Going from old school to new school, but never reverting

[RichMan]

I pondered on something that made me realise an unavoidable fact about my goaltending style or technique (you choose your word).

So with about 30 years of goaltending under my belt, I came from the days where making a pad save standing up, or a split windmill glove save or a poke check was the norm. T-pushes were more like stepping ups or outs. If you couldn't make it, a high flying pad kick save à la Fuhr was an acceptable alternative. There were no butterfly slides, it was called the 2 pad stack slide. The butterfly recovery was more like an attempt to simply get up and in position at all cost, and the pic and slide (or power slide) was not even a thought in coaches or goalies minds yet.

It wasn't a surprise that with the evolution of the game and my new exposer to coaching that I too had to adapt and evolved, especially if I wanted to transfer this information to younger goalies. I'll admit that in the beginning, things were not pretty and I honestly thought that I would never get to the point of what is considered the norm in today's game. And this is where I realised that, after so many hours of practising myself and teaching the b-fly and recoveries, and pic slides, and VH/RVH and all the other tricks in the modern goalie's bag, I realised that going back to my old ways of keeping the net in the '80s and '90s seems almost impossible. Sure now and then I'll stack the pads or do a flipper pad save or throw out a poke check, but my game has become so "now" that my first responses all revolve around that one key element, the butterfly position.

Do I really want to go back? Maybe when I'm 70, if my hips of knees don't tell me before. It almost feels alien to me when I do a kick save, as if I'm wondering where the hell did that come from, lolll

I'm willing to bet that I'm not the only one who feels like this after converting to modern goaltending. I wonder if the young goalies of today will get to experience the same thing as the game changes and progresses in say, oh, 20 years from now? I'm anxious to find out!

[Hockey School Dropout]

I don;t know, I didn't get to play as a kid.  I only started with the "modern" game.  However, playing street and floor hockey in the 80s gave me the "stand up" style moves.  I like to throw them in once in a while to really mind**** the skaters who are expecting the same ho hum "modern" style.

[estogoalie]

Hey Rich, everything has evolved, including us If you took a 1980's NHL goalie and brought him to 2018 he'd get destroyed. The game itself is much faster, in part to players being in better shape today, and as well as the introduction of the composite stick, that makes a huge difference in the speed and accuracy of the shots. Check out how fit Billy Smith was, LOL, he looks like a beer league dad who just finished mowing the lawn, not a 4x Stanly Cup winner. Good luck finding a NHL goalie on any team today who has a beer gut like Smitty's.

But the reason goalies techniques have changed so much is mainly due to the evolution of the gear itself. Namely leg pads and chestys. The old leg pads had crap leg channels, no knee stacks, didn't rotate, leather didn't slide well, etc. Goalies did drop into the butterfly position (see the Smitty pic below) but they pads would rock forward, no 5-hole closure, etc. it just wasn't the "go to" move. Plus the C/A's were hardly protective. The one I had in the 70's/80's was just rolls of felt, not the 1" thick foam blocks like today. When you got hit on the chest with a felt C/A it wasn't fun. That's a big reason why you saw goalies back then handling like 80% of high shots with their gloves, because nobody really enjoyed taking one to the chest.

But then coming to today's gear, the improved leg pads let you have a perfect 90° seal with the ice, you can slide and glide all over the place, great 5-hole closure. And then combine that with bullet-proof CA's that let you take a direct leaser shot and barely feel it, well, there's how the new "drop and block" style came to be. Of course the older acrobatic style was more fun to watch, but with drop and block, as long as you are in position, the goalie has the advantage because the shooter has nothing to shoot at. I'm not sure of when the gear improved to that point, but I'd say somewhere around 2000 you started to see goalies like Roy and Giguere doing more "modern" butterfly.

I think the NHL is doing everything they can to get rid of the drop and block, but you can't turn the clock back, the new gear is here, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. So they try this Chinese water torture where they shave another 1/4" off the pads every couple of years, but it's mainly BS as there isn't really any effect (ok, it's good to keep things from getting Garth Snow). But if they want to see goalies being acrobatic again like back in the day, then they need to open the game up more, and get the goalies moving and out of position more. Something like the 3-on-3 overtime, or making the ice to European size, or something in that direction. Regarding attempts at changing the goalie gear, forget it. Unless they want to put everyone back in 1980's KOHO's and felt CA's, LOL.

