Goalie mentality

[Utterkaos94 11]

I had to fill in for goalie last night for my team in a league game. It was the first time I had ever played goalie, and unfortunately we lost 5-4. The whole mentality of it is so taxing. All I can think about now is all of the stuff I should have done. I felt like I let my team down and now making the playoffs isn't a sure thing. My team was really nice about it, and told me good job, but it still is a sucky feeling. How do you guys do it?

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I find it calming. No time to get upset or stew on the bench like I have as a player.

Seriously though losing by 1 goal in your first time in net, nobody can really complain about that. It gets better. I was embarrassingly bad my first time out.

[YesLanges 127]

It's totally understandable psychologically. No matter how many mistakes the rest of us make, they almost never result directly in a goal against unless we actually put it in our own net or get stripped in front of an empty net. Conversely, every one that gets past you is something you might consider your fault, unless you're under a pile of bodies or something at the time. We might lie awake over whiffing on a wide-open net, but even that isn't comparable to being directly responsible for a goal against. It's a tough gig because we almost always get bailed out, even after our worst mistakes, often by you. Your mistakes usually change the scoreboard. In truth, we all know the difference between a good goal and a bad goal and nobody faults you for getting beat on a good goal. Most of us also understand that even bad goals happen to great goalies sometimes and that you feel worse about it than anybody.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

In truth, we know the difference between a good goal and a bad goal and nobody faults you for getting beat on a good goal. Most of us also understand that even bad goal happen to great goalies sometimes and that you feel worse about it than anybody.

Can definitely tell the good from the bad goals. When playing pickup, I only count the number of goals I should have had in my head. The good shots, good dekes, or good tips all get ignored, in my head at least. Of course I still try to think about how I should have better approached the play, but I'm not going to beat myself up over getting beat by an amazing shot.

[Utterkaos94 11]

Can definitely tell the good from the bad goals. When playing pickup, I only count the number of goals I should have had in my head. The good shots, good dekes, or good tips all get ignored, in my head at least. Of course I still try to think about how I should have better approached the play, but I'm not going to beat myself up over getting beat by an amazing shot.

Yeah, there were a couple of times when I had a 3 or 4 on 1 against me, so I didn't have much of a chance with those.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Yeah, there were a couple of times when I had a 3 or 4 on 1 against me, so I didn't have much of a chance with those.

Yep, don't ever feel bad about those. There's only so much you can do. Stop the initial shot if it comes and hope your D gets back to take the rebound or the pass recipient. Battle hard, but don't beat yourself up if they score.

[badger_14 601]

Get hit in the head enough and your short term memory fries, so you don't have to remember the ones that get past you.

Er. Well, on the one hand, I do get frustrated when stupid goals (aka all goals) get past me. On the other, I refocus the anger into "I don't want him/her to score on me again". And since I'm still very new to goaltending, on foot or skates, I can mostly consider every goal a learning experience - yes, I missed that one, but I know what I should've done, and I can handle it the next time. It helps that for the most part I have only ever played pickup with no score being kept - I know what I let past, but it's not up there in glowing foot-high numbers to shame me. If I get really flustered, I try and focus on just one thing I can do, even if that one thing is just 'watch the puck, follow the puck'.

And then I have games like last week where I had new goalie skates for the first time, and I felt like a concrete block out there, and I did feel despair.

[chk hrd 164]

The post should be titled "Goalies are Mental"....

[YesLanges 127]

Check this out: Our 50+ division has 4 teams. It's a no-nonsense group of guys and since the core group of about 60 are all the same guys who've rotated twice a year (spring/summer and fall/winter) and played with and against one another in other divisions for years, everybody pretty much knows one another and everybody who's been playing for more than a couple of cycles has been on the same team as almost everybody else at one time or another. The skill level ranges from guys who played junior and some college hockey to guys who started skating as adults relatively recently and who could really use a lot of work on their skating. Generally, comparable lines are on the ice roughly at the same time and in my first 30 games or so, I've never heard a single guy give anybody else on his team a hard time about anything. The better players sometimes give constructive criticism to the weaker guys and nobody on either end of it ever has an attitude. With one major exception.

Two of the goalies are great, one's not good, and one's just absolutely atrocious despite having played for more than a decade. He has no idea how to come out of the net to challenge shooters or cut down angles. He can't play the puck at all. He has exactly ONE move that he does every single time he faces a shooter: namely, he flops to his knees with his skates directly behind him so his pads don't cover an inch of net to his sides. He might as well wear volleyball knee pads for all the use he gets out of his $1,000+ leg pads. Last winter, his team played great all season but finished in last place, strictly because of him. This season, he's my goalie and we're .500, mainly because we got lucky a few times and because we won the games where he was out and we had a real goalie fill in. Nobody has ever blamed him for anything, or criticized him, or treated him any differently from anybody else. The worse he plays, the more vocal he gets about blaming everybody else for his incredibly bad goals, even when the play was mostly in the offensive zone but someone happened to get a shot on him when the play turned back the other way and nobody on our team contributed to the goal against him.

Last Sunday, we happened to be very short and it was most of our best guys who were out. The other team had a full bench and all of their best guys. By the third period, we were down like 8-3 when he lets in a super-soft goal and then shouts "Thanks guys!!" toward our bench. A couple of goals against later and he just stops playing, stands up straight leaning his elbows on the crossbar and just lets them score anytime they get off a shot. Basically, the guy's so delusional that he seems to think he's making a "statement" about being let down by his team's play and that if he doesn't try nobody will notice he's a total sieve. He did this when the play was evenly back and forth, more in their end than in ours, and after we had 3 or 4 good shots in the shift before the play turned back his way. The final score was 12-3 and I can honestly say that I don't think they scored a single good goal...pretty much all soft shots that any goalie with basic skills would probably have been able to stop. The last time we played this team we had a replacement goalie and beat them.

