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056 - The Role Opportunity Plays and What Makes a Goalie Elite
86 Plays15 days ago
Show notes are available at https://thediygoalie.com/pod056
This week, we talk about how much opportunity plays into a goalie's success, and how sometimes there are a lot of things out of our control that can directly influence how successful we are. We also dive into a few things that separate elite goalies from good ones.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to the DIY Goalie Podcast, where hosts and goalie coaches Nathan Park and Connor Munday share their insights on how to become ah better goalie.
00:00:18
Speaker
Hey goalies, how are you doing today? Welcome back to another episode of the DIY Goalie podcast presented by True North Goaltending. As always, it is myself, Nathan Park, with Connor Monday here to talk a little bit about goaltending for you guys today. i Just again, wanted to shout out to you guys listening. We appreciate very much so that you guys tune in.
00:00:44
Speaker
pretty much every week for most of you guys. um It means a lot to us. And if you could... and share the show with a friend, like, subscribe, all of that good stuff. It really helps us out. um Won't dwell on that too, too much. So we'll get right into it.
Drill of the Month Announcement
00:01:02
Speaker
We have a new month today. We are starting May, which is kind of crazy. So we are going to dive into a drill of the month, which Connor will take away for us in a second here. How are we doing today, Connor? Connor?
NHL Playoff Performance Analysis
00:01:19
Speaker
ah Not too bad, actually. um Just having a ah having any a ah heart attack every time i watch the Edmonton Odas play. um So, you know, that's always fun.
00:01:32
Speaker
um But beyond that, mean, so far it's been it's been fun playoffs, just kind of watching everything going on right now. I'm quite impressed with how Toronto's goalies are are making out, especially Anthony Stoller. He's having, he's playing great.
00:01:45
Speaker
real stellar right now, despite the, uh, the loss to Ottawa, um, the Calvin Pickard, Stuart Skinner situation happening at Edmonton's not the greatest, but I mean, it's there.
00:01:59
Speaker
Jakob Dobish making his, uh, playoff debut and with the Montreal Canadians, Logan Thompson gets injured and then is expected to start the
Personal Updates
00:02:08
Speaker
next night. So, Atta boy, Logan Thompson.
00:02:11
Speaker
um But no, so far it's been it's been exciting playoffs. i haven't been able to watch every game that maybe I would like. But, you know, yeah I I'm a hypocrite for saying this, but I do watch the highlights and and because that's the only time that I really have nowadays. When you have like four games a night, sometimes, sometimes that's all ah ah you can do.
00:02:33
Speaker
You mean to tell me that you don't have four monitors running every different game at once, plus whatever the, uh, the WHL playoffs are, plus whatever's over happening in Europe, get to get it together, Nathan.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm rocking like, you know, eight different months. I'm like a day trader on wall street. You know, I've got at the eight monitor set up. Yeah, exactly. But, uh, but no, I'm good. Um, the wife is good. Uh, nearing closer to the due date of our daughter's birth. So that's, uh,
00:03:03
Speaker
That is very exciting. And beyond that, not much else. Things have slowed down for me and for us at True North Goaltending at the moment, as far as I'm aware. Looking to maybe go on a golfing trip here in next little bit in one of the the ah suburban golf courses here in the city. So we'll see. My golf game is not the best, but...
00:03:23
Speaker
what stereotypical hockey player just golf summer's here golf time i don't i don't play a lot of golf in general i was like i was thinking about um signing up for like a softball league this year but Unfortunately, not in the cards, but, but anyways, um yeah, so that's, that's kind of all, that's kind of all that I have ah for this week ah in terms of what's going on in my life amongst
Neutral Zone Drill Explanation
00:03:50
Speaker
other things. But the more interesting thing that I want to talk about today, nice segue, is the, yeah the drill of the month that we have for the month of May.
00:04:00
Speaker
um Obviously we're,
00:04:03
Speaker
of course
00:04:09
Speaker
oh i am you know what we should get a sound effect of like presenting drill the month but anyways that was perfectly well executed grand congratulations to you nathan on that um Completely losing my train of thought trying to get back on topics. We have the boxed in the neutral zone drill. This is one of our skating drills that we provide True North Goaltending.
