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| The Bruins' Tuukka Rask, doing what he does best. |
Apologies for being out of the loop these past few months, as I've been busy recuperating from getting a brand new titanium right hip (rehab is going well, and I hope to be back on the ice in early 2014!). In the meantime, with high school, college, and professional hockey seasons in full swing, I wanted to chat about a topic that's near and dear to my goaltending heart. Goalies require a certain mindset that, while it can be cultivated, is often innate. You simply have to hate – Hate! – giving up goals. Here's my column on the tenacity that goalies, by the very nature of their position, have to have to be successful. It originally ran in the New England Hockey Journal.
Finding out if your youngster has
what it takes …
One of my favorite coaching sessions
over the course of the season is Desperation Day. This is the day
when we show our goalies how to make those impossible saves, the ones
that top pros make with alarming regularity. Yes, there's a method to the apparent
madness of a desperation save (more on that later), but in reality
what the session ultimately reveals is whether or not the youngster
has the heart and courage to be a top-flight netminder.
Just for fun, I typically start the
session by asking my pupils if they know who Winston Churchill is.
This little Q&A invariably winds up sounding like an installment
of "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" ("He's a goalie,
right?" is by far the most popular answer). But it was
Churchill, the legendary prime minister of Great Britain, who rallied
a nation against the threat of Nazi Germany on June 4, 1940, with his
famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech before the
House of Commons. The line that has always stayed with me, the one I
want my goaltenders to remember, is this: "We shall never
surrender."
Now, I don't mean to make light of war,
or place too much importance on sports. There are already too many
pro athletes and high-profile sportscasters doing that these days.
What I'm talking about is character, and the willingness to battle,
to dig deep in order to expend every ounce of energy needed to do
your job. In this case, that's keeping the puck out of the net, using
any means necessary.
Here's the "team" lesson I
want my young goaltenders to take home from Desperation Day: There is
nothing desperate about effort. If you quit on a play – even an
impossible play – that can deflate your teammates. Goalies, by the
nature of the position, have to be leaders. If you don't give a full
effort, then your teammates suddenly have an excuse to go less than
100 percent as well.
Simultaneously, giving up gives your
opponents an extra boost, thinking you've thrown in the towel. Make
no mistake about this – Quitting on a play is like tossing fresh
chum into a pool of starving sharks. The feeding frenzy can be
frightening.
Fortunately, the opposite is true. A
lot of coaches and athletes talk about "giving 100 percent"
(or more), but in reality that's quite rare. However, those who do
have the ability to fire up their team. Imagine two scenarios. In the
first, you dive across the crease and deflect a sure-fire goal over
the net. You don't think that's going to get your teammates jacked
up?
Or maybe the opponent misses the net
altogether. Ask players, and those who answer honestly will tell you
they'd rather see a nice, wide-open net to bury the shot. The last
thing they want to see is a flash of goalie equipment, whether a
stick, glove, blocker – anything! – flying into their field of
vision. They might rush, or grip their sticks a little too tight, and
send their shots wide or over the net. That doesn't even count as a
save in the scorebook, although it sure does in my book. And it gets
even better.
In a desperation-save situation, the
shooter is expected to score. And most of the time, they probably
will. But that's when something almost magical can happen. In this
second scenario, if a goalie makes every effort to make the save,
tossing aside personal pride and safety to fling across the open net,
it almost doesn't matter if the opponent pots the puck. The goalie's
team will still rally behind that effort. It's almost as if they say,
"Heck, if our goalie is going to bring it, we better bring it
too."
And, even as the opponents celebrate,
the heroic goalie – the one who refuses to quit, ever – has
planted a seed of doubt. He (or she) has served notice that nothing
will come easy. And, believe me, the other team will see that. I've
seen it again and again over the past 35 years. These types of
goalies are winners, and they can will their teams to win.
So, is there a method? The short answer
is, yes. Visual attachment is critical. If the goalie loses sight of
the puck, the task becomes infinitely more difficult. A goalie caught
out of position doesn't have the luxury of tracking the puck and
"deciding" to make a move. In the time it takes to make
that decision, the puck will be in the back of the net. Instead, the
goalie must simply react. If he (or she) gets to the rebound, only to
find there's no imminent danger, all he's expended is a small slice
of energy. It's like the winter hiker's credo regarding gear: "Better
to have it and not need it, instead of needing it and not having it."
You have to go to the puck, with all the energy you can muster.
The key is getting your body to move
with your eyes. Set that back edge by driving your knee to your
chest, and push. Hard! When you go, built the wall from the ice up. A
ridiculous number of goals are scored along the ice, so that's where
you want your stick. Paddle down, creating a wall, not a ramp. Aim
your goal stick toward the opposite post, so you have that added
support if the puck happens to hit the paddle. Engage your core
muscles, and bring your catching glove above the stick, just in case
the puck gets lifted.
And, perhaps most importantly, remember
that even if you make that highlight-reel save, your job still isn't
done. You've got to track the rebound, and be ready for the next
shot. That is, after all, our job description.
Last, bring it all the time. Effort
comes from habit. If you quit in practice, there's no guarantee that
you'll be able to pull off the effort required for a miraculous save
in a game. It has to be part of your mindset, and that's honed in
practice.
As an added bonus, I'll share this
universal truth – Coaches love these kids. Even if they're not the
most technically gifted, they'll get their share of playing time,
because coaches know that they'll compete from whistle to whistle,
and that they'll inspire their teammates. That is a special gift.
It's not the sole domain of goaltenders, since every player can help
raise the bar. But other players can quit on a play, and they still
have the goaltender behind them. Goalies don't have that safety net.
That's why, in my mind, the position is imbued with certain
leadership qualities. And when you go all out, all the time, refusing
to surrender, you've proven yourself to be a worthy team leader.
FINIS
