by Kevin Woodley with Ian Clark

Thatcher Demko has played his way into the Vezina Trophy conversation in his first full season as the Vancouver Canucks No. 1 goalie, continuing an evolution that includes regular maintenance work with goaltending coach Ian Clark.

Being based in Vancouver means InGoal Magazine gets to watch a lot of the work that has gone into Demko’s development path and ongoing in-season maintenance, including this series of progressions that ends in purposeful work for what some see as a desperation situation:

Believe it or not, there are specific keys to being able to increase your access to these types of shots, and Demko and Clark work on them semi-regularly. We’ll get to those keys later in this three-part progression of drills, but it always makes sense to start at the beginning.

This is the first part of a series of drills Clark refers to as “hand in support.” It starts with the goalie down in the butterfly and the coach with a puck directly in front of him.

Comments

Let's talk goaltending!

We welcome your contribution to the comments on this and all articles at InGoal. We ask that you keep it positive and appropriate for all - this is a community of goaltenders and we're here for each other! See our comment policy for more information.