As NHL fans and GMs wait for Shane Doan and Shane Doan waits for Coyotes ownership, Phoenix is receiving attention for signing a member of its off-ice team — goalie coach Sean Burke — to a contract extension yesterday.
The Coyotes promoted Burke, who had served three seasons as Goaltending Coach/Director of Prospect Development, to the new title of Director of Player Development/Goaltending Coach. Burke’s coaching resume features impressive results from his students in the Phoenix net: Mike Smith, Ilya Bryzgalov, and Jason LaBarbera all achieved career years during Burke’s tenure as goalie coach. He has been called a “mastermind,” a “goalie guru,” and, by Smith himself, “the best guy in the league at what he does.”
In Toronto, another Burke — Leafs GM Brian — has been fending off criticism of his own goalie coach, Francois Allaire — the original goalie guru. Allaire built his reputation by building the careers of goaltending luminaries including Patrick Roy and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. But recent critics accuse him of being “too dogmatic” and imposing a “rigid and outdated” style of goaltending that’s “more about solely playing the percentages and being hit, as opposed to making athletic saves.”
The playing-the-percentages approach to goaltending seems to have fallen out of favor lately. Critics argue that an overemphasis on technique and positional blocking produces goalies with subpar reflexes and athleticism. The Leafs GM tacitly conceded the point, noting, “We’ve encouraged Allaire to be open to more acrobatic styles.”
But not so long ago goalies were taking criticism for relying on acrobatics at the expense of sound technical play. During the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, the second consecutive Finals showdown between Chris Osgood and Marc-Andre Fleury, The Globe & Mail said of Fleury, “[H]e relies on his athleticism a little too much to get out of jams.” Retired NHL goalie Phil Myre, in a 2010 post on his website laying out “5 Commandments of Goaltending,” warned aspiring netminders, “Overactive goalies often get out of position and have to rely on reflexes too much.”
Joining the debate yesterday was an unusual source of goaltending wisdom: EA Sports, maker of the NHL 13 video game and its predecessors. On the NHL 13 website and in a newly published promotional video, EA Sports touts the upgraded goaltending in this year’s edition of the game. What do hockey fans want from their goaltenders? If the marketing department at EA Sports is right, most fans want goaltenders who shun technique for “the drama of the desperation save.” For these fans, “NHL®13 now features the most athletic goalies ever seen in a video game. In the first period or with the game on the line, your favorite netminders scramble with more versatility and anticipate like never before.”
So what is the best formula for better goaltending?
The experts at Hockey Canada, the organization charged with developing amateur hockey in the game’s native land, think they’ve perfected it. Here is Hockey Canada’s official formula for the ideal beginner goalie:
• 75% movement and positional skills
• 20% save movement
• 5% tactics
For advanced goalies, the formula becomes more complex:
• 35% movement and positional skills
• 10% post-save consequences
• 40% tactics and transition
• 15% advanced positioning
Not satisfied with a simple percentage breakdown, Hockey Canada thoughtfully provides coaches with a downloadable spreadsheet for conducting “Goaltender Evaluations.” The 65-point checklist measures goalies’ strength on criteria as basic as “Skating ability” and as offbeat as “Size of heart,” “Controls temper,” and (naturally) “Coachability.”
But for all the competing and complicated attempts to define the ideal goaltender — whether by programming video game algorithms or charting percentages on a spreadsheet — the true measure of a goalie comes down to two simple questions, which happen to be the final items on Hockey Canada’s list:
“Can this player play? Would you want this player on your team?”
Covering the Puck 
Reading the Play: Engineering A Better Goalie
Posted: July 11, 2012 | Author: Covering the Puck | Filed under: Reading the Play (Commentary) |Comments Off on Reading the Play: Engineering A Better GoalieJuly 11, 2012
As NHL fans and GMs wait for Shane Doan and Shane Doan waits for Coyotes ownership, Phoenix is receiving attention for signing a member of its off-ice team — goalie coach Sean Burke — to a contract extension yesterday.
The Coyotes promoted Burke, who had served three seasons as Goaltending Coach/Director of Prospect Development, to the new title of Director of Player Development/Goaltending Coach. Burke’s coaching resume features impressive results from his students in the Phoenix net: Mike Smith, Ilya Bryzgalov, and Jason LaBarbera all achieved career years during Burke’s tenure as goalie coach. He has been called a “mastermind,” a “goalie guru,” and, by Smith himself, “the best guy in the league at what he does.”
In Toronto, another Burke — Leafs GM Brian — has been fending off criticism of his own goalie coach, Francois Allaire — the original goalie guru. Allaire built his reputation by building the careers of goaltending luminaries including Patrick Roy and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. But recent critics accuse him of being “too dogmatic” and imposing a “rigid and outdated” style of goaltending that’s “more about solely playing the percentages and being hit, as opposed to making athletic saves.”
The playing-the-percentages approach to goaltending seems to have fallen out of favor lately. Critics argue that an overemphasis on technique and positional blocking produces goalies with subpar reflexes and athleticism. The Leafs GM tacitly conceded the point, noting, “We’ve encouraged Allaire to be open to more acrobatic styles.”
But not so long ago goalies were taking criticism for relying on acrobatics at the expense of sound technical play. During the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, the second consecutive Finals showdown between Chris Osgood and Marc-Andre Fleury, The Globe & Mail said of Fleury, “[H]e relies on his athleticism a little too much to get out of jams.” Retired NHL goalie Phil Myre, in a 2010 post on his website laying out “5 Commandments of Goaltending,” warned aspiring netminders, “Overactive goalies often get out of position and have to rely on reflexes too much.”
Joining the debate yesterday was an unusual source of goaltending wisdom: EA Sports, maker of the NHL 13 video game and its predecessors. On the NHL 13 website and in a newly published promotional video, EA Sports touts the upgraded goaltending in this year’s edition of the game. What do hockey fans want from their goaltenders? If the marketing department at EA Sports is right, most fans want goaltenders who shun technique for “the drama of the desperation save.” For these fans, “NHL®13 now features the most athletic goalies ever seen in a video game. In the first period or with the game on the line, your favorite netminders scramble with more versatility and anticipate like never before.”
So what is the best formula for better goaltending?
The experts at Hockey Canada, the organization charged with developing amateur hockey in the game’s native land, think they’ve perfected it. Here is Hockey Canada’s official formula for the ideal beginner goalie:
For advanced goalies, the formula becomes more complex:
Not satisfied with a simple percentage breakdown, Hockey Canada thoughtfully provides coaches with a downloadable spreadsheet for conducting “Goaltender Evaluations.” The 65-point checklist measures goalies’ strength on criteria as basic as “Skating ability” and as offbeat as “Size of heart,” “Controls temper,” and (naturally) “Coachability.”
But for all the competing and complicated attempts to define the ideal goaltender — whether by programming video game algorithms or charting percentages on a spreadsheet — the true measure of a goalie comes down to two simple questions, which happen to be the final items on Hockey Canada’s list:
“Can this player play? Would you want this player on your team?”
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