The Biggest Misconception In Goaltending

When talking to some coaches, or goalie parents, one of the comments I always hear is my goalie doesn't challenge far enough out. The question is how far is far enough? Is it the top of the crease, just outside of the crease, or further.

The purpose of this article is to address the issue of how far is far enough. It is my goal to show why saying "the goalie has to be far out of his/her net to be successful" is to me, The Biggest Misconception In Goaltending.

I will first start off with the advantages of challenging out.

1)Giving the shooter less to shoot at
2)An easy first save

Those advantages seem pretty good, however there are several disadvantages.

1)More distance to cover when moving laterally or back to the posts
2)More distance to cover when recovering
3)Loss of angles while following the puck

Now by no means am I saying play the entire game on your goalline. There is a happy medium. At 5'10 on a good day my comfort zone was with my toes on the top of the crease line. A bigger goalie can play a lot deeper, however if your smaller I would not advise to go any further then your heels being at the top of the crease.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is depth is not the most important part of making a save. Your body position is (being square to the shooter). If you are square to the puck you will always have a chance to make a save, as it is much easier to get a glove, blocker, pad, slide or dive into a puck when you are square because you are moving in the proper direction, even if you are off angle or on your goalline. A goalie who was successful at this was Felix Potvin. Potvin had excellent reflexes, and was able to play almost on his goalline all game. He was able to make saves because he was square and his reflexes would let him get to the pucks, as he got older and his reflexes slowed, he was not as successful. Again I am not saying stay on your goalline, but first get square.

The next important task after body, is your angle (taking away the centre of the net). When taking away the centre of the net it leaves the shooter with only 3 options (left, right, and 5 hole). With 5 hole being taken away by going into the butterfly, the shooter has the options of left or right, and if you are sqaure as well it is the ability to get a glove or blocker on the puck to make the save.

Finally that takes us to depth, or challenging. Once you have body and angle you may now get your proper depth. I cannot stress enough in depth that the most important thing is when you are about to make a save you must have your feet set. It is almost impossible to make a save laterally (or at least a controlled save) while still moving out to get your depth. I would rather have a goalie set and on the goalline then still moving out. Challenge the shooter to pick a corner, whereas if you are still moving out, pucks will most likely go through you. Obviously if you can get set and be near the top of the crease then do it. Just make sure you have body, angle and you are set first. This is why your movement is so important, the faster you are the better depth you can get.

Here are 3 pictures of 3 different depths. Take a look as there is really not that much difference in the amount of net the shooter can see.

1)Top of the crease

2)Middle of the crease

3)Goalline

As you can see there is not that much difference in room to score. By not being out pass the crease a goalie now has the abilty to have enough time to move laterally if passed accross or back door and also have enough to time recover to a rebound. In goaltending you now must be able to stop 2nd and 3rd shots to be one of the top goalies.

Selected photos courtesy of OHLPhotos.com
Page last modified on April 12, 2007, at 10:29 AM

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