Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the DIY Goalie Podcast, where hosts and goalie coaches Nathan Park and Connor Munday share their insights on how to become a better goalie.
Speaker: Goalies, how are we doing? Welcome back to the DIY Goalie Podcast presented by True North Goaltending. How are doing? Nice to see everyone. It's me, Connor Munday, back in the driver's seat again today. Nathan Park ah currently on assignment at our facility doing a training session. So best of luck to him and especially best of luck to the goaltender that's that's working with him today.
Speaker: Lord knows that he's going to need it. Um, yeah, welcome back to the 108th episode of the DIY goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending. I just want to get some quick housework things out of the way as we are into the month of May now. Um,
Speaker: Typically, this will be around the time when we would do our drill of the month. I'm actually going to be saving that for next week's episode. So there will be no drill of the month this episode. There will be a drill of the month the next episode. So um apologies to to disappoint, essentially. But um yeah, i just I like doing these with Nathan. you know we can We can talk about a little bit, kind of riff off each other and and go from there. So i just wanted to I just wanted to kind of let you guys know that out of the just kind of get that done not the way to start. um couple of other things as well as we like to promote on at the start of every podcast episode.
Speaker: We are still having openings for our podcast excuse me our camps that we have coming up. Just know that our week-long camp in August, so that's the 10th to 14th, has been booked up fully.
Speaker: um So unfortunately, we no longer have any spots on that one. We do have still have some spots for our four-day-long camp from the 17th to the 20th. So I believe that we do have some spots, limited as they may be, but we do still have some spots.
Speaker: Excuse me. Available there. We do still have some spots for our U9, U11 beginner camp, which is occurring August 8 and 9. And then our ringette goalie camp, August 21 through the 23rd, is still open as well. So make sure you guys, if you are a U9, U11 goaltender in the Edmonton area, a ringette goaltender in the Edmonton area, uh or if you're just a regular goalie in the edmonton area and you weren't able to get a spot in our five-day camp just know that we do still have spots available in our beginner camp in our ringette goalie camp and in our five day uh four day rather uh goalie camp as well which is super exciting we have a lots a lot of stuff going on for us this summer i think this is actually the busiest that we've ever seen it uh with true north goaltending but not that we're complaining so much so uh
Speaker: yeah um aside from that i'm all good um finally have some bookings happening again i'll have a facility session um tomorrow as of recording this and then i'll have another facility session okay actually i guess i'll a facility session the day this comes out uh and then i'll have another facility session next wednesday or not next wednesday or the winds the wednesday after which is uh thursday after sorry which is a which is super exciting. Um, on top of that, nothing else really. Unfortunately, Edmonton orders did get knocked out of the playoffs. First round.
Speaker: Can't say I'm surprised a whole lot. The Oilers did kind of have a little bit of a, we're kind of taking a little bit of a step backwards this year, um, which I'm not surprised again. mean, Connor Ingram did what he could for the Oilers. I was actually quite surprised with his play and actually quite started enjoying his play a little bit. Um,
Speaker: But, mean, you know, obviously they couldn't get the job done. They shouldn't have let go Stuart Skinner. I'm going to say that right now. um Who else? ah Montreal, Jakob Dobesh has been surprisingly good um in that Tampa Bay-Montreal series. So it'll be exciting to see him.
Speaker: And I think it's UPL kind of going head-to-head. in the Montreal Buffalo series. Jesper Waldstedt looked pretty solid as well. I think as a record, Philip Gustafson is going to get the go for um for game two for Minnesota and Colorado as Colorado smoked them game one.
Speaker: um I think it's Blackwood and Wedgwood for Colorado. I haven't really seen too much of them. um Carter Hart's been doing pretty well as well for the for the Vegas Golden Knights, which is nice to see. um And then, yeah, Lucas Dostal, he was a menace for the Oilers, I guess. And um just, yeah, couldn't couldn't really get couldn't really figure him out. And then I'm a little in i'm a little kind of intrigued about Dan Vladar.
