Jonathan Bernier

Jonathan Bernier was selected 11th overall in the first round of the 2006 NHL Draft by the Los Angeles Kings — a Laval, Quebec native who went on to play in 404 NHL games over the course of his career, recording 165 wins, 163 losses, 40 overtime losses, a 2.77 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage, and 18 shutouts.

Bernier spent time with the Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, Detroit Red Wings, and New Jersey Devils across his NHL career. He won the Stanley Cup with Los Angeles in 2012 as the backup goaltender. The 6-foot, 185-pound left-catching goaltender has worked extensively with off-season goalie coach Marco Marciano, who has been with him since his first year in high school and serves as the AHL and development goaltending coach for the Montreal Canadiens.

InGoal Magazine has covered Jonathan Bernier in one podcast appearance, five Pro Reads, and one drill breakdown.

Bernier appeared on Episode 65 of the InGoal Radio Podcast ^[1] and has been a recurring subject in InGoal's Pro Read series, walking through a range of situations including breakaways, net drives, post integrations, scramble recoveries, and rush reads ^{[2][3][4][5][6]}. The sessions reveal how Bernier organizes his game around three foundational cues. As he described on the podcast and elaborated in a Pro Read: "Three things I'll focus on will be my set: I need to have my feet set and sometimes we forget about that. You think 'oh, the guy is in the slot' and you try to kind of gain some ice and most of the time you'll get beat by doing that. If you're set, you have a better chance, even if you're a little deeper and can't get as much ice, you'll have a better chance to stop it. Square is another one where sometimes you don't see it, sometimes there's a screen, but if you're square to the puck, it might just hit you. And then the other one would be rebound control. Those are kind of three I try to focus on just to keep it simple, because sometimes if mentally you're weak during a period of time, or you're not feeling confident, you have those three points that you can just focus on and not worry about anything else. … You can look back on your game and say, 'Okay, the result wasn't there, but at least my game was there.'" ^[2]

A significant part of Bernier's Pro Read coverage has focused on his use of the reverse-VH, a technique he described evolving noticeably over a three-season span beginning with Colorado Avalanche goaltending coach Jussi Parkkilla in 2017-18 and continuing with Detroit goalie coach Jeff Salajko ^[5]. "It's one of the big things we changed and it's helped me a lot," Bernier said. "Sometimes when you change things during a season it takes longer to not think about it during games, but there is a way of doing it where you can be really successful and you know exactly when you're not doing it right — sometimes you'll get scored on." ^[5] He has described his foundational strength as beating plays on his skates, and noted that despite using reverse-VH more frequently, he no longer spends much time practicing it ^[5].

On shot preparation and working with his defensemen, Bernier has a specific rule he communicates to the players in front of him. "Let me handle that shot," he said in one Pro Read session. "Our rule is everything outside the dot, don't try to put the stick there. They're actually really hard to stop as a goalie (if they do) reach out." ^[3]

Bernier and Marciano also appeared together in an InGoal Pro Drills session ^[7], working through a basic skating drill that Marciano shared from his iPad as an example of everyday training. The footage and Marciano's commentary illustrated the attention to detail Bernier applies to fundamental crease movement patterns, with Marciano noting the importance of arriving at key positions with power but under control — a practice he connected to both performance and long-term health ^[7].