00:04:34
Speaker
um And again, with the ah regular season winding down, some even spring seasons winding down or just kind of nearing towards the end of things as well.
00:04:45
Speaker
Um, some, some of the, um, ice rinks in the, face in the, uh, in the city here, and presumably most other places probably will be taking the ice out at this point. But again, if you do happen to get some ice or you do happen to,
00:05:01
Speaker
um be and be have a place where you have ice 24-7, doing this drill or an iteration of it
Importance of Skating Skills
00:05:10
Speaker
is a good one. So we call this the boxed in a neutral zone drill.
00:05:13
Speaker
And it's a pretty straightforward drill, I say. involves the most basic of of um of of movements here. And so if I'm reading this correctly, ah so you so you'll have your lineup of goalies or you'll line up on ah one side of the the ice where the where the boards are.
00:05:32
Speaker
And then you'll shuffle to about just below um the center of the the center faceoff circle. Well, we do have a diagram of cones here if you are watching on the the video program.
00:05:44
Speaker
And then what you'll do so you'll shuffle basically from the and from the side of the boards to the to the cone C cut up to the dot ah to the offside dot and then you'll shuffle from one offside dot to the opposite ah offside dot backwards C cut back or forward C cut back to the other cone that's on the opposite side of the face off circle.
00:06:03
Speaker
and then she ah shuffled back to the opposite side of the boards there. So it's ah it's it's a nice drill. um you know you get you You work on the kind of the two basic and the two fundamental movements ah with this drill, that being the shuffles and the C cuts.
00:06:19
Speaker
um Keys with this one is to work on various methods of movement, and especially making sure that you get that proper technique, such as rotations, hands staying out in front, staying low and good control. You can add T pushes into this as well, especially when you're doing those elongated movements.
00:06:35
Speaker
Um, so you can do shuffle, shuffle, T push, butterfly recovery, anything, just something just to keep the legs moving and to make sure that it's still is realistic at the same time. Um, Obviously, as goalies, we this is, like I said earlier, this is the more fundamental um skating patterns that we do in our crease.
00:06:54
Speaker
So anything that we can do to get better at skating, much to younger Conor's chagrin, that's what we need to do to to be better here. So I do like this drill, and it's a nice introductory drill for ah for our younger goalies here as well, and really gets them to kind of focus on the ah the the technicality side of it.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, we talked a few weeks ago about the importance of skating when it comes to goalies. And I can't iterate this enough. Like the better you can be at skating, the better chance you give yourself at being successful. And I'll tell you one thing that...
00:07:30
Speaker
As much as a lot of people in the hockey world know nothing about goaltending, they still look for goalies that at least look like they can skate well when they're evaluating and picking teams.
00:07:43
Speaker
So the more you can work on the skating, the better. um Yeah, basically you're just the red line. You move from the boards to the dot. and up or back to the dot, then go dot to dot, back up to the line and then to the other boards. So pretty simple drill. And as with any skating drill, you can basically make it your own. You can throw whatever combination of movements or one movement or whatever it is that you need to work on.
00:08:11
Speaker
You know, you can do two pushes one way, one push back, two pushes the other way, one push back kind of thing. um You can do multiple movements like you can do a butterfly slide and then a T push recovery back to your feet.
00:08:25
Speaker
Whatever the case is, get creative with it. Use it to your advantage to work on whatever you need to work on.
DIY Goalie Website Updates
00:08:32
Speaker
And we will link that drill up in the show notes, which will still be at the DIY goalie.com. But we are making headway on the the transition.
00:08:44
Speaker
um The day job sucks and gets in the way of doing a lot of this stuff for me. But it is what it is. Don't you do a lot of this anyways at your day job?
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, but if I had eight hours a Just out you right here, but. Yeah, yeah. I mean, no. But yeah, no. I mean, it'd be nice if I had eight hours a day to dedicate to it as opposed to just my breaks and the odd, you know, lull in work orders. Yeah.
00:09:14
Speaker
But yeah, so we're working on it. It's getting there. It's going to be slick. um We're changing a lot of things. So we're going to put the courses and our um in-person booking all right natively on the website as opposed to having a couple of platforms put together. So everything's going to be nice and slick.
