Archive for January, 2009

Goalie News Sunday, February 1, 2009

Hockey Goalie News
Do you have a news item you would like published? Send it to news@inGoalMag.com today!

Goalies in the Blogs

Using the Stick… from Gaudiel Goaltending | Goalie Blog
Shutout hero Rask gives Bruins options down the home stretch
Minor Hockey Goalie Makes The Save Of The Year
Cliff’s Riffs: Ben Belton and Zack Bresko split the goalie work at …
Could Maple Leafs Goalie Vesa Toskala Join The Avalanche …
How do I get my coach to make a decision on a starter? - Goalie …
Columbus Blue Jackets Steve Mason Notches Seventh Shutout
Goaltending prospect Alex Stalock from SharksPage on Minnesota Duluth goaltender Alex Stalock
Mathieu Garon gets first start in goal with the Pittsburgh Penguins
San Jose Sharks-Phoenix Coyotes: Evgeni Nabokov Is Impenetrable 
Ryan Miller Leads Sabres Over Coyotes as Buffalo Blanks Phoenix 2-0
Stars-Blue Jackets: Dallas Leaves Mason And Columbus Seeing Stars
KuklasKorner : Red and Black Hockey : Cam Ward Wins Goaltender Duel

NHL Goalies

Boston’s Tuukka Rask shuts down New York Rangers in 1-0 victory
Rask records 1st shutout for Bruins
Bruins’ 
goalie of future Rask blanks Rangers nbcsports 
Chris Mason stops 35 as St. Louis Blues shut out Philadelphia Flyers 4-0
Mason stones Flyers
Ryan Miller stops 28 as Buffalo Sabres shutout Phoenix Coyotes 2-0
Miller shut outs Coyotes 2-0
Ward makes 19 saves for ninth career shutout as Hurricanes beat Thrashers 2-0 
Yann Danis stops 37 to lead Islanders past Panthers 3-1
Mathieu Garon not the answer in first game with Penguins
Goalie Garon shaky in Penguins debut
Roloson leads Oilers past Wild
BRUINS NOTEBOOK: Fernandez continues to sit idly by 

NCAA Goalies

Which Gopher Goalie to Start Tonight? – USCHO.com Fan Forum

Junior Goalies

Michael Tadjdeh earns his first WHL shut-out. Lethbridge beats Red Deer 3-0. via Twitter from @cansecast 

Leave a Comment

Goalie News Saturday January 31, 2009

Leave a Comment

Goalie Price Not to Blame

Leave a Comment

Photo of the Week January 30

Hail Nabby

This week’s photo of the week “Hail Nabby” was submitted by reader David Towers who sent along this about the photo:

“San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov has not needed to show his excellent play so much this season since the San Jose Sharks have switched to an intensely focused Offensive System under their new coach, which keeps the puck pretty much in the opponents end of the ice. As the season progresses however and the opposition starts fighting for playoff spots, Nabby’s immense value to the team will clearly be seen.

The goalie’s stellar play is well respected both in San Jose as a Shark, where ‘Nabby’ was a Vezina candidate last year and in Russia, where he recently back-stopped the Russian National hockey team to a Gold Medal in the World Championship of Hockey held in Quebec City, Canada.
Nabby was also the only goalie to record a shutout against the Gold Medal Swedish hockey team in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.”

I was most interested to see what he wrote in his Flickr account about the shot:

“First time shooting through the glass via the photographer hole for me. Amazing experience.
I had to rent a 70-200mm lens with a low f-stop.
Difficult to get the right settings though.
The entire game I was re-working the White Balance, playing with different speeds and f-stops.
Took me a good 10 minutes just to get the settings to produce a somewhat color correct image.
I am sure I can learn a lot more. It was my first time though so I am very happy with the result.”

 


Do you have any shots you’d like to share? They don’t need to be NHL goalies – just something – or someone – you are proud of. Your kid, your dad, your friend…anything you’d care to share.

Leave a Comment

Kay Whitmore on Goalie Equipment Regulations and Sizes

Goalie Equipment Moving to Proportional Fitting?

Great video from NHL.com on goalie equipment. At the end Whitmore notes that “proportional fitting” is coming…exactly what Pete Smith was arguing against in his interview the other day.

What do you think? Should every goalie have the equal opportunity to wear equipment that covers the same area, or should it be sized to your body? Is it fair to amateurs to change the gear every year?

Please click below and leave a comment!

