goaltending coach

Traveling from rink to rink and working with teams of all ages and skill levels I get the opportunity to see hundreds of practices throughout the year. It has become really frustrating to see coaches going through drill after drill with zero emphasis on teaching a skill.

As a goalie my least favorite style of drill happened to be Small Area Games. Small Area Games are becoming more and more of a staple for today’s hockey training programs. More and more teams are incorporating these games and governing bodies of hockey are continuing to develop more and more ways to increase the use of Small Area Games.

Small Area games are simple scrimmage types of drills or games in small areas. 3-on-3 within a single zone is a typical example of a small area game.

At the Jr. Level of hockey, it is tryout season once again. There are countless open tryout camps for almost every Jr. team on the planet. So how do you pick the right tryouts to go to and the right teams to play for?

              Being a Detroit native, I tend to watch more Redwings games then many of the other NHL teams. I do not prefer them to other teams, but they are on TV more often then other non-local organizations. With that being said I tend to be more critical of the Detroit goaltenders due to the additional time that I get to study them vs. other NHL goalies.