00:09:33
Speaker
But it takes a while to do all that. So that's where we're at. It's a hard problem. I've designed a few websites in my day. So yeah, no, I get it. it's a Especially since I'm a goalie and not a web designer. If I was, I probably would have this done like weeks ago. But hey, it is what it is. So we're having fun with it.
00:09:54
Speaker
um But that being said... kind of a segue, I guess, to what we're going to talk about
Role of Luck and Opportunity in Goalie Careers
00:10:00
Speaker
today. um So what I wanted to talk about was kind of the and importance or not the importance, but I guess the effect that opportunity and luck kind of has on how our careers go and, you know, how games kind are dictated and stuff like that. um
00:10:25
Speaker
The unfortunate part of it is, is there are a lot of people out there and this is also outside of hockey, but um you see it a lot in hockey too, especially with goalies. There's a lot of people that do all of the right things and just never get the break.
00:10:43
Speaker
And A lot of people don't really talk about that, right? Like there's always the, oh, what if this happened or, oh, you know, whatever, right? Like we'll dive into a bit more into that, but it's it's tough. Like if you think of how the percentages of how many people make it with each level, right? Like the step to each level, there's less and less people that make it up, right?
00:11:10
Speaker
it's It becomes a matter of right place, right time. And as goalies, especially, we've talked about it lots on the podcast. We've heard it lots from a bunch of people in the goalie community, but you can only control the controllables.
00:11:28
Speaker
And unfortunately, what you can control is really a small part of the equation. And that's kind of the unfortunate reality about it. Like a lot of people, when they're caught up in their own world,
00:11:43
Speaker
they kind of forget that other people don't care as much as they do about what their personal situation is. And that's kind of the unfortunate reality, right? There's coaches out there, there's GMs out there, all of that stuff.
00:11:58
Speaker
that you're just kind of a drop in the overall bucket for them when they're looking at a bunch of different prospects or whatever the case may be. Right. And even when you get to the NHL level, like aside from maybe five to six really elite goalies,
00:12:17
Speaker
you could almost put the rest of the goalies into kind of ah ah hat and pick a name and, you know, go from there. Right. Because the, the margin of difference between the goalies at that point is so small and minute that they're all capable. They're all able to be playing good at that level.
00:12:42
Speaker
but some of them don't because of whatever situation that they got into. And some of those guys might not even get an opportunity at all. Right?
00:12:53
Speaker
Like if you think of how many countless up and coming prospects we talk about that, you know, 10 years later, somebody is like, Oh, that name. Yeah. Whatever happened to that guy when he comes into a conversation. Right.
00:13:07
Speaker
And, a lot of times it's not really the goalie's fault. A lot of times it's just the opportunity that didn't happen or the cards they got dealt or whatever the case is.
Challenges in Advancing Goalie Careers
00:13:23
Speaker
And I'm going to kind of use like two sort of completely different um comparisons, I guess, or situations to kind of show how razor thin that margin is. but When I was younger, watching the World Juniors, like we all loved watching World Juniors growing up, Justin Pogge was one that I was super hyped on for kind of a little bit of the older goalies out there.
00:13:53
Speaker
He was, what, early 2010s or late 2000s, somewhere around there. so i can't remember for sure. But yeah, so Justin Pogge was one that I was super excited for as a goalie coming up through the ranks. And he ended up, I think, only playing in and nhl games in one season with the Maple Leafs.
00:14:19
Speaker
And i don't even know if he really got more than 10 games, if that happens. He had seven games posted 844 save percentage in a 4.36 goals against average in the 2008-2009 Maple Leaf season.
00:14:36
Speaker
Okay. So you look at a situation like that and there's a lot of variables, a lot of what ifs, but to be fair, that era of Maple Leaf hockey was not very good.
00:14:49
Speaker
um Their teams struggled and, you know, it's one of those things that Maybe a guy like Pogi, who plays for a slightly better organization, has some time to develop in the minors a little bit more, and maybe gets you know brought up into ah better defensive system, might make a solid career that we're talking like you know talking about him still starting for a team 10 years later, or whatever the case is, right?
00:15:21
Speaker
Now, on the flip side, going close to home here and a little bit more in the present, you think of a guy like Calvin Pickard, who was really kind of written off a little bit, like at the end of his career, like a solid kind of AHL veteran.
