Goals Go Through Holes!

This article's goal is not to make you look good, it is to make you not look BAD!!!  Wait, what?

Follow the advice laid out here, and you won't just give up fewer goals, you will give up fewer bad, sloppy, embarrassing, costly, soft goals.  The most important quality that coaches look for in a goaltender is consistency.  You don't need to win every game for the team by standing on your head---as long as you don't lose games for the team by giving up bad goals.

The five holes of a goaltender refer to the best places to shoot against a traditional (old school) stand-up goalie.  The first four represent the corners of the goal, low and high.  The fifth hole is a bit more infamous, and we all know where that one is. 

Here is a picture of an old-school shooter tutor, with the five holes clearly open for business.  I bet "the great one" scores them all from there!

With today's butterfly style, goalies often present a different target to the shooter.  Though the holes in the bottom of the net have shrunk, the butterfly does present some new holes to exploit.

The holes numbered 7 and 9 in the above picture represent shots that go over the shoulders and through the arms of butterfly goalies, using a traditional (not blocking) butterfly save.



To see even more clearly why these holes are where they are, take a look at this picture of Ronan Mobley's traditional butterfly below:

By keeping your hands up when you butterfly, you leave holes under your arms, and over your shoulders.  This is why the traditional butterfly should only be used on shots from the outside with no traffic.

I think we have all been beaten on a shot through the arm holes, and there is really no excuse for it.  If the shot comes through traffic, or is too close to react to, use a BLOCKING butterfly.  Though it is not as easy to control a rebound with this save, it is much easier to start from a tight closed position and react out than it is to start open and try to quickly close down.  Plus, it is always better to give up a bad rebound than a bad goal!

Now there is no way to get one under his arms. 

If a shooter makes a great shot over your shoulders or into the top corner, then your coaches, teammates, parents, and fans can live with it.  It's those lucky shots, that sneak through holes in your body that are so tough to stomach, and result in that collective groan from the crowd. 

Finally, I would like to put a new twist on the most dreaded hole of all, number five.  A goal "between the wickets" is the most embarrassing type of goal, and one of the main reasons for the advent of the butterfly save.  By displaying a big five hole to the shooter, then snapping it shut, goalies make a lot of tough saves look easy. 

Yet as goaltending has evolved, so has the shooter's mindset, and they have discovered a pesky new technique for beating us down the middle without ever lifting the puck off the ice!!!  Many goaltenders will forget to control their sticks when butterflying, and this can lead to embarrassing goals in three ways.

1) The stick hits the side of the blocker side pad, causing it to hop off the ice for a split second and allowing the puck to pass through.

2) The stick slides toward the glove side pad as the blocker closes down, giving the appearance of a check mark, and opening the hole between the heel of the stick and the five hole.

3) The stick gets too low to the ice, and creates a ramp for the puck.  Though these shots don't go through the five hole, it can be even more embarrassing to put one in your own top corner.

To avoid these goals, make sure that the blade of your stick slides STRAIGHT forward when you butterfly, and that the paddle never touches your pads.  Also, make sure that your hands never drop below your pads, creating the embarrassing ramp effect. 

Even top pros give up the occasional soft five hole goal.  Where was your stick J.S.G!?!?

Bad goals can deflate a goaltender's confidence, not to mention that of his coaches and teammates.  By perfecting your butterfly, you can reduce the possibility of these goals sneaking in drastically.  A team always plays better when they know that their goaltender will keep the soft ones out!