ago, former NHL netminder Steve Valiquette introduced the concept of the “Royal Road.” The hockey world instantly took notice because of the eye-popping metrics he provided.
Tracking NHL goals during the 2014-15 season, Valiquette noticed emerging trends, including pucks moving across his Royal Road immediately preceding a shot increases shooters’ scoring opportunity by over 10 times.
“When you see numbers like that, it’s so overwhelming,” said Chris Brown, Associate Head Coach at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “You see those numbers and you say, ‘We’ve got to find ways, whether it’s on the line rush or offensive zone play, to change halves of the ice.’”
So, what is this magical motorway that takes players offensive chances from 0 to 60 faster than a Corvette?
Defining the Royal Road
Simply put, the Royal Road is an imaginary line that goes directly through the middle of the ice, cutting the rink in half, from one net to the other. So, when talking about creating scoring chances in the offensive zone, pucks moving from one side of the ice (strong side) to the other (weak side) cross the Royal Road.
“Defenses nowadays are so good at shutting down plays on the strong side, whether it’s getting pins on the wall or getting sticks in lanes,” Brown said.
At the upper levels, pro and college, he said it’s just hard to even get pucks through on net from the strong side.
“If you can get it to the weak side, everybody’s got to shift and there’s more lanes for shots and passes to be made,” Brown added. “The way teams defend – even at the junior and high school level – there are so many bodies on the strong side of the ice it’s hard to create offense.”
How Using the Royal Road Increases Chances
It makes sense that puck movement in the offensive zone increases quality scoring chances, but how is moving across the Royal Road so impactful?
“It's effective because all coverage has to shit to defend,” said Brown. “Especially for the goalie to have to move all the way across, which opens more holes to score or create second chance opportunities as it is more difficult to control rebounds.”
Thanks to coaching and improved overall athleticism, goalies are increasingly tougher to beat – especially if they have their feet set and are out challenging a shooter. Moving the puck across the Royal Road helps remove those advantages.
“If the puck is kept on one half of the rink and the goalie doesn’t have to move, the percentage of him saving the puck is so much greater than when he has to move laterally,” Brown added. “By moving the puck across the Royal Road, they have to move so much and they have to read the play. If he over pushes or is slow to get post to post, that’s the way you beat them.”
Paving the Royal Road in Practice
To visually display the Royal Road, coaches can draw a dividing line down the middle of the playing surface and small area games that encourage passes across the Royal Road will help teach players this concept.
The Flank and Pearl 4 v. 2 games in both the neutral and offensive zones can initiate using the Royal Road on an odd man rush and on the power play.
On an odd man rush, the Royal Road concept should encourage players to middle-lane drive and the puck carrier to make a pass across the slot line.
“The puck carrier has more options at their disposal but needs to learn to read the coverage quickly in order to know which play is most effective,” Brown said of the middle lane drive. “[The puck carrier] must execute passing so it’s good for team play concepts as opposed to individual hockey.”
Using the Royal Road in power play simulations can be especially effective.
“When you change halves like that a lot of time the goalie is moving, you don’t even need a screen or tip to score because the net is open. We scored a power play goal with no screen and no tip because the puck was moved tape-to-tape, forehand-to-forehand and the kid shot a one-timer and it hit the middle bar,” Brown said.
For players at 14U and up, Brown gave an example of a game he uses at the college level, 4v4 slider. Move the nets to defensive zone faceoff dots on opposite sides of the rink. The “sliders” are on the wall on the defensive half of the ice and cannot be defended. Once the puck crosses the red line and enters the defensive half of the ice, the team creating the turnover has to pass to their slider to initiate the offense at the other end of the rink.
“Offensively, trying to create numbers in transition and because of where the nets are positioned there is more room to generate on the wide side,” Brown said. “So, it encourages pucks to be moved across the slot line.”
Source: usahockey.com