NHL scouts and having a good warm-up

The mis-coaching of sticks in the shooting lane

I have recently noticed a disturbing trend that is appearing all too frequently at all levels of hockey.

This trend has caused many bad goals, bad rebounds and many needless losses. As a result of this defensive zone approach that is currently being taught to position players, low percentage scoring chances are being turned into high percentage scoring chances.

Why then would head coaches teach this approach if it creates more problems than it solves? What exactly are we talking about and why is this cancer creeping in the game?

In the way

Stick on stick? This is a defensive zone strategy where ill-informed coaches stress the importance of always trying to block the offensive player’s shots by placing their sticks in the shooting lane.

Please don’t get be wrong. If this strategy is employed with intelligence and in the proper situations it can be very effective. But as a blanket, all-encompassing approach to every shot on net you get into trouble.

This strategy should only be used when the defender is very tight to the attacker (i.e. a stick length or less) and only on shots in very dangerous locations like the slot. A shot from above the circles or near the boards on a poor angle should never be interfered with. The goalie must be given a clean look at these pucks.

Any decent goalie will stop these perimeter shots at an amazingly high percentage if things aren’t complicated with unnecessary, ill-advised sticks in the shooting lane.

At a pro level game last season I watched in mock horror as six of seven goals against entered the net after being slightly deflected off a defender’s stick - making the goalie look foolish. Uninitiated, but experienced, announcers opined that the goalie “would like to have that one back,” as if it was the goalie’s fault.

Deflected shots find the net

Let me begin by breaking down why coaches mistakenly believe that stick on stick is the way to go. They will recall anecdotally several shots being deflected harmlessly off the defender’s stick up into the netting.

These few examples resonate in their brains and they think that these cases are the rule, not the exception. In fact, a vast percentage of shots on net in a random game I recently evaluated did not go harmlessly out of play as a result of eager beavers with their floundering sticks in the shooting lane.

Many of these defender’s half-hearted attempts to block the puck with their sticks managed to still make it dangerously to the net.

What is specifically wrong with trying to block these shots on net with the defender’s sticks?

No clear look

When a stick is placed in a shooting lane the goalie many times does not get a clear look at the most important part of a shot.

The exact stick-puck relationship at the moment of release allows the goalie to assess direction, elevation and velocity. Many times the defender’s stick masks this critical moment and the goalie now becomes somewhat of a spectator, guessing at those crucial factors. The tangible results are that surprising goals go in even if the puck isn’t deflected and if the puck is stopped, precision is unlikely and needless rebounds result. We all realize that dangerous rebounds cause immediate goals or delayed goals when the opposition scores on a power play caused by preventing the earlier rebound chance.

Change of direction

When a defender is several feet away from the attacker and still decides to put the stick in the lane the puck may slightly change directions and the goalie will have zero chance to respond on these pucks.

Even if the change of direction happens 20 feet away, from a physiology standpoint, a human cannot physically respond with their innate reaction times.

A bad message
When your goalie hears that their teammates have to attempt to block every shot with their stick it sends the message to them that the goalie can’t be trusted and they need to do his job for him.

If your goalie hears this enough his confidence will suffer. Add on a couple of cheesy goals on self-induced tipped shots and your goalie is well on his way to a confidence meltdown. It would be a similar situation if you asked your goalies to play every loose puck instead of the defensemen handling them because they can’t be trusted to do their job and make a simple zone exit themselves.

Some guidelines

I’m all for blocked shots and stern efforts to prevent goals. By definition that is what goalies do. I do however have two very simple, well-reasoned pieces of advice regarding the proper deployment of shot blocking strategies with the stick on stick approach:

1.  Keep your sticks well out of the way on all shots from the perimeter and poor angles. Trust your goalie to do their job.

2. Only get your stick in the shooting lane if you are right in the opponents face and they are in a very dangerous shooting area.

In simple terms we need to stop this madness of making low percentage scoring chances unnecessarily high percentage scoring chances.

Steve McKichan is the owner of Future Pro goalie school and the former goaltending coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.