Now check out the video – please be patient, NHL.com videos seem to take longer to load…

Comments (7)

Goalie News Friday January 30, 2009

Hockey Goalie News
Do you have a news item you would like published? Send it to news@inGoalMag.com today!

Goalies in the Blogs

Great interview at Tender’s Lounge with Trevor Leahy who designed the camouflaged gear
Dan Ellis’ Blog: Settling in as a sophomore Hockey News
Bolts Recall Goalie Riku Helenius JoeBoltsFan
Cycle like the Sedins: All-Decade Team Goalie: Can anyone …
Backup goalie situation in flux Lightning Strikes
Hockey Insider: Checkers lose hot goalie ECHL News
With Bowman on the road, Khabibulin could be sent packing | Rosenblog
Sports And The City: The Raycrap Report Vol. 7: We Meet Again …
Justin Pogge Loses Ground with Maple Leafs Fans After Blowout Loss …
PuckAgency Blog: Rinne and Backstrom get together for a special …
Tampa Bay Lightning – News: Lightning Recall G Riku Helenius from …
Kolzig Not Ready To Call It A Career
Great Confidence Booster For Leafs Justin Pogge!
Jackets Steve Mason Friday – GoaliePost.com
It looks like it’s time to be scouting for the goalie of the future…
Clemmensen savors win in Boston
Can You Spot The Crazy Man?

NHL Goalies

Nabokov gets another shutout in Sharks’ 2-0 win over Coyotes
Jonathan Quick makes 31 saves as Kings defeat Blackhawks 5-2
Marty’s Role? Devil in the Details  New York Post
Habs take best shots at Price Montreal Gazette
Emery incident overblown: agent  Faceoff.com
Osgood benched in losing effort Detroit Free Press
Smith outduels Price in Lightning’s win Globe and Mail
Raycroft gets the call against the Maple Leafs Globe and Mail
Price, Kovalev keys for Habs NBC
Panthers’ pressure cashes in on Price Sun Sentinel
Khabibulin, Blackhawks beat Ducks 3-2 Washington Post
Turco finally win in Detroit
Theodore Was Positioned to Play Goalie Washington Post

AHL

NHL.com: Schneider staying positive with Moose theAHL.com

NCAA

Madore a net gain New England Hockey Journal
MSU Looks to Rebound After Sweep at UMD…Have Yet to Decide Starting Goalie For Weekend…

Leave a Comment

NHL Goalie Coaches

Goalie Coach Tom Barasso 

Carolina Goalie Coach Tom Barasso

There is a great story over at NHL.com today on NHL Goalie Coaches. They discuss the emergence of the role of goalie coach and their various responsibilities within the organization.

“We go over video every day, I make a report on the opponent’s goalie so I watch their film and I prepare my practice going 30 minutes before with my goalies, and sometimes after practice we do more or watch video,” said Allaire. “The responsibility is to give and teach the goaltender to play up to their level most of the time. For that, we have to provide advice and offer some quality information to the goalie to make sure he is getting close to his potential.”

I hope we’ll be albe to connect with a few for interviews here before too long. Especially with the older coaches who come from the stand-up era, I’d like to hear about their experiences from a technical point of view working with today’s butterfly goalies. I have no doubt they can do it, but it must have been an adjustment.

Comments (1)

Goal Pad Designer Pete Smith Interview Podcast

Smith Goal Pads

Smith SP 5000 Pads

Goalie Pad Designer pete smith at work

Pete Smith at Work

Recently I had the great pleasure of speaking with Pete Smith about his career as a goal pad designer, and about his business today. One of the best known designers in the business, Pete is responsible for much of the innovation in today’s equipment made by all major brands.

  • I would encourage you to listen to today’s podcast interview to learn more from Pete. In our discussion he talks about:
  • His experience in the industry – which began with his first professional job while still in high school
  • His design process from work developing the Vaughn Velocity Pad, to new innovations today
  • Why he doesn’t work with NHL goalies today
  • The importance of the internet and customer service to his business
  • NHL regulations on equipment being a disadvantage to smaller goalies
  • and much, much more.

Pete is a great guy with a solid reputation in the business. If you’re looking to upgrade your gear I would encourage you to drop by his site and have a look, or better yet give Pete a call, I know he’d be happy to help. And when you do, tell him you heard the interview here!

