Brock Faber: Weight Shift off Inside Edge
When Brock Faber was around 12 years old, he was still playing forward. It wasn’t until a little bit after that where he moved positionally back to defense via his dad and one of his coaches in his younger years. When you think about the transition, Faber’s rise to success, and how well he’s done defensively in the league throughout his time with the NTDP, college, and then now in Minnesota, it’s amazing to think about it.
When you look at Faber’s game today in the NHL, where it’s his first time being a power play quarterback full time, his offensive ability has continued to expand, and the deception within his offensive game has also continued to get better, playing forward definitely helped his game grow offensively.
Last night against Dallas in 3v3 OT, Faber was on the ice to start right away, and would end up ending the game within a minute of OT.
The entry play scenario starts with Matthew Boldy entering the O Zone and using a cutback near the half wall to wait for layers to come with him into the zone. Boldy pivots, and Faber is entering the O Zone through the middle of the ice, leverages a weight shift off his inside edge and a full stride to accelerate away from D1. This is really important, because that stride and extension off that inside edge propels him to the outside, where Faber now has an open shot lane if he chose to shoot.
Faber opts to not shoot, and instead wheels around the net, and leveraging his inside edge once again, wraps the puck around and scores on the wraparound attempt. The most efficient way to do a wraparound is make sure the puck is above the goal line before the player’s feet, where Faber does a great job doing that and not allowing the goalie to get set up across the crease.
The inside edge work from Faber allows him to maintain that acceleration through the initial stride, and then allows him to maintain the acceleration through his wraparound attempt coming around the net. Faber did a terrific job of having the awareness to first recognize the situation, but then to also use his instincts to get around the pressure with confidence. He didn’t panic under pressure and instead opted to problem solve with the puck, which worked out in his favor really well for the OT winner for Minnesota.