Previously, I'd asked other guys what his story is and whether he's coachable and whether he can benefit from constructive criticism. The reaction's always been the same: rolling eyes, shaking heads, and someone saying "that will only make him angrier." People kind of walk on eggshells around him. I don't get that. My fuse has been lit for this idiot since the first time I heard him curse out one of the slower guys for one of his usual soft goals more than a month ago. So, the other night after he stopped playing, I let him have it from the bench and as soon as I got back on the ice for my next shift: Basically, I told him the truth: he's a classless f--- who's nothing but a handicap to any team that's stuck with him and he needs to just play his best and STFU. I have to admit it felt good to finally respond appropriately to his nonsense and, trust me, there's no chance he could play any worse tomorrow because of it even he wanted to. If I'd gotten the puck near our blue line in the last 30 seconds I was going to wheel around and aim right for his mask while he was standing against the crossbar doing his statue routine. I don't have a view of him from where I sit in the L-shaped dressing room (luckily), but from what I understand, he just sat there drinking a beer "with" everybody else afterwards as though nothing happened.
In my opinion, somebody should have set this fool straight a very long time ago instead of pussyfooting around him after the first time he had the stones to criticize anybody else for his horrible goaltending. I only hope he reads this forum.

[Utterkaos94 11]

Haha, thanks for the post (and good grammar). Made me laugh. Sounds like somebody should have told off this guy a long time ago.

[MThockeydad 469]

I play in a similar league. Fortunately 99% of the players and all the goalies are cool. Some goalies are dead consistent, some have on and off days. One guy is mellow with a win, but seems flat suicidal if the team loses, even though nobody blames him. haha. Good on you for losing your shit on him, YesLanges. It's a game. Everyone should be playing to the best of their ability, and we're all heading to work in the morning, not NHL training camp.

I strapped on pads for a rookie game in February. I think I can sum up the mentality: "Ehrmehgerd, I'm bored. So bored. Just standing down here by myse....OH SHIT! SHIT-SHIT-SHIT! THEY'RE ON A BREAKAWAY. IT'S 3 ON 1. COME ON, SOMEBODY BACKCHECK! OH SHIT! SHOOTING! SHIT! REBOUND, SOMEBODY CLEAR THE FAWKING PUCK!...There they go. I'm bored. So bored..."

You goalies are goofy. Great people. Love you. But still goofy to like that sheer boredom interspersed with abject terror.

[Thinkingjack 51]

i know the feeling about boredom, but also hate the feeling of it too.

I think my best game was a few montsh ago, last i played, subbed for a friends team in the playoffs, unfortunately we lost 3-2, but they never left my zone, so it was save after save for the entire time. two of their goals came from two guys bumping into me and knocking me over as the puck was being shot and the third was just a clean beautiful shot that was much better than i was.

i know i lost but dammit, that was such a good game i wish all my games were like that, just non stop action for me.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I prefer more action. If the puck is outside of my end for longer than it takes to get a quick breather and rest my feet (I kind of crouch and sit on my heels and wiggle my toes) I get bored, and that's when I lose focus and let bad goals in. I played a game a few months ago where we were winning 4-1 going into the 3rd period and I had a .000 SV% thanks to boredom.

That's also the only time I get the "oh crap oh crap" nervousness when they come into our end; if I've been sitting there doing nothing for a while. If it's back and forth or even if they're dominating, there's no nervousness at all. I'm "just doing my job" at that point.

It's amazing how the mentality can shift so much all depending on circumstances.

[badger_14 601]

It's why I like playing on the small ice, 4v4 - much faster, constantly shifting possession, lots of passing to confuse me, rebounds everywhere. Playing 5v5 on regular-size ice is so much different - long stretches of boredom interspersed with breakaways and 2 or 3 on 1s. The 4v4 group I play with seems to be unusual with the amount of passing they do, probably because they know each other well. Most pickups it's like oh, look, a breakaway. Oh, look, it's you again. Yep. Well let's hope you don't score on me aga - aw, dammit.

Of course, long stretches of boredom punctuated by periods of sheer insanity are also a lot like EMS sometimes.

[JoeyJ0506 192]

I strapped on pads for a rookie game in February. I think I can sum up the mentality: "Ehrmehgerd, I'm bored. So bored. Just standing down here by myse....OH SHIT! SHIT-SHIT-SHIT! THEY'RE ON A BREAKAWAY. IT'S 3 ON 1. COME ON, SOMEBODY BACKCHECK! OH SHIT! SHOOTING! SHIT! REBOUND, SOMEBODY CLEAR THE FAWKING PUCK!...There they go. I'm bored. So bored..."

Laughed out loud so hard at work that someone poked their head into my office to ask if I was going to be okay... Well played.

[JAG 20]

Dude, you can't be upset for losing 5-4 in your first game as a goalie. And your team should buy your beers for a few weeks for just stepping up and doing it. Playing goalie is NOT easy. People who don't play hockey, and even some people who do, think its an easy position. it is not. The fact that you held your team in there for the whole game is downright impressive. Don't let it beat you up. Get back out there and win the next one...whether in net or not.

[BenderHockey 127]

Yeah, I get bored as well. The more shots I get, the better I am as the game goes along.

The scariest part isn't the shot coming at me, it's the (lack of) Defense in front of me.

[chippa13 1844]

http://www.abebooks.com/COMPLETE-HANDBOOK-PRO-HOCKEY-1979-EDITION/1272116923/bd

Check out the third headline on the cover of this edition.

[greyraven8 9]

delete post.