Speaker: And the Philadelphia Flyers, Vladar has just kind of come out of left field. I mean, we saw him quite a bit when he was with Calgary, um but kind of see, but seeing him play and just kind of how he's played for Philly this year and in the playoffs has been really welcome to see. So I've been, I've been on the Dan Vladar train a little bit. um And in Carolina, I know nothing, nothing really is exciting me about Carolina other than their offense and their defense, their goaltending. I mean, I'm not a huge Freddie Anderson fan, so I can't really say too, too much. I know Piotr Kochekov is a Carolina hurricane, but i don't think he's currently on the roster because, um,
Speaker: I think he's been out with injuries and such. And so I i don't, I know who the backup is, honestly. Um, is it's not Mrazik. It's okay. Brandon Boosie. And I know that he's, uh, I know that he went on a tear for a little bit in the regular season, but, uh, yeah. So yeah, it's Freddie Boosie and Kochev. But I know I'm on, I'm on the Kochev bandwagon, but, uh, um, yeah. Um, okay. So topic of this episode today, um I was actually thinking a little bit, um yeah just we touch so much on the um the physical skills of goaltending. We touch so much on the
Speaker: um you know the like the the things that we can work on in a practice, you know the shuffles, the T-pushes, the tracking, the positioning, all that stuff. But we don't really work on so much...
Speaker: I guess for lack of better term, like invisible skills, you know, and so what I what i mean by, you know, invisible skills, you know, it's kind of the stuff that you don't really um ah focus on a whole lot, um you know, in a practice, you know, nothing that's, you know, the the physicality aspect of it, I guess, if you will. Yeah.
Speaker: So I do have a thing where um just I've kind of touched on some points when it comes to invisible skills. So one of the um invisible skills that we call it, again, all of this stuff I do just want to preface is is that this is all stuff that we have touched on before, but I don't think we really dive into a whole lot. i mean, mind you, we're already like 108 episodes in, so I...
Speaker: we We may have touched on it already, but, you know, just bear with me here. um So I really wanted to focus on today just kind of play reading, I guess, in in a sense. um It's super, super important for us as goaltenders to always be scanning and always to be aware of ah what's happening on the ice.
Speaker: you know yeah You might think, as an example, you know you think that you're playing well because you know you're tracking the puck or you're looking at the puck, essentially, and youre you know you're making the saves that you need to, yada, yada, yada.
Speaker: in a sense hey that's great but that's also a problem and a reason why it's a it's a problem because we're not necessarily looking at the bigger picture at the same time if you guys are ever subscribed to ingold magazine you know you guys know that they have like those pro read segments which are phenomenal by the way highly recommend again not promoting other people but go subscribe to ingold go watch something anyways um So we have to, as goaltenders sometimes, stop having that tunnel vision with the horse blinders on and such and kind of open up our understanding and open up everything that's happening on the ice and not only have to pay attention to um you know where the puck is, we also have to pay attention to who's go to be who's the trailer, who's the backdoor threat, who's this, where there... um
Speaker: ah Excuse me, um a second option developing. Because if we only focus on, you know, the puck and trying to make the save, what happens when a pass happens, right?
Speaker: We feel late. That's when we start panicking. And then that's where and then we don't feel like. or We feel like the play rather has come out of nowhere because, you know, we're so, again, dialed in on getting set up on the shot, which we have to, but we have to start paying attention to what's happening, you know, around us. The other part of it as well, and I've had this conversation many times with...
Speaker: with my U18 AA goaltenders this year is we have to pay attention to what side the shooter is. You know, what what let what hand is he? um I think it's Scotty Wedgwood that, you know, was really, really good on, you know, paying attention to what handed um the the the the other the ah the player on the opposing team. is I'm stumbling over my words today, apparently.
Speaker: Scanning can be uncomfortable at first because it means that you do have to take your eyes on the puck for like a brief second, which is annoying, right? Because we always want to be aware of where that puck is because we don't want to have a um ah bad goal go in. We don't want to be caught in no man's land, essentially.
