psulion22

I hate incompetent rink managers. Last night was the third time in the last 3 or 4 years that we had games cancelled because the ice was unplayable. It happens nearly every year at this time because there are camps all day and they run the ice literally down to the floor. There was sand coming through yesterday. The coaches don't care, they just want to push through all the sessions as quick as possible, and don't want to slow down for trivial things like, you know, proper ice maintenance. And the rink managers are so worried about making a couple hundred dollars that they won't cancel non-camp sessions, like private figure skating lessons or classes, to maintain the ice inbetween camp sessions. So the ice was heavily used all day, with no more than simple cuts every hour. Then they didn't tell everyone there an ice problem and adult league teams come and sit there while they tried to fix it. I showed up to my 10:30 game at 10:15 and they were still trying to decide if they were going to cancel the 9 pm game.

Thanks. We'll definetly give a good home to a dog that needs it eventually. This guy was a stray I picked up one day. I know that one will cross my path at a rescue or on the road sooner than later. My dad won't get another though. He still has one and is getting too old to handle 2 dogs. At least it'll be quiet and he'll be able to sleep.

I had to say goodbye to my dog last week. He had cancer in his leg that had spread to his lungs, and other areas. We've been fighting it for a year and a half now, but it got out of control. Eventually he stopped eating, and couldn't stand up anymore. It was time to let him go. I've now lost just about everything I have loved in my life to cancer - my mom, my grandma, my granddad, 3 dogs. I'm so tired of cancer taking things from me too soon. F cancer. And on top of that, we had to put my dad's dog, who I was very close to, to sleep on Tuesday. Not from cancer thankfully, though they think she had cancer in her lungs, but from kidney failure (that makes 2 dogs to kidney failure). 2 dogs in 6 days. And then my fridge stopped working Tuesday also. Not a good week for me.

I can see that. It takes getting used to looking down and kind of backward into your thighs. The thing is the "aerial angle" that I have mentioned. If for none of the mobility and stability components, being further forward over your knees actually has a geometric advantage to making saves. Because the puck almost always originates its travel from on the ice, you gain more coverage, and therefore a bigger advantage by being forward. You're actually taller and cover more net from the "eyes" of the puck. If you can get up and actually over the vertical angle the puck is taking, you become gigantic and make a lot more saves with much less movement. This is part of the new theory in goaltending called "head trajectory" that has helped Dubnyk become the goalie he is now. The idea is that you want to get your head behind and above the angle of the puck. By doing that, your body follows into the shot and you use your biggest part to make saves, and can track the puck in a straight line. In contrast, reaching out away from your body and turning your head to make a glove save, for example, greatly reduces your surface area and causes you to track the puck from your straight vision, to your peripheral, and back to your straight as you turn your head, which can cause blind spots or tracking issues.

LOL!!! As for your evaluation. I definitely think that getting your feet wider apart, and getting your knees bent/back straighter will help. Plus, they are all related in a way. You can't really bend your knees and keep your chest up if your feet are too close together. That would bring your center of gravity way too far backwards and make dropping to the ice just about the most awkward thing ever. The thing about the wider stance is that it naturally brings your torso forward. So when you drop, it's more over your knees and less over your feet. You want that wide feet but close knees kind of thing going on. That will give you a stable base that is in the best position to seal the ice and make down movements. Obviously there are body limitations that you have and can try to work on, even if it means small stretching with your feet apart and knees together while just sitting at your desk.

I'm confused, lol. My post was to rusty_black. Did it come as quoting you on your end (it's him on my end)?