00:15:40
Speaker
um really the Oilers signed him as a depth piece in Bakersfield and the Jack Campbell signing did not go as planned.
00:15:51
Speaker
All of a sudden they have to bring Pickard up and then Stu Skinner struggles. And now of a sudden you've got a 33 year old Pickard who's starting for the Oilers in playoffs and You know, had a pretty good game last night as of recording this.
00:16:09
Speaker
um By the time this airs, we could be in those words. I don't know. But, you know, you have a 33-year-old guy. i think he's 33. Who's, you know, kind of in another portion of his career revamped it a little bit.
00:16:26
Speaker
Just given the opportunity that he fell into in the Oilers organization. And good for him. Like, super good guy. He's still, the way he plays still makes me very nervous. And there's some times where I cringe a little bit.
00:16:41
Speaker
But he gets the job done. He's, you know, stuck around at the NHL level for two seasons now and done a serviceable job. Like, despite the fact that he does make me nervous, he gets the job done.
00:16:55
Speaker
He gives the Oilers a chance to win when he's in the net because he's got a winning record. So, Obviously, he's doing something right. But you think about it, that probably doesn't happen if he's still in the Red Wings organization or, you know, the Avalanche organiz organization whatever other team that ah that he was a part of or could be a part of.
00:17:19
Speaker
And it just so happened that things kind of fell into place for him in Edmonton. And we'll kind of get into like a bit of a back and forth discussion about this, but that was kind of why I wanted to bring this up a little bit is to really encourage you guys to do what you can, but also understand that sometimes, even if you put your best foot forward, put your best effort in, sometimes it's just a matter of not being in the right place at the right time, not getting comfortable.
00:17:52
Speaker
you know, the right opportunity at the right time, not being with the right organization at the right time.
Factors Influencing Pro Hockey Advancement
00:17:58
Speaker
And sometimes that's kind of how the chips lay. So if that's an instance that you end up getting into, don't get yourself worked up about it. Don't be too hard on yourself on the what ifs because you can't change those, especially if it's stuff that you have no control over.
00:18:17
Speaker
and recognize the effort that you did put in. And if you can honestly say, hey, I gave it my best. It just didn't work out. It is what it is. And then relish a little bit in your achievements that you did accomplish and kind of go from there. But I don't know. We can get a little bit more into the weeds a little bit. But so what are your thoughts kind of on on the topic?
00:18:44
Speaker
Um,
00:18:48
Speaker
i I think, yeah, like you you kind of hit the nail on the head there. like There's been so so many instances where you see a lot of good goalies come through come up through the system.
00:19:05
Speaker
you think like Especially for Canadians, say like yeah this guy's going to be the next Carey Price or the next... who or whatever. And it just, it never ends up panning the way that you expect it to. um Somebody who I think of is Mike DiPietro with the Vancouver Canucks, right? He, same same as Poggy, know, did very, very well in the um the the ah Canadian World Juniors. I don't think they won that year, but, um and then,
00:19:39
Speaker
has kind of been really having has been sitting deep in the minors ever, ever since. And hardly ever do you hear about or heard from him. Um, the, I think what needs to be understood and we can talk about that or even more so, um,
00:20:01
Speaker
Just in general is that we forget, and I think a lot of hockey parents forget that only 1% hockey players in the entire world will play some form of pro hockey.
00:20:18
Speaker
whether be overseas or at the the federal level or the the the national level, there's only, you you are competing against literally everybody in the world.
00:20:30
Speaker
So like Nathan had said, you know, you can do everything right. You can train the right way. You can meet the right people. Um, you can be the best kid in the world and everything. And it can still just not pan out the way that it is. Now, does hockey politics play a part in it more than likely? Well, not more than likely, but a, a good, a good, ah a good percentage of it does. Yes. To make a long story long.
00:20:56
Speaker
um But I just, I think just that's where that kind of gets lost in, lost in the fold realistically. And so, yeah,
00:21:07
Speaker
i don't um I don't know where I'm going with my point, but that's the that's kind of the way I i in i visualize or that's the way that that i that I kind of see it.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, especially when you think of the goaltending level. So if we just strictly focus on the NHL, basically i would argue – you're looking at maybe about a hundred spots because, you know, we're starting to see more and more often where teams are going through three to four goalies ish in a season. It's very rare that there's only two that ever play um just given injuries and load management and stuff like that.
