Pro Drills featuring Curtis Sanford and Arturs Silovs
- Stay calm through the first two shots of the drill before triggering desperation mode — premature panic reduces your save percentage on lateral scrambles.
- The three-puck drill positions the goalie in the butterfly at one corner of the crease, forcing controlled movement before a desperate cross-crease race.
- Even in full desperation mode, Sanford teaches a coverage priority plan to maximize the chance of stopping plays of chaos.
- Curtis Sanford developed this drill while serving as Vancouver Canucks goaltending development coach, using Arturs Silovs as the demonstrating goalie.
- This drill connects to Ian Clark's Hand in Support Drill Series, extending the desperation save framework Clark used with Thatcher Demko.
Photo: Derek Cain/Icon Sportswire
Hockey is too dynamic for goalies to make perfect saves every time.
There will always be moments that call for desperation.
It’s important to train for those moments too.
New Toronto Maple Leafs goalie coach Curtis Sanford walks us through a three-puck drill to help goalies find that balance between control and desperation on quick lateral plays in tight — as usual there are keys to doing it right, even once we’ve triggered desperation mode.
The drill starts with the goalie in the butterfly on one corner of the crease, squared up on two pucks spaced out slightly about two feet atop the crease, and a third puck sitting in a similar position on the other side. The shooter fires those first two pucks off the far side pad one after the other, starting the goalie moving towards the middle of the net, then tries to win a race for that third puck on top of the other side of the crease before the goalie can get across:
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