Stealing the puck

I'm all for a good poke now and then, but based on your drawing Sven it looks like you are recommending the French Manuever (based on the French CD) of coming in under the guy's hand and not hitting it legally. Perhaps I am looking at this wrong so, assuming I am, could you please explain how the defender coming in from behind the offense can legally hit the puck while his stick is under the offense's wrist.

I see the best play as coming around the Offense's glove and poking the puck with the tip of your stick out to the arrow for your other defender to just swim away with it.

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The defending Goalie would also have to swim to his right after taking the puck. Swimming to the left with that player in the way creates a shepherd foul unless the guy swimming backwards magically gets out of the way.

No its not.
You can't expect a guy to get in a blick away after playing the puck. So its not a obstruction/shepherd. It is only that when he is staying un purpose between them, not for playing the puck but for ubstruction.

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I don't know about that. Definitely there must be an intent for a shepherd to take place, but that intent could be considered in this case to come from the goalie who chooses to swim to the left because his player is blocking that side. Its a bit like running around behind your decoy runners in rugby. The decoys aren't shepherding until you run behind them.

Is not a decoy. Its a player who poked the puck to the defender. And in a splitt second the defender swims to a side. You cant expext that a player is after a move/poke in a blink away. SO there is not an atent to obstruckt. Only a player that has done a action and can't be away in a blinck.

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Intent has nothing to do with the rule. Depending on the situation and the ref it may come into play, but accidental obstruction is still obstruction, like Nicky pointed out it may not be the fault of the first person but when his teammate uses him as a sheild the obstruction takes place.

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I have to politely disagree, Sven. If we look at your diagram and the goalie takes the left hand side option he will immediately create a shepard situation by placing his colleague's body in such a place as to obstruct the attacking opposition player from access to the puck and the ability to attempt a tackle.

It would be a grey area if the Goalie chose to swim left but at an angle parallel to the goal tray (i.e. 90 degs to where he is facing now). Taking the puck back into 'the ****' as you drew it felt funny to me. As a player I instinctively wouldn't take either of the options suggested in your diagram . I would probably swim 90 degrees or less to the right side. This would keep me out of the horde of advancing players (that should be coming with the attacking forward) and also allow me to keep my body between the attacking horde and the puck (I'm a rightie- Nicky might take the opposite option because he's a lefty).

As a ref I would call a left sided dummy in the way you drew it a shepherd if the attacking player made any effort to retrieve the puck and was impeded by the retreating defensive player. Intentionally or not the Goalie will have created a shepherd and it sounds like at least Nicky and Tuck agree.

yeah nicky's right, it would be a sheperd on the part of the player receiving the puck, doesnt matter what the intentions are of the other chasing tackler.

a ref might call it if they see unfair advantage but i very much doubt it, it'd probably just be play on... easiest way for the receiving tackler to take it is to take the puck as it's offered on a plate and let the forward come on, then turn and go to the left in the diagram... then he's turning on both players and i doubt there'd be a sheperd at all.

but realistically of course he'd probably hare away to the right and the space, he'd (she'd) be mad not to... i don't see any opposition drawn there.

this type of move is used very often but hardly ever like this... far more realistic to position the lastman/goalie player facing back towards their own bin like the other two, with the puck at their hips... chasing tackler knocks it off the forwards stick to make the cleanup easier for their mate.

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it's more polite on the grating than on the subs bench

I'm no cack hander... I swerve to the left like all good normal folk

I go were there are no opponents..the easyest way.

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