00:21:51
Speaker
um So arguably we'll just make it a nice, even number at a hundred. We'll say there's a hundred spots every season. Now you got to think that the turnover on that is pretty slim. So I would say maybe 90 of those hundred have played from the previous year or two at some point already.
00:22:11
Speaker
So realistically with how many, you know, up and coming goalies there are each year, you only are competing for maybe those 10 extra spots of turnover or whatever the case is. I mean,
00:22:27
Speaker
A good example is you look at Dustin Wolf. He was in the AHL for what, like six, seven seasons, just killing it. Like he, I feel like he's one goalie of the year in the AHL, probably like four times in a row, it seems like. Right. yeah And then this past season, he finally gets a crack at the show. Now, is that maybe the right way to do it?
00:22:52
Speaker
You could argue yes, because he marinated to the point that he came in guns a blazing this year. um But at the same token, like... you have a bunch of guys that could be in that same situation that Dustin Wolf was and never get the shot. Right.
00:23:10
Speaker
Because, you know, nobody ahead of them in the depth chart gets injured or maybe something happens and they, they make a trade for another goalie. And now all of a sudden you're in the East coast league or whatever the case is. Right.
00:23:26
Speaker
Um, There's a lot of variables, just like in an actual game. There's a lot of variables that go into how somebody's career pans out.
00:23:37
Speaker
And this isn't just at the pro level. Like this is for guys at junior at college with triple A, double A, all of this stuff, right? Like all it takes is a scout to show up to a game that you maybe had a little bit of a meltdown. Maybe you had a bad game.
00:23:57
Speaker
you swung your stick, broke it over the the post, and then they're like, oh, that's not our guy next, right? Like, it just, yeah, you could argue that, oh, I shouldn't have done that, but the cards laid where they laid, and unfortunately now, you know, you don't get that crack or whatever the case is, or like Connor said, you end up in an organization where for whatever reason there's a coach or ah president or a GM or whatever that doesn't like you or and just seems to like, you know, these two goalies that they always keep picking, or maybe it's the coach's kid, right? Like there's so many potential options that people don't really stop and think about, right? Like you think of how many times, and this is not just goalies, it's players too, but how many times do you people just, know,
00:24:53
Speaker
say like write it off as, oh, I guess they, they just couldn't cut it or they just weren't good enough or whatever. And it's like, maybe, but there's, there's more to it.
00:25:05
Speaker
Right. And like, so for example, if we kind of go back to the Justin Pogge thing, um you know, there's probably a very small margin of things that happened between his career that actually happened and him being maybe like a guy like Eric Comrie, who's just kind of, you know, bounced around a few teams as a backup goalie, but has been a solid, you know, backup throughout his year and, you know, all of that stuff. Right. So, eh,
00:25:44
Speaker
It it's one of those things, I guess the big thing is, is just not to get hung up on it um and not really be too critical on yourself if you don't get to where you want to go just because there's such a small amount of people that do.
00:26:03
Speaker
And a lot of external factors kind of have to fall into place for that to happen.
Traits of Elite Goalies
00:26:11
Speaker
All right, so the rest of this episode, we kind had to cut the recording short on the first little bit because Connor's puppy was having some issues, so they were going to take her to the vet.
00:26:27
Speaker
um So hopefully the dog's doing OK. But um I'm just going to kind of build off of that point a little bit and get into another discussion.
00:26:38
Speaker
um kind of talking about some of the things that separate the good goalies from the elite goalies and kind of some of the things that you guys can try and implement into your game to help you get that edge um because again even though there are some things or a lot of things that we can't control and we might end up just not getting the right opportunities like we were talking about, um we can still try and give ourselves the best chance. Right. So basically, when we talk about making your own luck or creating your own opportunities or whatever the case is, whatever insert cliche here,
00:27:23
Speaker
um We can kind of, there are some things we can do to help increase our chances. Obviously the skill level, um, the, the better we can become as goalies, the more likely we are to get looks, the more likely we are to end up on good teams, which present better opportunities, all of that good stuff.
