Devils @ Leafs - Oct. 21st, 7:00pm - TSN4

[herman]

 

[Guilt Trip]

Yeah I'm still not buying it. I've been coaching goalies for over 20 years. I played goalie at high levels for 15. Perhaps in the early years you could judge the angle of a blade, but with the speed of a release from probably U15 upwards, there's no way a goalie is looking at the angle of a stick blade. You just don't see it. It happens too fast.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

Maybe angle is the wrong word. Open or closed blade make more sense?
How do you know a shot is going glove side? Youre hopefully not guessing. Whether you are aware of it or not, goalies do process the blade. The difference in position of the puck at the release point is very small. Your brain takes in all the info including the position of the stick to determine it's going high, low glove or wherever.
I relate it to a batter in baseball. He's not just seeing the ball. He's sees angle of the arm, release point.
Obviously you can only do this on clear view shots.
Anyway that's what I used to do. Maybe I'm just an old fart now that did it different many moons ago.

Side note..I hope you're training these goalies to not go down on every shot. Going back to that slap shot goal. If Stolarz has his angle right and just stands there, it most likely hits him in the pads. I find goalies move way too much.

 

[herman]

Going back to that slap shot goal. If Stolarz has his angle right and just stands there, it most likely hits him in the pads. I find goalies move way too much.

Agreed. But I also want to note that Hughes manipulated Stolarz into moving with his blade angle (closed to open), matching body language pointing glove side, and very slight hesitation to let the puck roll more to the toe for release. Mid-blocker is a great target for shooters: slow arm, rebound potential.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

That was an excellent video.

 

[cw]

Maybe angle is the wrong word. Open or closed blade make more sense?
How do you know a shot is going glove side? Youre hopefully not guessing. Whether you are aware of it or not, goalies do process the blade. The difference in position of the puck at the release point is very small. Your brain takes in all the info including the position of the stick to determine it's going high, low glove or wherever.
I relate it to a batter in baseball. He's not just seeing the ball. He's sees angle of the arm, release point.
Obviously you can only do this on clear view shots.
Anyway that's what I used to do. Maybe I'm just an old fart now that did it different many moons ago.

Side note..I hope you're training these goalies to not go down on every shot. Going back to that slap shot goal. If Stolarz has his angle right and just stands there, it most likely hits him in the pads. I find goalies move way too much.

On shots from further out or lower velocity, sure, read the release, etc.
But an 80 mph shot from 23 feet, as Hughes delivered, could be in the net before many NHL goalies can react - no matter what they see on the release.
The NHL goalies with the fastest reaction time (~.16 secs) might move their glove/blocker an inch in the 28th of a second they have to react. That is kind of it. If they need to move it more than that, they're beat. Prepositioning is nearly all they can do.

The other thing is Hughes blade is white - so that is tougher to read with the white ice and boards as a backdrop. His stick blade is moving at ~65 mph to deliver an 80 mph shot..

And with a slapshot, you're hitting the ice behind the puck to spring load the shaft. Blade is harder to read as it is compressed on the ice. So it is as the puck is released that you could begin to read the blade release, etc beyond whatever the angle, puck position relative to his skates and shoulders, etc already told you as he wound up. In that circumstance, the 28th of a second we theorized the fastest goalie has available to move after reaction time is even shorter in practice because some of that read has to happen after the puck has left his stick on its way to the goal.