Dmen Screens: Active vs. Passive

[seagoal]

We lost an absolute heartbreaker of a game last night.  We were playing the 2nd place team from the division above us, we are the 2nd place team in our division.  They are clearly a better team than us in most regards, as our history of playing them has shown.  They never blow us out, but consistently beat us.  Me and their goalie are pretty evenly matched but they have a consistent, persistent offense that is way better than ours.  Our defense is matched well.

Anyway, first goal on me was a fluke.  A hard shot on the ice from the point on my left was going wide--my D guy decided to try to stop it with his skate, deflected it on goal. I drop to the RVH pretty quick, but not quick enough.  Hit my skate and in.  1-0 end of the first.

We tie it half way through the second, 1-1 end of the second. 

We take the lead early in the third, 2-1.

We get in some penalty trouble halfway into the third.  Their small, scrappy F peels off my guy on the half wall, skates into the circle to my left with tons of time and space, hard shot at my left skate, hit the post and in.  2-2.

1:30 left to play, my best D gets tripped by a guy, no call.  He's down and out.  Puck carrier dishes off to the point and the guys comes down towards me, 1 on 1 with my weaker D.  The F fakes a cut to the slot and shoots at the perfect time with my D between us from the faceoff circle.  The shot is off speed and flipping.  By the time I saw it late, I could only go into a very passive, blocking symmetrical bfly.  Puck hits my blocker, deflects back and to the side in the net.  3-2, which is how we lose.  Had I caught site of it sooner I would have been more active with my blocker in front of my body for an easy save.  But, I caught it very late so all I could do was play passive and big.  Got a piece, but it went in.   Ugh.  That's hockey.

The D who was on that play was pretty devastated and he was very upset for screening me.  He asked me if he screened me, and my response was "well, the guy used you as a shield.  That's not on you.  You actually played it well.  He shot at just the right moment with you between us.  Not much you can do about that."

So it ended up being a good conversation in the locker room about that and I later emailed him to further elaborate and try to take some of the heat off of him.  Anyway, I think it is an important distinction for us to make with our D about active vs. passive screens. 

Getting used by a F with his head up and looking for just the right moment on a 1 on 1 play is NOT the same as a D man standing around blocking our sight lines.  I think we can fault the D for the latter but not the former.   Our D will be in the way some times and they should be aware of our sight lines, but they shouldn't expect to never be blocking our vision of a shot.  What's the alternative? Moving aside and allowing a breakaway? No, that's silly. 

Hopefully I made him feel less bad about that play.  I basically said: You didn't screen me, you got used.  It's fine, relax.

It was such a fun game, one of those where I just felt grateful to be playing and kinda fell in love with hockey and being a goalie all over again.  I made 34 saves and played really well. 

Good times.

[coopaloop1234]

Interesting topic.

I see quite a bit in varying degrees of skill sets in my defensemen on both of my teams. Going from a group of high caliber defensemen, to lower tiered guys where the skill set between the top guy and bottom guy are drastically different. I see it all on a consistent basis.

The issue with a lot of the "using the D as a screen" type of shots generally come down to poor gap control by our D. Allowing them enough space to get close and use them as a screen but be outside of stick checking range is a big no-no when it comes to playing D. I see more of this come from when wingers are staying back for pinching D, but it does show itself on less skilled Dmen.

Regardless of this scenario, we as goalies should be attempting to maintain as much eye contact on that puck as possible. a 1v1 scenario like this should be one where an active head would be able to work around any potential screening done by your D. I know it's not always possible and I'm definitely guilty of just focusing on centering myself first and foremost.

But hey, always got to find a fault to improve on right?

[seagoal]

Yeah, good points Coop about the gap control from our D.  I feel like that is a very nuanced, higher level aspect that would be very difficult for an adult beer leaguer to focus on without coaching. 

An absolutely Yes, it is our responsibility to be surprised/handcuffed/caught off guard as little as possible, for sure. 

What drives me a little crazy about the game winning goal in this scenario is that the puck hit me in a passive, blocking posture and that's not my game.  I'm more active and reactive and had I had a split second more time, I could've gotten the tie at 2-2 with that shot.  I could have fought for sight of the puck a bit better to track it sooner.

Oh well.

This site is a great alternative to coaching

[coopaloop1234]

5 minutes ago, seagoal said:

Yeah, good points Coop about the gap control from our D.  I feel like that is a very nuanced, higher level aspect that would be very difficult for an adult beer leaguer to focus on without coaching.

See, I feel as if it should be a pretty standard defensive aspect that most guys should know. I used to play D growing up (house league, never really that good) so I'm aware of the need that gap control has on effective defense. I see my higher caliber guys effectively use it, it's just generally the lowers skilled D-men or wingers that lack this knowledge. Which sucks because in low level beer league hockey, just getting your stick on the shot in the first place practically negates a huge portion of a teams offense.

[seagoal]

Just now, coopaloop1234 said:

See, I feel as if it should be a pretty standard defensive aspect that most guys should know. I used to play D growing up (house league, never really that good) so I'm aware of the need that gap control has on effective defense. I see my higher caliber guys effectively use it, it's just generally the lowers skilled D-men or wingers that lack this knowledge. Which sucks because in low level beer league hockey, just getting your stick on the shot in the first place practically negates a huge portion of a teams offense.

True, I just think the level of self-awareness and willingness to improve is lacking in a lot of rec league guys.

There's a lot of apologizing with less improvement.

The ole response "don't be sorry, be different" is a go-to for any goalie.

[SaveByRichter35]

I know this feeling all too well.  3 of my 4 dmen are forwards playing D.  They're all good hockey players but the difference between the one guy and the rest of them...well, it shows, that's for sure.

[Colander]

On 3/4/2019 at 11:32 AM, seagoal said:

True, I just think the level of self-awareness and willingness to improve is lacking in a lot of rec league guys.

There's a lot of apologizing with less improvement.

The ole response "don't be sorry, be different" is a go-to for any goalie.

@seagoalI think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I believe 99.9% of the people on goalie forums like this are here for the same common reason – to improve (of course, from what I have heard this is not necessarily the goal of the GGSU forum). IMO it’s inherent to a goalie’s nature and a function of the position: we all know when a goal goes in we are directly in the spotlight, whether it is our fault or not so there's huge motivation to mitigate that occurrence.

The unfortunate part as you just stated is that while most goalies try to improve, the majority (not all) of forwards and D in beer leagues are happy to just get by with whatever skills they may have attained while playing the highest level of minor hockey they last had to attend a practice for. I doubt many if any of them lie in bed after a game re-playing it in their head and asking why this or that happened and how they can improve. Hell, I’ve played with people that didn’t have the prerequisite skating skills 4 years ago and still don’t – their level of concern for their playing abilities is so low they can’t hit a few public skates to effect a slight improvement. And of course because they can’t keep up with the play, they get put on D.

How many D do you think are on a forum right now saying “I am not sure how to handle a play when “X” happens – what do you guys do?”

[seagoal]

Good points.

I feel like skaters in beer leagues are like goofy Labs who just look at you with their tongues out saying "hey pal, I suck.  Sorry" except they're totally happy and okay with that. 

Whereas we are back there (or on here.....you're right, there's probably not a thriving thehockeydefenseman.com) looking to improve and being self-critical and self-aware.