Speaker: But in that sense, though, we have to... um you know, we we have to take our eyes off the puck, even in that brief second, and do what's called a micro scan, okay, and kind of pay attention to what's going on around us. So how do we do that, right?
Speaker: So the best example that I can think of, or like there's a couple of examples that I can think of, is that if you have a puck in the far corner, and if the shooter's back is, or if the person who has the puck on the opposing team, if their back is ah facing towards you, are they a threat? That's a question I always ask.
Speaker: Is that if i'm if if I'm the guy with the puck and if I'm on the opposing team and I'm the guy with the puck and my back is facing towards you, am I a threat? Technically, no, nine times out of ten. right Maybe I just throw a blind backhanded pass and it maybe id connect with a guy in the slot. Okay, sure.
Speaker: But realistically, nine times out of ten, that guy is not a threat, especially when our own defenders are on him. So that's an opportunity to right it right there for us to be able to take a quick glance, quick shoulder checks. you know and Okay, how many players do we have coming into the ah coming into our zone?
Speaker: Who's covering who? Where's the open man? Same thing, um you know, as well, you know, we can, um you know, if it's a two on one or a two on two or three on two, whoever, you know, identify, we can take like a little micro glances, little head turns, um you know, to pay attention or just to try and figure out where a potential play may develop it. But then we have to come right back to the play right away.
Speaker: We're not talking about staring away from the puck or staring away from the play. We're just talking about quick, controlled awareness. And that's what makes great goalies, good goalies, and bad goalies.
Speaker: Bad goalies are going to end up being reactive because they're not fully paying attention to the bigger picture. Good goalies, okay, they're aware of it. um you know like maybe they Maybe they identify one or two little things.
Speaker: But great goalies are able to identify 95% of of the actual um of the actual play that's developing in front of us. um And, you know, again, like I've said, i've I've talked about it already. You know, pucks in the far corner, you know, it's ahs ah it's a one-on-one battle or two-on-one battle, whatever.
Speaker: in the corner. um We need to pay attention to what's again happening around us. We can take that quick second of let's, let's look away and kind of see what's happening on the rest of the ice. Cause again, our vision, right. Even though we're playing, even though we're playing an East West game, sometimes we do end up getting caught in like North South game for a second, because we're only so focused on, again, a small section of ice that's happening in front of us rather than, you know, looking at what's happening in the bigger picture.
Speaker: um So what's happening from where from where the puck isn't, essentially, right? Maybe there's a guy creeping into the slot. you know Maybe there's a guy creeping into the back door. Maybe we see that you know there is a net front battle happening in front, but our defense was is just not covering the guy or he's just losing those battles. That guy's always able to get away from him or something.
Speaker: If we don't scan, if we don't identify that, Now we're caught in no man's land. Now we're chasing the puck. Now we're chasing the play, actually, is a better way of putting that.
Speaker: um So we always want to try... And and that's... Sorry, this that's where always debt you know desperation saves come from. So we want to try and... um be aware of our surroundings away from the puck.
Speaker: It's difficult to do. i get it. might be uncomfortable, but it's something that we really want to, um you know, drive home, pay attention to it because it's really, really important about why, know, we're, you know,
Speaker: were um
Speaker: I don't i'll lost my train of thought there for a second. but just It's important, guys. It's really what I'm trying to say. right like it's it's It's important to just you know pay attention to what's happening outside the play. And that's what, again, like I said, like that's what makes great goaltenders because they're able to identify the play or identify what's happening away from the puck, even if it's for one or two seconds.
