This second part of our three-part review of the new NHL Sense Arena Goalie Advancement Program took a little longer than planned, but the truth is that’s largely because we went back (several times) to work more on the Release Reading drills outlined in Part 1.

We think most goalies will do the same. In fact, going back and reviewing the material was part of both the Sense Arena plan and our advice. And because you can continue to dial up the difficulty, each time you do, the new GAP programs all remain progressive.

It made sense for us to begin with reading a release as the first of the three focal points that we reviewed, but this next part — the Sense Arena Angle Mastery Course — isn’t far behind in importance and would be easily interchangeable as a starting point before moving onto the final portion of the new two-month program, which deals with managing traffic.

“For a goaltender, angle is the lifeblood of success,” said Brian Daccord, a long-time NHL goalie coach, scout and director who helped guide the development of GAP with insights from his son and Sense Arena user Joey Daccord of the Seattle Kraken. “Think about Connor Hellebuyck, the No.1 rated goalie in the world, and how great he is at being on an angle. This practice plan is going to teach you not only how to be on angle, but different ways you can improve becoming better at getting square and online with the puck.”

The Angle Mastery Course includes six levels ranging from basic to advanced, and multiple training days to ensure progressive development, with daily sessions of 6-8 drills and 8-10 minutes of focused work per drill. There are also several difficulty levels to ensure goalies can progress at their own pace — and keep going back to improve.

LEVEL 1

The first level starts with basic simple drills designed to improve static positioning and staying square to the shooter, but this focus on angle and squareness — rather than stepping out and adding depth — combined with predictable shots (they alternate from glove to blocker at the start) allows goalies to also focus on their tracking.

“Whether using your glove or blocker, always move your head towards the puck and follow its path,” Daccord said in the introduction to Level 1 drills.

The “angles feature” is turned on, which is essentially a line from the puck to each post to help you understand and feel when you’re centered and “on angle” and what it means to your coverage. Those lines move, whether it’s as a shooter pulls the puck in before a release like in this simple early drill from the Training 1 portion of Level 1:

(Editor’s note: don’t worry about the “grid” lines that sometimes appear when we’re making saves from angles that put us close to the post, the space we’re using to training in the InGoal offices is smaller than ideal, so that’s just us getting close to the edge of the designated grid and is designed to ensure we don’t punch a desk making a save)

As you get towards the end of the Training 2 set of drills, passes are added, with the angle lines moving with the puck from player to player before a shot. In Training 3, shots become less predictable as you move through the drills, with passing again added later.

“Regardless of where the shot is, make sure you’re perfectly square lined up with the puck when you’re making these saves,” Daccord said. “Whether it’s glove or blocker, make sure we’re tracking down, our forehead is moving towards the puck when making the save.”

LEVEL 2

The second level builds on movement and orientation in the crease, with a focus on moving effectively without over committing, with the angle function there to help as things get progressively more dynamic, both in terms of speed and passes.

“We’re going to get you moving and when you start moving, you’ve got to remember one thing: Do not get ahead of the puck,” Daccord said. “Keeping the angles feature on so you’ll be able to see a line the left and the right, make sure while that puck is moving, you’re moving at the same time, making sure that your staying square to puck.”

The score after each drill includes an “Angles %” so you can measure how well you’re doing just that. As for the warning about not getting ahead of the puck, it’s driven home by quick shots against the grain that can get by you if you’re moving early or get ahead of it.

“Getting ahead of the puck is worse than being behind it,” Daccord reminds us. “The whole idea of having our angle feature on is that you know exactly where you are.”

Things continue to progress — remember, the GAP is NHL Sense Arena’s first true training plan, so the whole idea is to continue building — with more dynamic plays, including passes out of the corner low-to-high, then across to 3 shooter options.

“This is a great opportunity to work on your shoulder checks,” Daccord said of identifying threats before the pass is made. “That means looking off the puck, scanning where the receiver is going to be, and then re visually attaching with the puck.”

You can add depth but the priority is getting to your angle first and instinctually you come to understand your best chance is to rotating into that new angle with the pass to stay square, building on the idea less can be more as you move around the crease.

LEVEL 3

Sense Arena’s “box control feature” gets activated in Level 3.

This visual aid takes the “angle lines” to another level, adding a horizontal line in front of you to represent the height the puck would have to stay below to go in under the cross bar behind you. There are also markers in each corner of the box in front of you — a circle for the glove and rectangle for the blocker — to represent your coverage in the corner of the net.