Do you find yourself more confortable playing on the right side of the net than the left? From watching the video, I feel you are a completely different goalie when the puck is to your right. Your stance is better, it's deeper, wider, and more stable. You can post load on that side and also push off the post in a butterfly to the new angle. You also seem more reactive and active. On the other side of the net, you're standing up more, so you aren't getting your feet out and body forward. There's no post load, or down movements. And you seem to just be dropping and praying on any indication of a shot. What I see with your play starts with your ready stance. You're playing a very stand-up style, and I don't know if you mean to. I feel like I'm watching Darren Puppa! lol Get your feet wider apart, maybe even twice as far as they are now. Then bend your knees, bring them together a little, and get your chest up and forward. In other words, don't bend from your back. This will put you in a much more reactive and efficient position. Dropping to the ice will be faster, and it should help you close your 5 hole. You'll also be bigger in the net and have a better "aerial angle" to the puck. There's a lot to work on, but I feel that starting with widening and deepening your stance is the key to the other things. To get square to the puck, you can use reference points on the rink to divide the ice into zones. As the puck moves from one zone to the next, you just move reference points. Here is a good breakdown of how this works. One other thing, and maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but don't lean on the crossbar. It's terrible body language and i feel it causes a lack of focus and concentration. If you're concerned about the mental aspect of working with no goal support, leaning on the crossbar (especially as quickly and often as you do) is only going to hurt with that.

I don't know. I guess responses that you've posted to suggestions that have been put forth. Kind of a "I'm doing well doing things my way, I'm not going to change it". But again, it's the internet, so context is lost. I apologize if i offended you or took your responses the wrong way. That was definitely not my intention. I'd love to help. So here's the key point, I'm glad you said something. Because of the physics of the human body, when you drop your butt down and back, your knees and feet have to be in the same line because your toes have to point straight down. When you say you can't bring your knees together without bringing your feet together, it's because you are dropping your butt back. What you are actually doing is pulling your feet to touch behind you, dropping your butt almost to sitting on your feet, and spreading your knees. Also, loosen your pads. I don't know how tight they are, but loosen them anyway. Make it so they are held on only with whatever elastic there is. Your knees don't have to be touching. Mine don't. It would actually be difficult with pants, knee guards, and thigh rises in there. But you have to be pulling your legs together and keeping your butt forward rather than pulling your feet together. Having a knee stack that is higher than the rest of the pad also takes strain off joints. Maybe look into knee stacks. I coach the goalies at the adult clinic at my local rink. I have seen several with the same issues as you. They almost always come down to pads being too tight and pulling their feet behind and dropping their butt. Those things combined put way too much stress on their hips/knees/ankles and they all complain of lack of flexibility. Here's what to do to try and learn. Next ice you get, even if it's warmups before a game or pick up, or during a stoppage in the other end, drop to your knees. Spread them maybe 6-8" apart, and get your hips forward so you are sitting almost as tall as you can. Then push your feet apart as far as you can. You'll find that you can get them about parallel to your knees, so both 6-8" apart. It will be a very narrow butterfly. But again, it's significantly better and different than what you are doing now by tapping your heels together behind yourself and then sitting on them, and having your knees spread out. I get you don't quite see the difference by taking what we're saying and what you're actually doing. But there is one. Maybe get that GoPro back there se you can see it both ways and compare. The movement problems you are having is because of your weight distribution. The spinning in place when you push is the indicator of that. What's happening is that all of your weight is over your left knee. So, pushing to your right with your left foot works, because that is the proper technique and position. But you literally can't push with your right because your weight is still on your left knee. When you try to lift your leg to engage the blade, you can't because your leg doesn't really bend like that. To get the leg near perpendicular to the ice, you have to have the weight on that side, or at least over center. If it's over the wrong leg, you can't lift the leg up, so you can't engage the blade or get any push. If you do push, the weight over the lead leg causes too much friction and you just spin and grind into the ice. The good thing is that this can be fixed. But focus on your butterfly and getting your hips forward anweight up first. Your back hurts because you are essentially doing crunches every time you drop. You don't have great core strength and your back doesn't have any support. If you think about it, the way you drop and move is forcing your abs and back to tense to support all of your weight and keep it upright. That causes lower back pain if you don't have the strength. Seriously, it's like you're adding a pilates workout to playing goal. Every time you want to move or get up, especially if you have to do it quickly, you have to use your core to get to the position you should be in, then move. That's rough. Go sit on the floor on your knees with your feet touching behind you. Then sit back on your feet. Then lift up so your shoulders are up and your hips are forward. Then sit back down. Then up. Repeat. If you really want to make it fun, go from sitting to upright, then stand up. Repeat that. See how quickly you get tired and your back starts to hurt. Then do it omitting the sitting back and then back up step. You'll see the difference right away. Also contributing to this is that you aren't sticking your edges into the ice for support. It's something we've mentioned before, but you're still doing it, though not as badly. What's happening is that your feet are constatnly sliding on the ice. Your edges aren't engaged into the ice. Watch a video of yourself and see how your feet are just sliding when you are in your stance, especially when you have to make small adjustments like backing in or a player moving laterally. This is also causing you to have to use your core to keep your body upright. You can't use your legs because they aren't stable on the ice. Generally lower back pain is caused by a weak core and abs. You are making your core do wayyyyy too much work, and your back hates you for it. It may look stupid, but when the puck is in the other end, you'd have a little free time to work on small things, like dropping correctly or weight control. Getting open ice is hard, so use every little bit you can get. Another idea would be to use your schedule the best way you can. If it doesn't allow getting to more ice sessions, you can do what you can at home. If you're eating dinner or watching some tv before bed, do it sitting on your knees in the right butterfly position and work on pushing your feet out to increase flexibility. Throw on the pads and just practice dropping correctly or shifting your weight to the push side and lifting that leg on both sides. You don't have to get crazy, but just little repetitive movements like that will help. I know that I had all of these grand plans of going to the gym on a regular basis. But life gets in the way, and honestly I'm lazy. Getting changed and getting to the gym before it closes just doesn't happen by the time i get home and deal with dinner and what not. So I started just doing simple body weight exercizes while I'm watching tv or before bed - push ups, crunches, planks, and other things that I do during intermissions of the playoff games. It isn't ever going to make me look like the Hulk. But I have lost fat in my stomach and added strength and muscle in my core, abs, chest, arms, and back. I'm happy with what I've gained, and the idea that it's simple and can be done in my own time has kept me doing it, where if it was just going to the gym in time (or open ice sessions in yours) I probably wouldn't. And now I get to the gym to do harder work when I can. But I don't feel like I have to in order to actually do anything.

