Quick Thoughts on Zone 5

Zone 5 covers the high slot area of the hockey offensive zone. It starts at a 45-foot radius at the end of the slot area/Zone 3. It extends to a 65 foot radius. Zone 5 represents outside point shots most often taken by defensemen or sometimes when a forward gets bottled up just inside the blue line on a rush and wants to use the defensive defensman as a screen to take a slapshot. The primary focus of any shot is to score, but a shot from this outside area more often than not creates a chance for a deflection or a second opportunity in a rebound. A hockey player in this zone will have bodies and other obstacles to navigate the puck through. This causes the goaltender to lose sight of the puck for a better chance of scoring but also could be blocked for an odd-man rush coming back at you. There is less body mass to hit when a player shoots low and more importantly if it fails to go in, a rebound is created for teammates around the net.