[bunnyman666]

@estogoalie Billy was quite in shape when compared to the likes of Turk Broda who was around 20-30 years before Billy Smith. Smithwas fun to watch. 

I laugh when one guy called my style “doesn’t move unless you have to”, but the new style is to square up and drop. Most likely there isn’t much to shoot at, unless you have pylons for defence and you can’t cover both sides of the net! 

Of course when I was playing for the last couple of weeks before this most recent surgery, I was not dropping, mainly due to my poor physical conditioning at that point. If I dropped, I was not going to get back up very quickly. But I also was literally playing just for the sake of putting on the equipment  and getting my blood moving a bit. At that point, I had not played since late January when I started having the flare ups that ultimately resulted in the removal of my colon. 

The current evolution of play was inevitable. Once technology caught up with equipment manufacture, this was going to be the way. This position went from not being coached to the most highly specialised and coached position in sports! 

The NHL’s ambition is to make goalies scared of the puck again, I am convinced! This new CA spec’s object is to make goalies feel more stingers so that the goalies are more fatigued and let in more goals. Sure the pros will be tough enough to take the shots, but get enough stingers and your performance starts to suffer, no matter who you are! I took one ex-pro’s shot HARD to the palm. It took ten minutes to get the feeling back in my hand. My game was worth EVEN LESS than normal! My glove literally was deflecting, not catching! I was dead tired after that shot and found myself feeling the puck more than normal the times it wasn’t just going in!

The league just needs to let the game grow organically instead of a scoring orgy!

[jeff da goalie]

On 10/1/2018 at 5:25 AM, bunnyman666 said:

 but the new style is to square up and drop.

I don't think that's accurate and hasn't been for years.  You see a lot more reading the play, dropping when it's appropriate but staying up for the high shots.  And with the east/west play, it's not "square up and drop".  You have a lot more butterfly slides and reactive moves.  

I actually prefer to watch modern goalies.  It's a little embarrassing when I watch some of the old school goals that would have easily been stopped today.  Sure, the dramatic saves are fun to watch, but that's not most of what they were doing.  

[Scythe]

"am convinced! This new CA spec’s object is to make goalies feel more stingers so that the goalies are more fatigued and let in more goals. Sure the pros will be tough enough to take the shots, but get enough stingers and your performance starts to suffer, no matter who you are! I took one ex-pro’s shot HARD to the palm. It took ten minutes to get the feeling back in my hand. My game was worth EVEN LESS than normal! My glove liter"

i never really thought about that but it does throw you off. I had a stinger on my arm about 4" above my left wrist the other  day and all i wanted to do was sit down for a couple minutes. 

[kyledjean]

4 hours ago, Scythe said:

"am convinced! This new CA spec’s object is to make goalies feel more stingers so that the goalies are more fatigued and let in more goals. Sure the pros will be tough enough to take the shots, but get enough stingers and your performance starts to suffer, no matter who you are! I took one ex-pro’s shot HARD to the palm. It took ten minutes to get the feeling back in my hand. My game was worth EVEN LESS than normal! My glove liter"

i never really thought about that but it does throw you off. I had a stinger on my arm about 4" above my left wrist the other  day and all i wanted to do was sit down for a couple minutes. 

I went from a vaughn vision ca from aprox 2003 to a warrior gt and let me tell you I feel next to nothing with the new chesty. To be honest not feeling it has actually hindered me a couple times as I lost track of the puck. I have literally only had 1 stinger in the shoulder in the month I have had it. The new ca are amazing compared to the early 2000's. What Chesty are you using?

Per Broduer, if you aren't evolving your game every 2-3 years you are becoming obsolete. Ingoal had a great podcast with him. Just from the time of 2005 to know the way goaltending is played has changed exponentially. If you are constantly updating your game you will inevitably fall behind your peers, regardless of league/skill. with that being said it doesn't hurt to have other tools in your bag, you never know when you need a two pad stack (seen a couple this year in the NHL actually). Also the poke check will never go out of style.