So Much More Than Butterfly

In a few paragraphs, I’m going to talk about Francois Allaire. Even non-goalie folks have heard of him by this point, and how he helped usher in the era of the butterfly goaltender. InGoal Magazine has been pointing out since 2022 that it’s absurd he’s not in the Hockey Hall of Fame, in large part because of his work pioneering the butterfly style. But I’d argue the butterfly is almost beside the point. What he really did was create the idea of the goalie coach. He advanced the notion of elite goaltending as a trainable skill, not a random quirk of genius.

But first, I have to talk about Isaac Newton and Gottfried Liebniz.