Goalies seem to pop out of the net with startling regularity, often moving fully behind the net to drop the puck back there before returning to the front. It seems nerve-wracking every time— how can they risk being so far out of position with the offense closing in fast?
Obviously they only do this when they have the puck themselves, but it seems like they could easily be knocked away from it while they’re leaving the net empty and vulnerable.
Please explain why they do this!
In: Other
1. They’re playing the puck to a teammate to keep it away from the opponent
2. You aren’t allowed to hit the goalie so they’re not going to get knocked away from the puck.
3. If somebody is close enough to interfere with the goalie playing the puck they’re generally not going to leave the net to try.
Making an assumption but the goalies in question are likely better than all of us at doing their job. They know when they can and can’t perform this action. I would just trust them.
Usually they’re just stalling so that the other skaters can get in a line change. You generally don’t see that on TV because the camera is focused on the goalie futzing around behind his net, but when he does finally play the puck the skaters will be different. You can generally tell when this is happening because the other team will change as well and he’s just standing there watching with nobody coming in to challenge possession.
If it seems more frantic, he’s coming out to stop the puck from ringing around the back or bouncing off the boards into a much more perilous spot directly in front of him.
It’s pretty difficult to score from behind the net, so unless the goalie severely misplays it and gets his pass intercepted it’s often useful to come out of the net to take possession of the puck instead of letting the offense get it back and set up again.
The risk/reward.
These professional goalies are excellent skaters and handlers of the puck. The trapezoid behind the net (area the goalie can legally play the puck) exists because goalies were too effective with it.
Last night:
[150 foot goalie assist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oT-mbgOu1s)
Goalie here. It’s cuz no one is gonna fuck with us and if they do, my team will take care of it. It’s like a bonus protection that we use to do whatever we can with the puck that would be more difficult for a regular player. Also, it’s just an unwritten rule of mutual respect for both teams.
For easy math let’s presume that every shot has a 10% chance of going in the net when a goalie is “in position”. So if a goalie sees 30 shots we expect to see 3 goals. If a goalie can keep the other team from getting the puck in their offensive zone by playing it themselves to a teammate… for every shot that didn’t occur, then they will have just removed a 10% chance of a goal.
Watch enough hockey (or just go check out the “Weird NHL” series on Youtube) and you’ll see plenty of situations where a goalie misplays a puck and the opposing team does get a shot at a wide open net. But such situations are pretty rare, you might see one every 9 or 10 games.
In our simplified math, if a goalie can prevent 10 shots from the opposing team for every 1 “free goal” he allows… then he’s coming up basically even because one of those prevented shots was likely to get through anyway. If the goalie can get that ration up to 50 for every 1 “free goal” (which I think it a pretty reasonable expectation of professional goalies given the rules that protect them). Then that goalie’s opponents will have scored 4 fewer goals than “expected” for his venturing outside the net.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned yet, but in addition to line changes and preventing possession by the opposition, a goaltender stopping the puck from ringing around the boards can be a defensive maneuver for his/her *defenseman*. Particularly in the playoffs — but at any time, really — a goaltender who darts out behind their net to intercept a dump-in is protecting his defenseman from having to chase down the puck, whereby they may be exposed to a forechecker who might otherwise plaster them to the wall.
Latest Answers