00:27:44
Speaker
But The things that really separate the good goalies from the elite goalies, that's kind of when you start to see, you know, the goalies that stand out, the ones that people can't stop talking about, the ones that make that next step and then they shine there and then they make that next step again and they keep going, keep progressing through the ranks and eventually end up kind of at the top of the the league the, you know, top of the goalie world, right?
00:28:17
Speaker
Even though there are a ton of amazing goalies at the and NHL level, there is a, another level of goalies, that elite level that we kind of put a very small amount of goalies kind of into that basket. Right?
00:28:35
Speaker
So, A couple of things that really separate them apart. The first one I would say, and probably the one that makes the biggest difference when it comes to actual like coaches and stuff like that, evaluating goalies, ones that don't really know the position as much, is consistency.
00:28:57
Speaker
What a coach is looking for out of a goalie is the ability to give their team a chance to win night in and night out. And a coach would much rather have a goalie that would let in two goals every single game and they know what they're going to get as opposed to a goalie who lets in zero one game for the next one the next eight the game after that like that sort of stuff coaches really value that consistency aspect and that's something that will take goalies far in their career and that's a big thing that separates the elite goalies from the good goalies
00:29:42
Speaker
Now, how do you guys work on being consistent? That's quite the loaded question. um The big thing is is really dialing in the fundamentals, right? So basically how I see it as a goalie coach is we want our goalies to work towards a certain bar of performance that's kind of their goalie.
00:30:07
Speaker
you know, they're consistent, like baseline. So that's the, you know, when everything's kind of moving along, we want to be able to make sure we hit that same level of play, regardless of if it's a good day, a bad day, whatever the case is, you have that baseline performance and,
00:30:29
Speaker
And we want that baseline performance to be good at the level that you play. Right. And that's going to be the performance that you kick out every single night if everything goes according to plan.
00:30:44
Speaker
So that comes from being a good skater, being able to track the puck properly, being positionally sound, being efficient, all of those things that we've talked lots and lots about on the podcast.
00:30:57
Speaker
If you can make that kind of a good solid foundation of your game and you are very good at those things, you will be a consistent goalie more often than not, right? um That's kind of when you when you look at a guy like Hellebuck,
00:31:13
Speaker
He's extremely efficient when he moves. He gets into position. He makes his saves. That's why Carey Price was such a good goalie during his career was because he was efficient. He was just there.
00:31:28
Speaker
And even though sometimes it's not flashy, it's not sexy, if you're constantly there as a goalie, you're most likely going to be consistent, right? Because a lot of the position is being positionally sound, getting to your spots and getting to them early and having the play come to you.
00:31:49
Speaker
So that's the big thing is if you guys can work on really making that baseline of play consistent with the foundational items like skating, tracking, positioning,
00:32:02
Speaker
That's really going to help you to build a consistent performance output. And that's what a lot of coaches are going to want to see. Now, the other thing that really separates the elite level goalies from the good goalies is timing and the big saves. You hear that a ton when it comes to hockey, and it is basically a cliche now, but it's can we count on that our goalie to make the big saves, right?
00:32:31
Speaker
And one thing that and being around the Edmonton area and an Oilers fan and all that stuff, One thing that I thought Stuart Skinner did an and an exceptional job of last season when they made their cup run to the ah to Game 7 against Florida was he, for the first time in his career, I thought consistently made the big save.
00:33:01
Speaker
There was, i believe it was Game 4 against... ah or maybe it was game six. I think it was game six, actually, now that think about it, against Florida in the cup final.
00:33:12
Speaker
Edmonton won, I believe, 8-2. Now, on the score sheet, that doesn't seem like Skinner had to do a whole heck of a lot and that his team you know rallied and and all of that stuff.
00:33:28
Speaker
But the Oilers got out to an early 2-0 lead. Florida came back and made it 2-1. And they were about to make it 2-2. They made a pass across one time, or I think it might have been on a two-on-one. I can't remember for sure, but Skinner came across and made an incredible glove save.
00:33:49
Speaker
And if that puck goes in and it's two two after blowing a two-nothing lead... And, you know, they're down in the series three to two.
