Help Your Goaltenders Take Pride In All The Little Things They Do. By Joe Bertagna

Help your Goaltenders Take Pride In  All The Little Things They Do
By Joe Bertagna

Ask a goalie parent how his or her child did after a game, and invariably you get a response that reduces the goalie’s effort to a statistical comparison of saves and goals.

“He had a good game. He must have made about 30 saves and only allowed two goals.”

Ask the same parent how Johnnie’s or Janie’s season is going and you may find yourself again processing a sea of statistics.

“She has a goals-against average under two, and her save percentage is .938,” boasts the proud parent.

Closely observe a typical practice, or ask a coach how he integrates his goalies into practice, and you’ll find that “goalie time” equals shooting drills. The message is clear: your job is to stop pucks. Your dedicated “goalie time” will be spent practicing stopping pucks.

All of this makes perfect sense. Of all the tasks that fall to the goalkeeper, nothing is as important as keeping the puck out of the net. The bulk of the goalie’s attention, and the coach’s, should be directed toward making sure the team’s netminders are developing individual puck-stopping skills and fine-tuning strategies for specific game situations (deflections, wraparounds, screens, breakaways, etc.).

There is a hidden danger in reducing the goalie’s focus to the saves/goals relationship or, more specifically, to the “stats” of saves and goals against. A goalie’s self worth is then tied to his or her statistics. And game to game, or as a season develops, too much focus on traditional goalie statistics or numbers can make it more difficult for a goalie to feel good about a given game or how the season as a whole is unfolding.

This can be particularly true for a goalie on a team that does not give up many shots. When a team wins 6-2 and the goalie only faces nine shots, he can easily feel that he had little to do with that day’s victory.

There will always be the dynamic of assessing one’s game in relationship to the number of goals allowed, type of goals allowed, and the day’s workload. But coaches can improve the effects of the goalie’s self-analysis by broadening the areas of performance that they want the goalie to analyze.

Let’s look at some specifics:
• You have been working with the goalie to come out of the net a little more or perhaps minimize his tendency to “drift” back from an appropriately aggressive position. Or maybe you have been making him aware of specific situations where a shot is likely and encouraging more aggressive positioning on those situations.

When you see a goalie respond as requested, forcing more players to miss the net, make sure you praise him. Let him know you noticed. Maybe create a statistic for “shots forced wide.”

The goalie does not have a traditional statistic for proper angle play that increases the odds of a shot to miss its mark.

• Likewise, you have been after your goalie to stay up a little longer, perhaps on those off-angle shots from the boards. When she does this, taking the net away, and maybe even frustrating a player to the point that she holds her shot, let her know that she just prevented a shot on goal just by how she stood her ground.

• You have players who take long shifts. They miss opportunities to get off the ice, and this leaves your team running around in the defensive zone. It is a disaster waiting to happen.

Your goalie takes extra effort to tie up a loose puck or get a teammate to ice the puck. You should acknowledge to him that you noticed and appreciated it. And just maybe he prevented a goal allowed because tired defenders make more mistakes. There is no traditional statistic for tying up pucks appropriately.

Both defensemen are attracted to a puck in the corner. The goalie sees an open man in front and yells out for coverage. One defenseman returns to the slot just in time to prevent a completed pass. Does the goalie get credit for yelling? For being alert and preventing a good scoring opportunity? Let her know you heard her and that she made a great play. In these instances, teammates also have a chance to give the goalie a pat on the pads to acknowledge that they too appreciated what just took place. Those little gestures are more likely to happen if the coach encourages teammates to support each other in such ways.

• Some coaches establish an award system through stickers or decals for helmets. This is a great way to reward the goalie for contributions other than saves. Perhaps a goalie can get recognition for how hard he works at practice. (This might also send a message to the other goalie who does NOT approach practice that way.)

A veteran NHL goalie once called his goalie coach over to the bench between periods to ask how the saves were being put up on the scoreboard. He was upset that too much time elapsed between when he made a save and when it went up on the scoreboard for all to see. Even at that level, goalies sometimes need a little validation that they are contributing.

If it happens at that level, it certainly happens with kids. Call attention to the many things they do in games and at practices to contribute to the team. This is all part of creating a positive culture for the goalies in your program. 

Joe Bertagna is the commissioner of the Hockey East Association and the executive director of the American Hockey Coaches Association. He was formerly the goalie coach for the Boston Bruins from 1985-1991 and the U.S. Olympic Team in 1994.