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Roberto Luongo and James Reimer practice leg recovery drills on ice with Florida Panthers goaltending coach Rob Tallas

Pro-Drills: Tallas, Luongo and Reimer: Proper Leg Recovery Moving Forward

Kevin Woodley | Co-Founder & Managing Editor — InGoal Magazine | | 3 min read

Co-founder and Managing Editor of InGoal Magazine. NHL.com correspondent covering the Vancouver Canucks and author of the Unmasked series. Previously with the Associated Press, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and The Hockey News.

Key Takeaways
  • Use your right leg to get up when you need to move left, and your left leg when you need to move right — this gives fastest access to the push edge.
  • When no lateral movement is needed and you're simply getting up, Rob Tallas teaches goalies to lead with the glove-side leg.
  • Proper leg recovery is now a foundational principle drilled into goalies from a young age, but the 'moving straight forward' scenario is a less commonly coached refinement.
  • Rob Tallas applied this correction to James Reimer mid-drill during a 2018 Florida Panthers training camp crease movement session.
  • Goalies who learned proper leg recovery fundamentals at summer camps in the mid-2000s are now in their NHL prime, making this technique a staple at the professional level.

The concept of proper-leg recovery is drilled into goalies pretty early these days.

In simplest terms, if you need to get up from the butterfly and move left, you get up with your right leg, which gives you the fastest access to the skate and edge you need to use in order to push in that direction. And if you need to move right, you get up with your left leg first.

It doesn’t seem long ago goalies didn’t grow up with that principle. I remember NHL goalies getting up with the same leg regardless of the direction they needed to move when I started writing about the position in 2003-04 and many of those same goalies remarking how much better young kids at the time did it when they watched summer camps. Those kids are now in their mid- to late-20s — their NHL prime, if you will — and that movement concept is a staple.

Need to move left? Get up with right leg. Rebound go to the right? Get up with the left.

But what about those times when you don’t necessarily need to go either direction?

What about those times when a loose puck or rebound pops straight out in front of you?

What about when you’re just getting up because there is time to get up?

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