Goaltending basics resources

[MyBoxersSayJoe 132]

Through graduation and losing players to travel, our team manager is now our backup goalie. He's learning to skate and goalie on the fly.  Does anyone know what the best resources are for goaltending basics so I can either help him out or he can absorb the material on his own?  Youtube, websites, social media?

[IPv6Freely 2090]

Some good info in the OG "starting goalie as an adult" thread here: 

Some of it is going to be outdated now (leather straps and skate cowlings are dead). 

Maria Mountain is a good resource for everything related to the body - stretching, warmups, etc. https://www.youtube.com/@goalietraining

There was also a DVD series I bought when I first started. Its a bit old but still covers fundamentals pretty well. I ripped it because I dont have a DVD player: 

 

 

Finally, I'd HIGHLY recommend using a gopro behind the net. If you're not gonna have a coach, it will help you be able to see what you do wrong, mistakes, angles being off, etc. 

[IPv6Freely 2090]

Also I just want to say how jealous I am that your team has somebody who can fill in... 

[shooter27 116]

Weird question for everyone.  I heard someone talking about Flex Potvin on a podcast recently and it reminded me that when he first came into the league he held his glove in an odd way.  When he first game in he held his glove with the palm facing up towards the ceiling, sometimes even back towards himself (see the pictures below).  Anyone know why he did this? Or if there were any advantages of that?

[IPv6Freely 2090]

3 hours ago, shooter27 said:

Weird question for everyone.  I heard someone talking about Flex Potvin on a podcast recently and it reminded me that when he first came into the league he held his glove in an odd way.  When he first game in he held his glove with the palm facing up towards the ceiling, sometimes even back towards himself (see the pictures below).  Anyone know why he did this? Or if there were any advantages of that?

Heh, I wouldn't say theres any advantage to it. It's just like Hasek - you'd never teach it, but it worked for them. Having your glove up and open to the shooter was pretty rare back then.

[Giltis 116]

On 5/12/2024 at 5:57 PM, shooter27 said:

Weird question for everyone.  I heard someone talking about Flex Potvin on a podcast recently and it reminded me that when he first came into the league he held his glove in an odd way.  When he first game in he held his glove with the palm facing up towards the ceiling, sometimes even back towards himself (see the pictures below).  Anyone know why he did this? Or if there were any advantages of that?

One explanation that I heard was that the gloves back then were very oversized, heavy, and didn't have any internal strappings. So if you were to keep it flexed back like how you are supposed to now it would slowly creep out of position and because the gloves were heavy it wasn't comfortable to do so anyway.

 

[shooter27 116]

Another question from a non-goaltender.  We all have seen how popular the RVH has become and we've also all heard the debate about its usage given the fact that it has created opportunities for high short-side or bank shot goals that we never would've seen back in the days when goalies stood upright against the post.  To me, those goals are bad goals and they are the result of faulty usage of the technique. But, I've seen comments from multiple NHL goalies saying that those goals are "not on us." So my question is this: Does the advantage gained from the RVH - namely the ability to push across and react to the cross-ice pass better - outweigh the risk associated with opening up those short-side opportunities?

As a non-goalie my gut says no.  It seems to me that whatever advantage you gain from being in the RVH vs. standing up against the post (or using the basic VH) will save fewer goals than you'll let up on those short-side shots - especially when accounting for how deflating those goals against are to the team.  That being said, I'm totally open to hearing from the goalies here as to why I'm wrong on the topic.

[IPv6Freely 2090]

2 hours ago, shooter27 said:

Another question from a non-goaltender.  We all have seen how popular the RVH has become and we've also all heard the debate about its usage given the fact that it has created opportunities for high short-side or bank shot goals that we never would've seen back in the days when goalies stood upright against the post.  To me, those goals are bad goals and they are the result of faulty usage of the technique. But, I've seen comments from multiple NHL goalies saying that those goals are "not on us." So my question is this: Does the advantage gained from the RVH - namely the ability to push across and react to the cross-ice pass better - outweigh the risk associated with opening up those short-side opportunities?

As a non-goalie my gut says no.  It seems to me that whatever advantage you gain from being in the RVH vs. standing up against the post (or using the basic VH) will save fewer goals than you'll let up on those short-side shots - especially when accounting for how deflating those goals against are to the team.  That being said, I'm totally open to hearing from the goalies here as to why I'm wrong on the topic.

Yes, it does. The gap you're leaving above the shoulder, especially at the height of an NHL goalie, is miniscule. If they can hit that spot, they were hitting it in VH or even just at a full stance regardless. For any other short side goal that goes in, it doesn't matter whether you're RVH, VH, or standing up. If you're not against your post, you're not against your post.

There's two nonsense issues with RVH and a couple legitimate ones. First, you get non-goalies (or old-school goalies) on TV blaming goals on RVH. Second, you get those same people on TV saying stupid things like "he went down early" as if he was supposed to wait until the shot was on its way to drop into RVH. As for legit issues, there are certainly goalies who overuse it. Also some guys fail to seal the post with it.

The other issue with using VH or standing up is that your ability to cover a puck is basically zero. At that point you're pretty much depending on somebody to clear it. Imagine a shot coming in and hitting you while you're in either of those positions, and the amount of movement and re-positioning it would take to cover the rebound in the crease. Now consider how quickly you can move from RVH to cover since you're basically into a standard butterfly once you move away from the post.

To your last point, goalies aren't ever going to concern themselves with a save selection based on how deflating a goal might be if it doesn't work out. They're going to make their save selection based on what gives them the best chance to stop the puck - period. 

[Hills 710]

I am going to ad to this... RVH has become a social media queen. Super easy to get views and engagement on it while also very easy to always call out the flaws of when something goes wrong.

When goalies get beat up high while in the butterfly, we don't have clips or analysts saying the butterfly is overused and the wrong play. They acknowledge a mistake was made or the shooter made a great play.

Goalies make mistakes, there are certainly mistakes being made with the RVH and goalies are coming off their post too much. But hockey is extremely quick and decisions have to be made fast, sometimes a mistake is made and it is easier to blame the goalie on a save selection than why a player had 3 seconds of free time at the bottom of the circle.

These analysts and accounts are also not showing all of the saves the RVH IS making. Whether it be a controlled rebound, or better coverage to the slot. You only get the lowlights.

RVH is an excellent save selection and play, it has a time and a place but right now it has all eyes on it for easy content and it is REALLY easy to blame.