The idea behind box control, a phrase coined by Swedish goalie coach legend Thomas Magnusson, is to show goalies how small the “box” they need to “control” by cutting off pucks in front of them really is, rather than thinking about the big net behind them.

“The box is going to show you exactly where the puck has to enter to be able to go into the net,” Daccord explained. “Your job is to fill the box.”

Goalie coaches have used fishing rods, dog leashes and even traffic pilons on the ice to represent this small box, but the beauty of virtual reality goaltending is there is nothing for you to get tangled up with while working on it. Even better in this case: the small box will move the puck as it gets passes around the ice, and that horizontal line really drives home the feel of being square as we continue to work on mastering our angles in Level 3.

The screen casting video clips didn’t really do justice to how the box control feature looks and feels inside the headset, so we exaggerated a little in the video above by getting lower in our stance and with our head. But it really is a clear guideline that shows how small the area you need to close off in front of you is, and that vertical line was a real tell for our tester in terms of how little of the net — but plenty of the glass behind him — was actually being covered by what now seems like an excessively high initial glove positioning.

The box control features can also drive home how our hands can act like a steering wheel, as Pekka Rinne once explained to InGoal, when held out in front of us (but not pushed too far out). And it really does help you realize how little you have to move your gloves if you’re on angle, as well as how that changes on a shot from the middle versus the dots.

The play continues to get more and more dynamic as we move through Level 3, with bank passes behind the net and up the boards, as well as moving screens.

They even add a rush element in Training 3 of Level 3 with a pass out to a downhill skater with a pass option, continuing to build on the importance of looking off the puck as that skater comes down hill because the backdoor pass option can move to different spots.

What does that have to do with mastering angles? Being able to identify that threat location before the pass will help move into your next angle more effectively once it’s made.

“When you have an opportunity, look away from the puck, look off the puck, scan, see where the threats are, and then reattach to the puck and make sure we’re always filling that filling that box and getting as much net coverage as we possibly can,” Daccord said.

LEVEL 4

The difficulty and dynamic nature of the drills continues to increase, with passing options scattered around the zone both down low and up high, adding a depth decision as you learn it can be effective to close out and cut off the angle on chances from in tight.

The speed increases, puck carriers skate behind the net with multiple pass options in front, and back door passes become more prevalent. In other words, it’s getting more game like, including the importance of not cheating before a puck carrier gets below the goal line because they will sometimes shoot and catch you moving off the short side post early.

“We want to close the gap between the puck and the net, and we’ve got to fill that space in the box, so our box control feature is still on,” Daccord said. “But guess what? We’re going to ramp up the speed. We’re going to be going quicker here. So be ready.”

There’s also an increase in backdoor passing options.

“Focus on reading where that player is,” Daccord said. “In order to get there quicker, we have to anticipate. To anticipate, we have to scan. See where that player is, gauge the tempo and speed that they’re attacking the net, and get to your spot.”

LEVEL 5

The difficulty continues to increase as you build on all the lessons to this point, but you’ll almost certainly notice how much more effectively you are managing the tougher tests, prioritizing angle, cutting it down in tight, and looking off pucks in the right situations to locate your next angle early and get there on time once a pass is made.

The difference in Level 5 is they begin to remove the box control and angles features. It’s a great way to see how instinctual all that work you’ve put into being on angle really is.

“It’s time to take the training wheels off,” Daccord said.

It’s controlled to start, with box control for a drill, then just angles for the same drill, and finally another run through the drill without any of the Sense Arena features to help.

You can see the progression through this sample with the same drill done three times:

In Training 3, you start with box control and then go right to nothing, for a bump drill.

LEVEL 6

Things continue to get more difficult in the first two training segments of the final level as you face dynamic power play scenarios — first with you out there alone against 5 shooters, and then with 3 defenders out there to “help.” The 5-on-3 with defenders is actually more difficult because it adds another layer of traffic you have to fight through.

Like the end of Level 5, the box control guidelines come and go as you move up.

“You’ve got the dreaded 5-on3,” Daccord said. “You should be saying to yourself when there’s a 5-on-3 it’s show time, this is my time to shine. So don’t worry about a 5-on-3. Recognize the fact this is your chance to be a difference maker.”

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