Pro Drills: Keep-away with Flames goalies
- Set up four players in a diamond formation around a face-off circle with backs to the dot and one player in the middle to simulate forechecker pressure.
- Use body positioning — specifically 'getting your butt in front' of the forechecker — to cut off their angle and buy your defenseman extra time.
- Deceive the forechecker by committing the puck to one side rather than holding it in the neutral middle, which invites pressure from either direction.
- Dustin Wolf emphasizes using head-on-a-swivel vision to read the forechecker's movement and make decisions proactively, not reactively.
- Thomas Speer cautions against over-handling: goalies should make the forechecker commit without getting 'too crazy with the puck' and risking a turnover behind the net.
It’s been something of a hot topic the past year here at InGoal Magazine: coaches want their goalies to be good handling the puck but rarely provide an opportunity to do so in practice.
So, when we saw the Calgary Flames goalie development staff leading a quick, fun, puck-handle focussed drill at the end of warm up with Dustin Wolf and Adam Werner, we knew we had to share it. Wolf, Warner, Flames goaltending director Jordan Sigalet and goalie development coach Thomas Speer gathered around a face-off circle in a diamond formation, with their backs turned to the middle, or face-off dot, and one player in the middle.
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