I'm going to say this as gently as possible. In no way am I trying to be mean or disrespectful, so please do not take it that way. I just want to be straight and honest, so hopefully it might help. My impression from your posts on here is of someone who thinks they are much better than they are and doesn't really want anyone else's help. I've stopped offering pointers or critques of your videos because of it. I thought you didn't want to hear them anymore. It may not be how you feel, the loss of context over the internet often causes misinterpretations. Maybe you do it subconsciously. Or maybe you're the kind of person who likes to figure things out on their own. Maybe a combination of these and other things. I can't be sure. You were recptive to the discussion of that puck you missed on the cover, so I know you still want to learn. You definitely have improved, so don;t think you haven't. Your skating and edges are better, as is your control and movements. You had a good understanding of angles to start with. However, when you start at the bottom, you only can go up (and that's a statement that applies to all of us who began playing goal, not that you sucked). You can make large improvements in a short period of time as you figure the big things out. But once that happens, you have to be willing to fix the smaller things to continue to improve. And that's where I think you've hit a snag. You got better quickly, so you felt that you should have kept getting better and haven't. Unfortunately, goalie is a position that relies on the small things. The struggles you are having now are because of the things you haven't improved since you started, mainly your edge control, butterfly, and movements/recoveries. I know you have limitations, and an injury. But I wonder how much is you using those as an excuse or a crutch. The things you need to improve are tough, and will mean a lot of adjustment. When you're improving well, you don't feel the need to worry about them. Now you might. You need to start with your butterfly. I know you have flexibility issues. But I don't believe your struggle is as much with that as you think. Your issue is with instincts and tendencies. Like Tim Tebow and his bad mechanics, when you're in the thick of things and acting instinctually, you revert to bad habits. The biggest problem is that you pull your heels together when you drop down. You drop forward on your knees, bring your feet behind you, and sit your butt back over your feet. This is problematic because it locks you in place on the ice. You can no longer move laterally or get back to your feet without big movements. To move, you essentially have to put yourself into the correct position first. Why not cut that step out?! This is also expending a tremendous amount of energy to do. You're working harder, and getting tired faster. Efficiency is the name of the game with goaltending. You want to make as little extra movement as possible. You really need to focus on pushing your hips forward when you drop, instead of sitting down. Push your hips forward and bring your knees together, not forward. This will bring your feet out and put you into a more mobile position. It may not be a very wide butterfly. Mine isn't either. Even if your feet are straight back and not out at all, that will put your hips and weight in a better position than having them touching behind you like they are now. If you feel tightness with this, loosen up all the straps on the pads. You need to learn to get into a position where your weight is forward over your knees and not back over your feet. That may take practice, strength and flexibility training, coaching, and most likely a combination of that. But once you start, those things will take care of themselves. And i promise you that you will see an improvement in your game. You've hit a wall. To get over it, you have to find the small handholds and work harder. We're here to help you if you're willing to listen.