00:34:00
Speaker
That could have got out a hand real quick and they could have lost. They ended up winning. They went to game seven, ended up losing in game seven. But that being said, that the time of that save The difference between a 2-1 game and a 2-2 game, and that that juncture of the series, can make a huge difference on how that that happened, right? Especially if they ended up winning the cup, if they you know pulled the reverse sweep off and won the cup.
00:34:32
Speaker
To me, that would have been kind of a pivotal moment there. And so that's something that, as goalies, you know, it's tough to teach and it's not really something that is like an X's and O's thing or anything like that. It's just kind of the ability to recognize the moment and make sure that you're mentally dialed in for those moments, right? Like,
00:35:04
Speaker
There are certain moments in games where letting in a bad backbreaking goal can make the difference in a game. And there are other times where letting in a terrible goal, it sucks and it's embarrassing, but it's not really the end of the world. And it's the same thing with the big saves too, right?
00:35:21
Speaker
There are some instances where making that big save can... directly affect the outcome of a game. And we do see it a lot where there's a big save on one end, play goes back down the other way, 30 seconds later, it's in the net, right?
00:35:35
Speaker
And all of a sudden, instead of being down 1-0, you're up 1-0 or whatever the case is, right? And that that can make a big difference. So if you can find a way to... really own up to that moment and to take that step up and make those big saves that you need to those ones that your team makes mistakes and you can bail them out.
00:35:56
Speaker
That's something that really helps to separate those elite level goalies as well. Um, It's again, that one's it's tough because it's not something that's teachable, really.
00:36:09
Speaker
It's just something that as you gain experience, as you become more mentally sound in your game, as you become more consistent, like we talked about, that'll come a little bit more. Right.
00:36:20
Speaker
um That's the other thing to segue into that is the mental side of things is another thing that really sets the elite level goalies apart.
00:36:31
Speaker
Being able to have fun with big games, being able to, you know, just kind of let go. Right. And just be in the moment. Let your instincts take over and just have fun. Make saves. Stop the puck.
00:36:48
Speaker
That's it. We're not worrying too much about what's going to happen. We're not worrying too much about, oh, what happens if I lose, if I let in the next shot? Those goalies that consistently deliver elite performances are always dialed in mentally. Their mental game is shored up so well.
00:37:07
Speaker
And that's something that if you guys can figure out how to do that works for you. Um, that'll be ah game changer for you guys as you go through your career. So that's something, again, it's going to be different for everybody, but working with a sports psychologist, working through breathing exercises, visualization, positive self-talk, working on gaining that confidence and telling yourself you belong where you are, all of that stuff, that's going to go a long way into helping you take that next step.
00:37:40
Speaker
The last thing that I'm going kind of touch on, and I know there's a lot that goes into goaltending and we could sit here for hours and talk about kind of the minute differences between taking that next step to the elite level.
00:37:54
Speaker
But one thing that I will say is the awareness of the game, being able to kind of predict a little bit what's going to happen.
00:38:05
Speaker
We've talked lots about this um before that situational awareness, but the goalies that really excel at high levels, they can read the game and process the game at an extremely quick and fast pace.
00:38:23
Speaker
So they can see how a play is unfolding as it unfolds. And when I played, I used to kind of call it the the sixth goalie sense, right? um I didn't understand it at the time that it was an awareness thing. And I wish I knew more about it back when I played so I could have worked on it and kind of quantified it a little bit more.
00:38:44
Speaker
But I just remember when I played, there was I got to the point my career that I could... just know what was going to happen. Like you almost just knew a pass was coming to the back door. Cause you saw the guy open.
00:38:57
Speaker
You saw that the guy didn't have any shots. You kind of saw him open up his body a little bit to make that, uh, or to have a better lane for that pass. And even though consciously you weren't aware you were doing it, subconsciously you're taking in all that information and being like, okay, this past is coming.
00:39:18
Speaker
The past comes, but you're already almost anticipating it. You've already kind of started to load up, obviously not cheating. But you're already kind of moving through as soon as you see that that release happens because you anticipated it.
00:39:33
Speaker
And that's something that really sets the elite goalies apart as well as being able to process that information and understand kind of what it means, understand the patterns.
00:39:43
Speaker
And that's something that is kind of a lost art a little bit now that we're getting into, you know, TikTok reels and highlights and all this stuff, because a lot of goalies and just athletes in general don't really study their game as much. It's a lot harder to anticipate a play or to break down a play when you only see a 10 second clip.
