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Goalies still individuals in a team sport

Wednesday, 08.11.2010 / 3:44 PM / NHL Insider

By Michael Stainkamp - Staff Writer

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Goalies still individuals in a team sport
Hockey may be the ultimate team game, but goaltenders are still the most important individuals in any game.
Hockey may be the ultimate team sport. Yet in no sport does one individual play as crucial a role in his team's success as an NHL goaltender.

Goaltenders have their own coaches and their own rituals. Some are placid, some talkative; others are feisty or combative -- sometimes even with their own teammates. A goaltender can steal a game for an outmanned team. But when a goaltender fails, everyone in the building knows it.

"The goalie is an individual position in a team sport," New York Islanders goaltender coach Mike Dunham told "They're out there to stop the puck and that's it, so they're off on their own island."

At least goaltenders have a little help these days. For decades, goalies were left to fend for themselves; over the last two decades, teams have added goalie coaches. Dunham, an NHL goaltender from 1996-2007, has seen the role of the goaltender coach expand.


The rules have changed as the game has evolved, so today's game is a lot quicker -- making it imperative that goaltenders be ready for the ever-increasing speed of the game in the NHL. They have to be ready to go side-to-side and go down and get back up in an instant -- a far cry from the days of the standup, play-the-angles style that dominated the NHL until well into the 1980s.

Hence the rise of the goalie coach.


Goalie coaches have drawn comparison to quarterback coaches in football because they handle a small, specialized group of players -- in the NHL, that's usually just the two goaltenders carried by most teams. With such a close relationship, success boils down to a matter of trust between player and coach.



"Trust is important, just like in every relationship," he told "The goalie has to trust the system you bring in practice and he has to trust it's going to work in the game."





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