Passau does custom c/as with different body and arm measurements. But they aren't cheap. Warrior also does hybrid configurations on retail units. You can buy a G2 chesty with different body and arm sizes. Look into those.

Do you go normal or Turco grip? I find it much easier to get leverage and power going Turco because you can wedge the stick in the notch on the bottom of the glove without having to close it all the way. The angle also has a lot to do with it. I had real problems playing the puck with my Gnetik gloves. The angle of the pocket and palm kinf of twisted the glove on the stick and didn't get good leverage. With my G3, I get excellent contact and can flex the stick much easier. The higher angle sets the stick in the notch well, and the ease of clsing the glove gives me a good grip.

I hear you! In those types of situations, i tend to not even bother trying to cover the puck. Too much can happen. I would probably put the puck into the corner or behind the net for my defense to clear. That it would! lol I go boot of the pad all the way inside the post if I have to, or at least toe of the skate inside the post, with the boot of the pad out in front. At least there is something sealing the entire space that way. Maybe you would want to try bringing your skate all the way outside the post? I know it seems a little unconventional, and would depend on the situation. You could even come all the way to where the crease and goal line meet. This would allow you to slide your skate past the goal line to get more of you center behind bad angle shots. It's what old school stand up guys would have done. RVH does require a lot of flexibility to seal all of the post. I guess if you can't do it fully, why bother doing it halfway? Might as well try something else that may be more effective. Just a thought. Regular VH may have worked too. It would have put your skate and thigh rise of the other pad down in the way, and let you cover without reaching. I'm not a big fan of VH because I think it's too rigid and leaves weird little holes. But I do use it sometimes. Yep, I agree. Having your skate over the goal line, whether inside the net or out, would probably have made that an easy cover. Sometimes those slow shufflers are the worst. Theyre too slow to react to instinctually. So you get stuck in that thinking/reacting zone, and end up misreading the puck.

A rule to live by - Always, ALWAYS, get something behind your glove when you cover the puck. Your stick is the best option, but a pad or skate would be ok depending on the situation. But get something there so you're covering it in front of you rather than reaching, and there's backup in case you miss. Also try to get the heel or cuff sealed to the ice in front of the puck, and then cover like a clamshell. At least you'd have a sloid edge to stop the puck. Coming down from the top is asking for trouble, For this goal, you should have been aiming to get your pad down in front of the puck rather than just covering it. Compunding this play was that It looks like your skate was in the wrong place on the post. Your toe and pad should be inside the post, with your pad engaged. This way the puck can't get so far out of your reach. That will keep you from having to pull your skate off the post when you reach to cover. If your toe was inside the post, that puck would have hit you in the boot break when you went down. That would satisfy the rule above, and you'd be covering the puck more in front of you rather than reaching. If it had been going as far behind your skate as it did, it would have hit the side of the net. I'd say that if you're finding yourself reaching for pucks like that, a better option may be to play it out of danger with your stick.

I don't think that's him in the first video. He comes in later, wearing the black Sens jersey and funky shorts.

Superfeet aren't arch supports. They are heel blocks. So if you need additional arch support, you should look into the Graf/Sidas or CCM customizeable footbeds, or even Bauer's Speed Plates (which I have and are incredible).

