The masked warrior takes a couple of breaths, all he can hear is his own breathing in the jam packed arena, he looks up nods his head to give the ok, he is ready for whatever will happen next. The sound of steel crushing on ice is a faint sound but gets louder and louder as the opponent is gaining speed like train coming down the track. His eyes are concentrating on the vulcanized rubber disc that is 25mm by 76mm and weighs 160 grams, that in a matter of seconds the oncoming opponent will try to slip past our masked warrior. Like to medieval knights jousting, the each with a lance of their own dressed in the garbs of their team. The warrior watches as his opponent tries to outwit him, suddenly the puck leaves the the opponent's stick but with quick cat like reflexes the puck is plucked out of the air with a quick snap of a wrist, the arena erupts with a thunders roar, our masked warrior has suddenly transformed into a masked hero as his teammates rush the ice and pile onto him in jubilation for the team has just won because of the individual heroics of our protagonist in this story.
These are the feel good moments in the life of a goalie, in movies that is a scene which is usually found at the end for the dramatic finish, the goalie makes the critical save to give their team the win, but they never show the other side of the life of the goalie. What happens when the goalie does not make the save, what is going on in their head after the game? What is the life of a goalie really like, after all they are the ones that feel the brunt of not only their mistakes but of everyone else on the ice. They could be playing a perfect game but if a teammate makes an error in judgement the goalie is the one that is left out to dry.
They say offense wins games defence wins championships, and your defense starts with the person who prevents the puck from ending up in the cage. Every championship team needs to have steady goaltending, the Soviet Olympic teams had Vladislav Tretiak, the 1980 U.S. team had Jimmy Craig, the Hungarian team that won in Sapporo in 2009 had Levente Szuper. Having goaltending that a coach can rely on can have a calming effect throughout the team as well.
“I have been lucky enough this season to be in a situation where I can send either of my goalies on to the ice with confidence, this is a great boost for our defence” says Miskolc head coach Gergely Majoross “I think that the great work that our team has been doing in the defensive zone has been helping our goalie and of course vice a versa. A lot of times a skater will sacrifice their body to block a shot so it doesn't end up getting through to the goalie, of course there are times that the goalie corrects the mistakes that the skaters make in front of him.”
Having a two headed goalie
As Majoross says he can use either of his goalie with confidence, but what happens when there are two equal goalies? At the 2014 U18 world championship and at this years U20 world championships Dániel Kornakker and Gergely Arany have been playing every other game, first under Glen Williamson and this year under Rich Chernomaz regardless of the outcome neither goalie played back to back games. Both coaches have said on a number of occasions that they have two outstanding goalies and there is no #1 and #2 goalie. Luckily both young gentlemen are mature enough to know this is the life of a pro goalie. “It is not the ideal situation, no one likes to be the number two goalie, its not the best situation when one goalie has a shutout and then they are the backup the next game” says Kornakker “Usually it is better to stick with the hot hand when there is an important game on the line. Either way you have to be ready incase something happens with the starter before or during the game.” Against Poland at the U20 WC Arany had a 1-0 shutout win that was won after a shootout but Arany was on the bench for the next game, however Arany completely agreed with what his national team partner “You try to be as helpful as you can not only to your teammates but also your goaltending mate as well. For example if you are the backup for that day and a skater wants to take extra shots on goal or practice something else you just take your place in net for them, but you know you have to be ready for whatever reason you might be called on and therefor have to be in a game day mentality.”
How to handle a goalie
It is always an interesting situation on how to handle a goalie, after all they are a member of the team just as anyone else on the roster, however their responsibilities are different and their mistakes are magnified. Tyler Dietrich the U20 coach for Fehérvár AV19 goes with the following thought process “We try to handle goalies as we would any player on the team. Of course, there are times when goaltenders fit into their own category and require a different approach. As a goalie the outcome of a game can depend on your performance (more so than other positions). To get ready for this we emphasize that a hundred percent effort is required in all training, practices, and preparations.”