Speaker: Highly, highly encourage. Again, you know, we've talked about in a previous podcast before. sit Goalie, sit in on your power plays, your power play meetings. Sit in on your penalty kill meetings. um You know, identify, you know, zone structure and zone and zone setup. um you know typically you know what's kind of what your team is going to be doing in the offensive zone, but again, that same team is going to try and do the same things in the defensive zone. right So we have to identify, okay, is it box plus one? Is it umbrella? Is it flying V? I don't know, right? I got to watch Mighty Ducks again. It's good movie. um But that's that's the general idea of what we're trying to drive at, right, is that we have to identify patterns. it's that's Again, that's really all that goaltending is in the same breath too, right, is pattern recognition.
Speaker: And like I said before, um some goaltenders, especially our younger goaltenders, you know, they're very it's it's it's an acquired taste. It's an acquired skill. um And so we want to try and, um you know, do the best we can. But sometimes goalies just don't do it in general.
Speaker: Why is that? one and only reason is because it feels a little risky. We feel, again, it's uncomfortable because, again, we don't want to be caught looking stupid, right? We don't want to be, you know, taking our eyes off the puck for a second, right?
Speaker: and then get caught in in no man's land. And then now we end up having to make ah maybe a save that we wouldn't typically make or you know you know we get scored on in a way that wouldn't typically get scored on by us because we were so dialed in on that black little rubber thing that's on the ice that people are trying to put in the back of our net.
Speaker: We're not paying attention to the play, right? Yeah. yeah And you know why, as I'm thinking about it, it's kind of our goal. It's kind of the goalie coach's fault at the same time, because we always say track the puck. Don't ever take your eyes off the puck, right?
Speaker: Some goalie coaches anyways. I don't. But anyways, um but I know that I know that just you you hear the phrase, right? Track the puck, hedge directory. You know, we always want to be following the puck. And that's true.
Speaker: But in the same breath, we don't want to um t we we don't want to take ourselves out of the game and not pay attention to what's happening and to the rest of the play at the same time. Because if you only just track the puck, you become a little bit predictable and you're late to plays at the same time.
Speaker: So... um
Speaker: Everybody has like their own different way on scanning and, you know, paying attention to just kind of the surroundings around them, which is fine. um So this is more so for goalies, you know, maybe that are getting to higher levels or maybe that are getting beat on a play and they just can't figure it out yet.
Speaker: Or even just for goalies, you know, that maybe aren't, um, you know doing doing more scanning and doing more um paying attention to the play away from the puck. um Pick one moment.
Speaker: Pick a moment, pick a safe moment, I guess. um Generally, I would try to say, you know, the puck is below the goal line, you know, again, battle happening behind your net. Take that moment.
Speaker: Take that one, two seconds, whatever, half second. Have a quick look. Where are your threats? where's you where Where are your players? where are the Where are their players, right? Just get an idea of a surrounding of where...
Speaker: The rest of the player, the other four guys that are on the ice for both teams, so I guess i and other eight, whatever, math isn't my strong suit. um Where are the other eight guys on the ice compared to the two that are behind your net battling for that puck?
Speaker: Right. That's your window. That is your window to just take a brief moment. Okay, I got a guy. Okay, they have two defensemen on the blue line. Okay, they have a guy in the slot. My guy is taking up that guy. i got little Jimmy picking his nose at that you know at the faceoff dot, whatever.
Speaker: You know, um that's that's your window. Take that half second, gather as much information as you can, and then get back to the puck. That's it.
Speaker: As I've kind of mentioned already, you know ask yourself that one question. Again, we always want to be we always want to have the gears turning. We always want to be thinking, um where's your biggest threat? Not all your threats, just where's your biggest one? Is it little Timmy picking his nose you know at at the face-off? Is it the guy you know that maybe that your defenseman's tying up on the slot? Or is it, hey, that hey the defenseman on the on the blue line, you know I've done ah i've done a pre-scouting on him, or hey, he beat me... you know a goal ago or a game ago or a couple months ago or whatever, right? and he has a really hard shot.
Speaker: So he's, you know, my identifier. he is my threat. You know what I mean? Just try and figure out as best as you can, um where your threats are and who's going to be your biggest one.