The idea that all "drills" are designed to to improve one attribute or another - say strength or skill - is ludicrous. Drills are meant to do a lot of things, sometimes individually, sometimes all at once. There are those that are meant to teach and improve technique. The strength and endurance gain from repeating these types of drills would be minimal compared to the improvment in competency or agility. Some are meant to increase endurance, strength, and pace. Many are meant to do both. Drills are done to improve things like awareness, vision, anticipation, or instincts. Strength or endurance aren't going to factor into those types of drills. When it comes down to it, most drills are meant to work on and improve all of these aspects at once. You gain strength and endurance through repetition, just as with any repetitive motion. However, that doesn't mean that those are the primary focus and purpose of all drills. Without instruction of proper technique and an understanding of how to do things, repetition to increase strength and endurance would be difficult. You need to teach people how to do things before they can do them over and over.

No. No it doesn't. It's extra nice because I had a shutout going until 18 seconds left last time we played them. The puck dropped before I was ready on a faceoff in our zone. To add insult to injury, we ended up losing in the shootout. So this one really felt good.

Damn, getting a shutout feels good. It's been a very long time since I got one. Who cares that I probably saw 8 shots all game (I did have to make 3 good saves)? Who cares that I got saved by two posts and a crossbar? I sure as hell don't.

FML. We were winning 1-0 last night with 19 seconds to go. Faceoff in our zone to my right, empty net on the other end. I was getting my wing lined up making sure they were there to get out to the extra attacker who was lined up behind the center high on the circle for the shot. He was their best shooter and needed to be accounted for. As I'm telling the board side wing to switch over and go straight to the shooter no matter where the puck goes, the ref drops the puck. I wasn't ready. The puck gets bounced around and goes right to the wing on the inside hash mark. He takes a backhand swat at it and it loops up, bounces, and goes post in to the far side. If I was set, it's an easy save. But I didn't see what was happening until the puck bounced towards the net. I reached with my stick, but it hopped over. Game tied 1-1. Then the refs screw the pooch in OT. Running clock, and coincidental minors occur. They sort if out and send the guys in the box and their team goes nuts. Their captain just argues and yells, while the clock is running the whole time. Eventually he gets angry, and when my captain goes over to get the game moving, he punches him. Double minor. By the time they get that sorted out, there's less than 2 minutes left in the 5 minute 3v3 OT. We get the 4 on 3 PP for that time but don't score. The refs should have either stopped the clock while they were arguing, or told him to shut up and sit down while the clock was running. To make it worse, for some reason they started the coincidentals from when they went into the box, not when the puck was finally dropped. The result was that the other team's best player who was in the box, came out right away because their captain had argued more than 2 minutes off the clock. The guys literally never served a penalty, they sat inthe box for two minutes while the captain screamed and then came out at the first whistle. This is problematic because after the OT, we go to a shootout. The puck had finally dropped at 1:58 left in OT. That should have meant the coincidentals were still active when it ended. And that would have meant their best player couldn't shoot in the shootout. We lose 2-1 in the shootout on 5 shots. I'm normally money in shootouts. But this time I was awful. Their best player goes first, dekes the hell out of me, but luckily missed the net. That happened later too. I had one that I did read and stop go off the inside of my elbow and in. And the winner I had the whole way. I kept with him and got over quick when he deked, and stopped the puck with my pad. But the puck spun and rolled under me, and trickled 1'2" over the line. On 5 shots, I made 1 save, got beat twice and got lucky, and allowed 2 goals to go through me. Just awful.

There is an absolutely fantastic example of this at the NHL level. Go find the game footage from the Winter Classic between Washington and Chicago a few years back. Jonathan Toews takes a hooking penalty late in the game, and Washington scores the winning goal on the ensuing PP. I'm sure most people remember it. On tv, it looked like possibly the softest call in the history of the NHL. The commentators went off on it. The guys in the studio after the game went off on it. It was a tied game, and it didn't even look like Toews touched the Caps player (I forget who). It was awful, or so most non-Caps fans thought. But what was great was that the NHL had started releasing compilations of refs' helmet cam footage from the week. Go find that footage for the WC, this play is in it. It's a hook, clear as day. It's not even questionable from the ref's viewpoint. But none of could see that perspective. It comes down to what the ref sees, or doesn't see. And like you said, low level refs are often in a position where they don't have the best view of things. Most often, if the ref has an explanation for what he/she saw, and was in the proper position to see it, then it's just a judgement call, oh well. Usually this results in them missing something. Problems happen when the refs start to make calls they did or didn't see because they were out of position, or incorrectly apply the rules to what they did see.