00:40:08
Speaker
Because something that the goalie did 40 seconds prior to could have directly influenced that save or that goal that you see in that clip, right? So being able to understand just how a play unfolds, being able to recognize certain visual cues, process certain information, that's really going to help kind of make help you to take that next step.
00:40:32
Speaker
And that's kind of something like... To me, the most successful goalies are able to adapt to each level that they get to, right? So anytime they take a step up in skill, they're able to adapt and flourish. And that comes from all of the things that we just talked about, having a good solid foundation of skills, being able to read the play, being mentally resilient, coming up with the big saves, all of that stuff.
00:41:02
Speaker
If you can kind of make those adjustments with each level that you get to, to me, that's when goalies are most successful. Or that's when you see the most successful goalies is at every level they play, they take that next step.
00:41:17
Speaker
And that's something that if you guys find yourselves starting to get to a higher level, like if you're say 14 or 13, you're playing double A, you're trying to get to triple find a way to elevate yourself to that game.
00:41:33
Speaker
or to that level, that new level that you're at when you're playing in a game. And then you'll be able to be you know, giving yourself the best chance possible. Cause like we said, there's lots of variables um that go into being successful and getting the right opportunities and getting the right looks, but you can do things to help kind of tilt the odds a little bit in your favor.
00:41:59
Speaker
Now, as we said before, if you do all that and you put your best foot forward and it just doesn't pan out, it's not the end of the world, right? Like, Me personally, seeing some of the goalies that I played with and against who did go the NCAA Division One route, um I did think that I could have played Division One.
00:42:24
Speaker
It didn't happen. I got a couple division three offers and it is what it is. Like I also played a bit more in the arrow where bigger was better as a five, 10 goalie. I think that might've played a bit into it. I was also a little bit more unorthodox. Like it wasn't as structured. I was a lot more athletic and, uh,
00:42:43
Speaker
A little bit more on the Dominic Hasek side as opposed to, you know, the Carey Price side of things. So that probably didn't help either just with the optics of it. But I also played in a couple places that maybe didn't get as many looks as some other junior teams did. And that's kind of just how it how it rolled.
00:43:01
Speaker
And I'm okay with how my career played out. I got to do a lot of awesome things. um But there are some times where I do catch myself playing the what if game and it's natural. But I think if if you guys find yourself in that situation, don't get caught up in it. Right.
00:43:21
Speaker
There are a lot of things that have to fall into place to get to the the pro ranks or whatever level you were aiming for. And just because you didn't get there it doesn't necessarily mean you did anything wrong.
00:43:35
Speaker
It just means that the opportunity didn't really play out as it should. um So I just wanted to kind of touch on that today just because I do think a lot of people kind of get caught up in the semantics a little bit and and they don't.
00:43:51
Speaker
they're a little more critical on themselves than then they need to be, and I was one of them.
Closing Remarks and Promotions
00:43:56
Speaker
So enjoy the ride. Put your best foot forward. Do what you can. Work on the things that we talk about that a lot of the other podcasts and YouTube channels and goalie coaches out there talk about, and that's really all you can do.
00:44:13
Speaker
So again, guys, we really appreciate you tuning in um If you like what you are listening to, please share the show, like it, subscribe, follow whatever platform you're listening to. That helps us out a lot. ah You can check us out at thediygoalie.com and truenorthgoaltending.com.
00:44:35
Speaker
If you're in the Edmonton area and you want to come work with us, we have a facility just south of Edmonton and Nisku. We also have a couple camps going on the summer with spots still open for them. So even if you're not in the Edmonton area, but you wanted to travel to the Edmonton area to work with us, we yeah always get good positive feedback from our camps. We're always striving to make those better each year as well.
00:44:59
Speaker
and So you can check that out at truenorthgoaltending.com. And we'll link that in the show notes too. But you can just go to goalie counts there and see where that's at.
00:45:10
Speaker
You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all at the DIY goalie. You can follow us on Facebook at True North Goaltending or at Instagram at Y-E-G goalie coach.
00:45:24
Speaker
As always, guys, thanks again for tuning in. Make some saves, goalies. Take care.