Thinking like a goalie......

This season has been especially hard on Colorado College. A rough defense to start the season and awkward goal-tending to say the least. Now the side flips and the defense gets better while the offense bare bones.

So really, what is a goalie thinking? How is it that a goalie is so much different than the rest of the players?

Well it's simple: as much as people want to say hockey is a team sport, it's not. It's about the 5 guys in front of the goalie working to do their job while the goalie try's to isolate himself on an island and disconnect with everyone.
Emotions drive a goalie. I would venture to say that during my time of playing competitive hockey, 20% of the game was physical and 80% was mental. It's incredibly tough to be a goalie, both financially and actually. When a goalie gets the chance to separate himself from the rest of the team, he is free to do his job. When he starts thinking about the players and being angry at what they did or didn't do, he loses his focus and is no longer a valuable asset in net.

So why is it that I say that hockey is not a team sport? To answer this best, being a goalie is like being on a different team. When you walk into the locker room, you say hello to everyone and go to your stall or locker. At that very moment, you shut out the world. You can't hear anyone or even see them. Yes you can hear noise and you can see people, but they are no longer anything you know. This is the emotional side of the game. This is where you must be strong. You put your helmet on and begin to think about what your coaches have taught you in the past week. You envision the crease, where you are going to stand and how you will defend against those difficult shots. Everything you know and believe about hockey is now your number one goal.

Then you get on the ice and all of a sudden, the game takes a turn. You again cannot see or hear anyone. The crowd is not there. Only some players and this obviously dark black thing. During the course of the game, you stare at this black thing which we will refer to as a puck. In your zen state of mind, you are relaxed and the only thing you do is watch how that puck will move. You see it come off of the stick and you follow it into your glove. You see a player coming at you with the puck and you try to divert it. But then, at some key moment in the game, the puck goes behind you. You begin to hear things. If you are away, you hear the goal horn. You see a group of guys wearing different jerseys than yours piling up next to one another with smiles on their face. You then see a group of guys with the same jersey you have, looking down at the ice. Looking back at you. They begin to talk to you and you begin to hear them. They offer condolences and tell you that it's their fault.

All of a sudden, your grip on the mental game starts to decline. You start to lose sight of the puck and you begin to see all of the players. When the puck gets close you focus your body on the other players and not the puck. When you continue to let more goals in you begin to get angry at your team mates. They are no longer offering you condolences. They just skate away after each following goal.

Now you've lost it. You no longer have control of the game. You see the players. If they are any good, they can move you where they want with their skills and score on you. Then comes the dreaded left hand of the coach. He sticks it up in the air and all of a sudden another goalie with the same color jersey as you begins to skate out. You don't want to leave the net, but you know it's time. Your out. Only to consider what might have been.

It seems like a nightmare, but this is what goalies go through every game...save for the last part unless they win. I can only imagine that Joe is feeling this same thing. From a goalies stand point, each player can have three dimensions. These three dimensions are what separates those who you can stop when you begin to lose the mental edge and those who will take you to the cleaners when you slouch.

Since this is on a CC fan forum, I will relate to our players with the occasional outside reference to other teams.

As I said, every player can have up to three dimensions as far as a goalie is concerned. This is taught in goalie schools all over the place.
Most beer league players barely have this first dimension, so this will help you understand:

Dimension 1: Stick Handling. At it's basic form, this is required for any type of competitive hockey. Generally players without this get cut right away from high school teams. Players who only have this don't go any farther than high school, because this is the basic building block that every college and NHL level player is expected to have.

Dimension 2: Skating. This adds another layer to the complex set of skills a player must have to even survive at the college level. No player in college level can get by without this. It's a key characteristic, but it's not one that requires mastery.

Dimension 3: Vision. This is one of those skills that comes over time. The more exposure to higher level players a skater has, the more vision they will get.

So here is why I made these for you:
No skater in college hockey has less than two of these. Very few possess all three. Those that do possess all three are found in the National Hockey League.

So who has what?
Some of you might know who Nathan Condon is. He's a player for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. He's got excellent stick handling and great skating. His vision is not that great. This can be seen perfectly when he get's loose at the blue line for multiple break aways.

Then there is Jaden Schwartz. Rarely do players come out of "the box" with his skill set. He possesses all three of these. Read further as to what this will do to a goalie.

A great player on the CC roster with stick handling and vision is Alexander Krushelnyski. See his OT shootout goal against denver. He came and and looked at the lower left side of the net to unseat the goalie and then put the puck on the right side. Complete fake out.

So what do these players do to a goalie, especially when the goalie is headed downhill?
The answer:
At the college level, a goalie must be able to do more than just stare at the puck. The goalie must be able to read the tilt of the stick, the speed of the player and the angle that they are skating at.
Missing any one of these will result in a goal against depending on who you are playing against.

For instance: When playing a guy like Jaden, one must be able to read his stick, his eyes and where he is transferring weight to on his skate. Jaden can tilt his stick to make it look like he's going to roof it. His skates may make him look like he's going straight which would mean that he's going over your shoulder. But if you don't see his eyes, he'll burn you. Jaden can make 2 out of 3 of these traits look fake and score on you with the one you forgot. Luckily for most college goalies, not many Jadens exist.

Playing other skaters is easier. Take Rylan Schwartz for example. A pure sniper at his best. Rylan doesn't have the skating that his brother does. He has the stick handling and the vision to use. This means that a goalie must not only read the stick but also look at the eyes of Rylan in order to predict where he will shoot. Although I am making this sound easy, if you do both of these, Rylan will not score on you without a pass to someone else.

This is what Joe Howe is up against every week. I have been critical of him lately, I know. He's far better than I am, but I think he's losing his mental edge in the game. If he figures out what he's up against quicker, he will have a better chance of stopping these critical skaters when he begins to lose control of the game.