That's always rough. But without seeing it, it's hard to say for sure that it couldn't have been interpreted as you initiating the contact, even though you were defending yourself. It shouldn't matter because he was going to make contact with you, but you got preempted it. In that situation, it's often whoever initiates the contact that gets called, whether right or worng. I've been told that if I didn't want to get called, I should have let him hit me instead of leaning towards him. Some refs also look at that and say his contact was going to be incidental since he was going for the puck, but you intitiated deliberate, avoidable contact on a player without the puck. I've been on both sides of that play, and had it called both ways on each side. I've also been reffing in those situations and called it both ways. Even that is a judgement or discretion call. I don't like when the same thing gets called differently, that's the lack of consistency that causes problems. But I'll give you an example of what else I'm talking about that has seemed to happen several times lately. The defensive team has the puck in their zone breaking out. After the puck crosses the blue line, it hits something - a player, ref, boards, glass, etc - and goes back into the zone where there is still an attacking player. I have seen this called onside several times. Once it cost us a goal in a semi-final game. Another time we got a pretty good scoring chance. This is not onside. For the play to be onside while an attacking player is still in the zone, the defending team must carry or pass the puck back into the zone deliberately. The casebook clearly states that a deflection is not the same as carrying or passing the back back. It's one of the first things you're taught in referee training. But I've had multiple refs see this as it happened (they didn't think the puck had not crossed the blueline) and were adamant it was onside.

Did you get any explanation for this? I'd suspect he was applying the NHL "follow through" rule incorrectly. I'm constantly amazed at how many refs either don't know the rules or apply them incorrectly. And that's not counting those who are lazy, ignorant, incompetent, or just plain a-holes. It seems like every other game I see a ref who is in position and sees the play clearly, and then blows the call. In your case, applies a rule that doesn't exist in adult hockey. In USAHockey, whats the penalty for hitting someone in the face and causing an injury? No, it isn't a double minor like in the NHL, it's a 5 and a game.

Sorry, Chase. At least you know they aren't suffering, and you got to see them before they went. My original statement still stands. F cancer. F cancer hard.

We lost 6-5 last night on a goal that clearly didn't go in. It went post-post-out to the corner. I picked the puck up took two strides and made a headman pass when the whistle blew. The ref, who had only made it to just inside the blueline on the shot, was calling it a goal. He was adamant he saw it cross the goal line, while stadning at the blue line. The other ref skated over and said it didn't look in to her, was he absolutely sure it went in? He said he didn't care what she saw, he was closer so it was his call, and it definitely went in. I felt bad for the girl after the verbal abuse she had to take for it. Shortly after that, eagle eyes had to ask the back ref where the faceoff should be after a shot went cleanly off the crossbar and over the glass. He couldn't tell from 3 feet away that the goalie didn't touch it. Even the league director, who was watching the game, was pointing outside the zone. He couldn't see the puck from 3 feet away, but he could clearly see it go over the line from 60 feet on the other end? After the game I apologized to the girl ref for the abuse she took and that she was having to make up for him. She apologized for us losing on a goal that didn't go in.

With modern larger knee pads and butterfly technique, you need open landing areas. I don't see any way to get that without going knee-to-calf with any straps, even the elastic. Any strap behind the knee across is going to cause binding and lack of rotation. If you are missing the landing gear, you can get smaller knee pads which will allow you to get closer to the front of the pad and on to the gear. I would normally recommend Passau, but since you are smaller, they are going to be too big and cause you the same problems. I would look into either the Bauer 1S or Warrior Ritual X Pro retail guards. Both have a pretty slim profile and are still protective. I have the Sr version of the Ritual X, and I really like it. If it were better cushioned in the landing area, I woud be wearing them over my Passau's. I think the Pro version will address that and also be more protective. You may also consider the strapping system that Monster Hockey sells that goes around your calf. It replaces the knee strap, so you get a much more open knee cradle, but it still keeps your leg in place and the pad in control.