“Hovercraft” Movement Keys Shesterkin’s Success
Igor Shesterkin is following up his remarkable regular season with a memorable playoff run, putting the New York Rangers star in an even brighter spotlight, and giving us a chance to take a closer look at some of the unique skills that make him so good.
To assist us in the breakdown, InGoal Magazine turned to two people who know his game as well as anyone: Marko Torenius, who was one of two goaltending coaches to work with Shesterkin during his five seasons playing for SKA St. Petersburg in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, and Stephen Valiquette, the former Rangers goalie turned TV analyst, who also shares some of the insights from his new broadcasting partner, future first ballot Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist.
For them, Shesterkin’s success starts with how well he moves on his skates, and how patiently he holds his edges and outwaits shooters, but it’s the way he gets around his crease from his knees that is opening eyes around the NHL and beyond. It might be an exaggeration to say he’s changing the way goalies move but he is at the very least raising that standard in the NHL.
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Fantastic article Kevin, lots of great information on the different stances as I know you have talked about before, high, medium and low in which Ian Clark emphasizes with his goalies. This is something I will try and incorporate with my goalies this season. Keep up the great work.
thanks James, really appreciate the feedback and kind words … so fun to watch these guys, but also worth noting some of the common threads we see among the elite goalies, including proper use of that higher, narrower stance
This is a great read! Shesterkin has been so fun to watch in these playoffs and there are so many parts of his game that I had not even considered before reading this article. I envy a lot of things about Shesterkin’s game (who wouldn’t?) but his ability to stay in a higher stance so often is something I have been trying to incorporate into my own game for a while and it’s so much harder than he makes it look.
What surprises me as a goalie myself is his effortless explosions to the puck from his knees. Perfect example from the Kucherov video. He just explodes forward off of the post to cut down angles. This is if
Not already revolutionizing the position once again. Great read. I live in NYC, born and bred so I am fortunate to watch him every game. His poise in unreal.
How many other readers, watched and re-watched each video clip at least three times. Great article. We need more like this, not just with the best goalies.
I love the easy biomechanics that he employs and that you mention about the torso upright which really helps for recovery. Crazy too how you see so many young goalies doing all those pushes while down in the butterfly but yet none of them utilize it in a game to catch and control their edges. Great article and great clips to highlight the key points. Please keep it up.