Speaker: Right. And then try and focus on that.
Speaker: Trust your instincts. Trust. um easier said than done you know and in this famous famous quote series whatever always goes you know trust your in strength trust your gut you might you might mess up and that's fine you know some it's again goaltending's you know gamer percentages it's it's it's bad it's pattern recognition um but just We want to just trust the process, right? Trust your gut, trust your instincts, because that's going the hardest part, right? Sometimes we want to go against whatever the standard norm is. or Sorry, no, the opposite. Sometimes you know we want to go with the grain. We want to go with whatever whatever the normal operating procedures are.
Speaker: Sometimes it's okay to go against it. but it went But once it clicks, right, and if it's something that's going to work for you, you will feel the game slow down in your eyes, in your mind. It's going to go faster for everyone else, but at least then you're able to start, you know, reading the game, reading the plays, reading plays correctly.
Speaker: And you're able to, again, that that your save percentage, lack a better term, you know, is going to start to go up. Um, just some things to just pay attention to, or maybe just to try and avoid rather. We don't want to get caught, obviously, staring away from the puck for too long. I think that's obviously a given. Um, you know, we want to, um, you know, just get and take that quick second, gather as much information as you can, um and then get back to wherever the puck is as quickly as possible. Right. Um,
Speaker: The other thing as well is that we don't want to just be looking around for the sake of looking around. Right. Like I said, like you ask yourself that question or try to identify rather where where opportunities may pop up.
Speaker: Right. um So we don't want to just scan randomly. We want to have a little bit of a purpose behind it. um The other thing as well is that we don't want to overthink it. Again, easier said than done. As goaltenders, we all know this.
Speaker: um But we don't want to but we don't want to
Speaker: second guess ourselves last second, right? We don't want to try and overthink the play so much. It's just, if you think that, you know, the defenseman who has the big hard slap shot, if you think that he is going to be your biggest threat, once the puck comes out of that kind of battle there in the corner, as an example,
Speaker: Trust it, right? Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong, right? um and that's And that's totally fine. If you're able to pick up maybe one or two more heavy identifiers, that's great. You're not always going to be right 90% or 50% of the time, or rather, I should say, because again, it's a 50-50 toss-up. um ah But we want to try not to overthink it as much as you can. Let's just identify that one aspect of what's happening in that play there and then run with it.
Speaker: It's a quick habit. It's just a quick one touch and or not quick one. to Oh my God, what am I doing? It's a quick, just kind of one off. It's a quick habit. We just want to bang and then back to it right away. We don't need a full breakdown analysis of it, right? Because again, that place happened. The play that's happening in your end is so fast and, um,
Speaker: Yeah, we just we we just need to ah just quick hits, you know, quick identifiers, you know, as as best as we can.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: At the end of the day. if you feel late, if plays start to if plays start to surprise you more, especially as you're, um um you know, increasing in skill level, or maybe, you know, yeah, yeah, is as as as you're increasing in skill level, I should say, um it is probably not your speed in the crease. It is probably not how you're tracking the puck.
Speaker: It is probably more so just the fact that you're not paying attention to the bigger picture that's happening around you. It's your awareness. So we want to start scanning once per shift, maybe once every time that the puck's in your own zone. in your own zone Start reading the game.
Speaker: Start paying attention to plays. Start trying to identify patterns because How much you start reading the game is going to effectively transition to to your save.
Speaker: right so um
Speaker: As we are into the offseason, maybe some of us are playing Spring League, maybe some of us are playing Pickup. you know, stick and puck, whatever. um Start doing that, right?
Speaker: And remember what I was saying, you know, a few episodes ago is, you know, identify one thing that you want to work on or identify one thing that you want to accomplish in the game. Identify one thing that, you know, you want to do well in a practice. This is it.
