Old Dogs: Session #12 Recap - Playing the Screen
Our last session that took place in the Dartmouth Sportsplex, we covered a very important topic and that was playing against the screen. With the advances in modern goaltending and training, it seems that goalies have developed a remarkable ability to stop 95% of shots that they can see and read. Not only do goalies have great success with clear shots, they also have a much better ability to contain or control rebounds with these long looks at the puck. Coaches, at the highest levels, and players, in senior hockey, know that most goalies will "stop what they can see", so they have worked harder in interfering with a goalie's sight-lines. As a result, we have more and more attacking forwards driving to the net to park themselves in front of the goalie. This usually brings a tailing defenseman or two that only compounds the goalie's sight-line issues. With advances in player equipment and composite skates, players are better protected than ever before and many are more willing to "crash the net" to screen the goalie.
The result of the sight-line issue created by screens is that it greatly reduces a goalies reaction time as the amount of time a goalie can track the puck is diminished. This not only leads to goals from screened shots, but even if the goalie gets a body part on the puck on the way to the net, it is very difficult for the goalie to control the rebound due to the late look at the puck. With the extra traffic in close proximity to the rebound, there is a considerable chance for a second or third scoring chance on the goalie. We can conclude definitively that screens are a major (pain) part of the senior game and to give ourselves a chance to make the initial save and control rebounds, goalies have to adopt some special tactics and strategies.
My first drill was a warm-up drill for battling screens. We used it based on a "mirror drill" with a partner, but it works well alone or even watching oneself in the glass. The general idea of this drill was to help the goalie with some of the upper body flexibility required to maintain a sight-line to the puck while being screened. I quite often equate this upper body movement to a boxer dodging an opponents jabs. These movements must be quick and sharp. Any delay on regaining a puck sight-line ramps up the probability that the puck could be on its way to the net with an unprepared goalie. Please check out Michal Neuvirth video of his pre-game warm-up and some of the saves he made using that quick upper body "bob-and-weave" technique.
In terms of our strategies, our main objective is to cover low and the middle of the net first while being on angle to the puck. I pushed you guys in those sessions to straddle with your feet on the shot-line of the puck even though it may put you behind a screening opposition player. The idea was then to look around the player while on angle with our upper body movements. As goalies, we have to resist both the temptation to overplay an angle and step off the shot line to get a clear view of the puck. Intelligent shooters realize that the goalie is off angle and will shot to the open side. Even if the goalie executes a perfect save technique, if he/she isn't on angle, that puck could be in the back of the net easily.
Secondly, we focused on trying to keep our head or sight-line on the strong side of the puck. This means we want to look around a screen on the side where the puck is located. In addition, I stressed that goalies have to focus on the puck and not get distracted by the body of the puck carrier. Very often, a player will try to use a screen to hide the puck on the goalie by "skating across" the screen. Many goalies will move their head around the screen either in anticipation (too early) or will move their head when they lose sight of the player and not the puck he is carrying. We can't cheat in these instances and it is the movement of the puck that we track and the sight-line of the puck that we maintain, not the puck-carrier's body.
An important side note and I know I mentioned it on the ice to individual goalies, but we have to keep very good stick discipline. With all our movement and difficult "bob and weave" body movements, it is very easy to lose control of our stick and the very important five-hole coverage or rebound control it offers. Remember that even in senior hockey, most shots with screens are along the ice since "everyone has to go to work the next day!", so we need all the extra coverage low. Our shorten reaction time due screens quite often leads to goalies adopting a wider stance which I think is fine, but may result in a much bigger five-hole that we expect. The rebound control of a well-disciplined stick during a screen is extra important since the player(s) screening the goalie are in cl;ose proximity to jump on a rebound. Extra-extra bonus points for you if you control that rebound!!
There is no short-cuts in playing the screen and it can be one of the most exhausting parts of the game. Not only do goalies have to do everything that they normally do in terms of movement, they have to do it with a flexible and mobile body and active head. Keep battling always for those sight-lines and remember what I said in the dressing room. "I was screened!" is no excuse!!