Smith Hockey - http://www.smithhockey.com/

or contact Pete directly:

Phone (585) 637- 8660

E-mail pete.smith@smithhockey.com

Comments (9)

Goalie News, Thursday January 29, 2009

Leave a Comment

The Beer League Goalie on the Zen of Goaltending

I wrote the orginal Lessons from a Beer League Goalie post as a filler. I was starting this blog and needed something to post. I don’t consider myself an expert on goaltending so it was hard to share anything. Yet, I have received all sorts of notes from goalies saying they enjoyed the read and wanted more. So, somewhat sheepishly, here’s more from the 40-something Beer League Goalie today.
 
Hockey Goalie
Thinking about those times when my play has been poor, or my enjoyment of the game has been suffering as a result of my mental approach to different situations has led me to the idea of the Zen of Goaltending. Zen is a well-used term these days, and frankly I don’t know exactly what it means. But in this situation I intend for it to convey the idea of remaining calm in the face of difficult circumstances. It’s about remaining focused when there are distractions around you.

There are many times in the course of a game when your mental approach can be very important, not just for your success, but simply for getting the enjoyment out of a game that you should. That is why we play, isn’t it? Well, that and the cool gear.

Of course the obvious situation is how you react to a goal. Goals are an opportunity to learn – just like any failure in life is a chance to learn. I don’t mean failure in the harshest sense of the word here, I simply mean when things don’t go according to plan and do not have the desired outcome.

If we aren’t making mistakes, if goals aren’t going in, chances are we aren’t learning as much as we can. That goes back to the last Beer League Goalie post when I talked about how playing on a defensively challenged team (see: just about any beer league team – hey the players want to have fun too!) can be a great opportunity to learn and grow as a goaltender. 

That on its own is an important life lesson. Many business leaders believe failure should be celebrated, that innovation (or for goalies, growth) can’t come without failure. As long as a mistake comes from trying hard, it’s a good learning opportunity.

So for the most part now when a puck goes in I don’t get upset. I don’t agree with those who say forget it and move on though either. I doubt they really feel that. I believe that on virtually every goal there is something I could have done to prevent it. I always take a bit of time to review and consider what mistake I made so that next time I will be better. That’s a challenge when the next game might be a week away, but thanks to that approach I honestly believe I am better in my 40s than I was as a youngster, technically, if not athletically.

Goals aren’t the only time when the Zen approach is important. Any of the things that happen during the course of a game that can be frustrating, upsetting, or a source of anger need you to think Zen.

The guy cutting through the crease as a shot comes from the point. The player who lifts your stick as he takes up more than his share of room in the crease. The official who thinks someone needs to tackle you to have interfered with your ability to do your job. The player on your own team who tells you to stand up, or cut down the angle more (when the guy he should be covering is on the post behind you). The opponent who takes a late chop at your glove after the whistle. There are many, many more.

Over the course of many years of goaltending, all these things have made me angry in a game many times over. They still do, but not as much now (I think Zen is supposed to take most of a lifetime to master, isn’t it?).  There are some who think anger helps them, but for me there is no value. All it becomes is a distraction. If anger rises, the pucks start going in. Plain and simple.

So, back to Zen. Like when goals go in,  it’s a conscious decision to not let anything upset you. More than that, for me it’s the understanding that you choose your reaction to any situation. The opponent doesn’t make you angry. The official doesn’t force you to argue with him. You choose to feel that way.

Don’t believe me?

Have you ever played against a friend? Have you ever had a buddy go play for the other team because they were short a player? What about pickup wth your friends?

All of a sudden in this situation things that normally anger you become a fun part of the game. My buddy takes a whack at me in the crease as a shot comes in? It’s funny. We have a laugh. I give him a hook or a little jab next time he is near. It’s a great part of the game for the recreational player. If a friend crowds me in the crease, I push back harder and we both think its great. We’re both laughing.

So why can’t you take the same approach with guys you have never met before? I don’t mean go out of your way to retaliate. It might be fun, but again, the pucks tend to go in. I don’t even mean laugh, because that is also distracting, but you can decide that the ultra-competitive opponent is fun to play against. You can accept the challenge and get on with stopping the puck. You can stay calm, stay focussed and win the battle.

I recall getting angry when I was interfered with. I really believed I was right – and the puck was behind me. Then I changed my reaction and decided that ‘this is what NHL goalies deal with’ albeit on a much higher level. It reframed the situation and instead of being upsetting it was an exciting new challenge.

It’s the little things like your mental approach to tough situations that make the game a lot more fun to play. The Zen of Goaltending helps me enjoy the game. And Zen stops pucks. Trust me. Try it.


If you liked this one, check out the original post from Beer League Goalie.

Comments (2)