Speaker: This is one of them, right? Start paying attention. Start reading the play, right? Try to start picking up identifiers. start try to Try to start recognizing patterns, right? Right. And, um, hopefully once you start to develop that invisible skill, um, it'll transition to, um, you know, your next, uh, your next, um, your next, uh, your next play, your next level and, uh, go from there. I do have other, um, invisible skills that I do want to touch on, but, um,
Speaker: You know, well, maybe I'll touch on that in a future in a in a future episode. But this this this one in particular, I felt, you know, was a pretty big one, you know, because again it was a it was a conversation that I had quite a bit with my ah with my U18 goaltenders this year. And again, like the stick handedness as well. That was that was a huge part of it. I didn't touch on it so much in this episode because I feel like that's a little too, too complicated. um but that is just something as well you know if you're getting pretty good at reading the play but you're still getting beat even though you made the right decision start paying attention you know to to to this to the handedness ah of of the shooter as well because again those angles they change so much depending on where the left or right-handed shooter is and where they are in the zone in our zone right so Again, didn't want to dive into that too, too much, but I felt that, you know, again, like I said, like that was something that's, you know, we talked about a lot in the offseason or in the in the in the season as well. So just something to think about as well. um But yeah, yeah.
Speaker: um I will, um yeah, like i said, maybe we'll touch on another one next time. But um until then, that'll do it for this week's episode of the DIY Goldie Podcast presented by True North Goaltending. Again, go check us out, truenorthgoaltending.com. If you are in the Edmonton area and want to attend one of our summer camps, Our U9, U11 beginner camp, our four-day hockey camp, um our ring at goaltending camp that's happening. And again, this is happening all in August. But if you do happen to find yourself in the Edmonton area and you are not attending one of our camps, but you still want to work with us, um
Speaker: we do office we do officer we do offer year-long um facility sessions at our training at our synthetic ice training facility in miscue um so again go check us out truenorthgoaltending.com on that front you can also head to truenorthgoaltending.com um you know we do have our our um uh oh what do we have we have bunch of goalie content we have our drills or our concentration grids Our blogs a little bit kind of on the back burner, a little bit, same with our drills a little bit. I know Nathan is, ah you know, looking at updating, updating our drill catalog. um But um that is a thing that we do offer. If you are looking for goalie specific drills um and again, yeah, our blog is kind of falling off a little bit. where We're, we're, we're looking to get all that and get looking to get back to all that as well. um
Speaker: We do offer, that we do offer as well. um You know, like i said, you know, one-on-one, two-on-one, three-on-one goalie training services. We do offer virtual sessions as well. So if you are interested in that, you guys are going to head over to truenorthgoaltending.com and book all that with us.
Speaker: If you are following us on your favorite social media platforms, or follow us rather on your favorite social media platforms, whether that ah that is Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all at truenorthgoaltending.com, except on Instagram because we like to be different. That one is yeggoaliecoach.com. You can follow myself on Instagram at Monday GC. Check us out on YouTube, true northgoaltending.com for the video version of this pod. If you are returning subscriber, thank you. Make sure you hit the share button. The like button helps the algorithm brings more goaltenders to our little corner of the internet. If you are a new viewer, hit the subscribe button. We do release new episodes every Wednesday. If you're listening over on your favorite podcasting platforms, whether that's Apple, iHeart, Spotify,
Speaker: Again, same deal. Returning listener. Thank you very much. um Hit the follow button or not hit the. Well, if you're new, if you're new listener, hit the follow button. Maybe you hit, maybe you accidentally hit the follow button, unfollow button. Just hit the follow button again.
Speaker: um Share, like, all that stuff. The more goaltenders that we are able to bring together. the better we do have a list of amazing people that we are looking at bringing on to the pod here it is just taking us some time to ah to get them on so we are looking forward to that um and yeah looking forward to seeing everybody on our in our summer camps happening this august um and again just uh thank you so much everybody for the love support you we really do appreciate it And on that, on behalf of myself and Nathan Park, this has been the DIY Podcast presented by True Notes Goaltending.
Speaker: like some saves poll We'll see you guys next time. Take care.