Former MOL League goalie Olivér Hortay looks at this form the other side “a goalies responsibilities are different than those of a skater, however the biggest difference is the mental aspect, a goalie has to be mentally strong, they do not have line changes, they have to concentrate from start to finish. The hardest part mentally is after you let in a soft goal that you know you could have saved, and getting back up and ready for the next shot.”
What a fan usually sees is when a goalie get pulled from the game, sometimes it is clear why the keeper has to hit the showers earlier than expected, other times its not as clear. Hungaran national team coach Rich Chernomaz was asked this question “there are three reasons why a goalie might be pulled, first if its a playoff situation and you are down 4-0 in the first period the game is lost but you don’t want to mentally lose your goalie for the next game. Two, if the goalie is just playing sub par. Three, when you have to sacrifice the goalie, not because they are playing bad but the rest of the team is and you have to shake up the team.”
The relationship between a goalie and his defencemen
Most of the time when a goal is scored the blame rarely falls on the goalie at the time the shot is taken, like a conductor of a symphony orchestra a goalie has orchestre the defensive zone. Some goalies are constantly yapping others rarely talk, either way the safest bet is when everyone is on the same page when it comes to the tendencies of their teammates. If we take a look at the U20 situation (Arany and Kornakker) there are a number of defencemen who play with one or the other at their club teams. “In hockey, after the fundamentals and the system, communication is the next most important aspect, a goalie along with his defencemen are the last line of defence for a team, because of this incase a lack of communication can be replaced by knowing one anothers tendencies.” says Volán U20 and national team defender Márk Szaller “A defender has to know how their goalie will react in every situation. The goalie-defender situation has to be almost predictable for the ones involved, from my personal experience with Dániel Kornakker I know it is a great advantage to have known him for a number of years” Bence Stipsicz who is more familiar with Arany agrees with Szaller “we have better communication obviously and know what the other will do in certain situations.”
This is the same at not only the youth level but also the at the pro level “you just learn how they handle the puck, the pace they play at. If you can expect a frozen puck or a goalie who keeps it alive a bit more. You begin to expect shots from areas go be stopped” says DAB.Docler defenceman Nathan Martine who has been playing pro hockey for a number of years.
“Its ok he’s the goalie”
This has been said a number of time in locker rooms throughout the history of sports. When asked if goalies are weird Fehérvár AV 19 forward Csanád Erdély had a great answer despite knowing it might not go over the greatest with his teammates. “Yeah of course they are a little bit weird, for example I know a goalie who doesn't talk a single world on game day. Every player knows about the fact that all of the (goal)tendys need special treatment.Think about it, can a totally normal person stand in front of a puck with 100 km/h speed? So thats why hockey goalies are a bit strange.” Seemingly every hockey player has a story about a goalie they played with, “I played with a guy that would make "air saves" in all of his gear for 5 minutes before every game” says Fehérvár forward Jeff LoVecchio, who agrees with his teammate, “I don't want to put any guys on blast, but you have to be imbalanced to stand in front of slap shots every day” Interestingly enough arguably the best goalie in the game right now Henrik Lundqvist is not eccentric at all, in fact former teammate and childhood friend Linus Schellin had the opposite to say “I remember him being very professional, and still is, very assertive. He's not the over the top goalie type, he would do his homework, both in school and for hockey, and consistently improving. Don't get me wrong he is a funny guy, likes to crack a joke, very sarcastic. On ice, very consistent too, every practice, always there, cutting angles, and making it real hard to score on, even if it's just an after practice fun exercise.”
A goalies life
A big part of a goalie's life is that a good performance will never be remembered as a player's, especially a forward's who can miss the net ten times on a breakaway and plays awful, but scores the game winner they will be the hero. When a goalie makes a big save, that is barely remembered since the score doesn't change, but when they make just one single mistake in a season, you can be sure they will remember that for months or even years.
Závodszky Szabolcs
Photo: László Mudra