Morning punchy-ness

In all of my short goalie life, I’ve never done a two-pad stack. I developed on my own into goalie who relies heavily on the butterfly, and it seems that butterfly goalies rarely use that particular skill. In thinking about it, I guess it makes sense- the butterfly takes away the bottom of the net just the same, but just a quick slide over to one side or another (or a recovery to your feet, etc etc) and you’ve got any rebound covered. Once you’re laid out on your side… well there isn’t much you can do after that. Unless your name is Dom. So while I’ve always been curious about how to do it, I’ve never really pursued it. I’ve read technical descriptions, but that’s a little different than someone showing you how it’s done. Well, today, without even meaning to, I did one, sort of. And then caught all kinds of hell from my coach for it.

We were doing a drill where he and another shooter were positioned on either side, about 10 feet (maybe more?) out from the top corners of the crease. I had to square up to my coach, then on his stick-tap, quickly move across and face the other shooter, take a shot, then come back across and take a quick second shot from the other side. The inside edges on my skates are totally shot, so I was having a hard time getting enough of a push to come all the way over to be square for the second shot. In desperation, as I started to lose my balance, I flung my legs out and slid across on my side. I thought to myself, huh, I guess that’s a two-pad stack…. And then immediately heard my coach say “Ugh, the Marty stack! What do we say to the Marty stack, OtherShooter?”

OtherShooter: Booooooooooo!

Coach: Booooooo! Around here we booooo the Marty stack!

Me: I didn’t really mean to do that.

Coach: I hope not!!!

A brief discussion of the previous night’s Devils/Rangers playoff game ensued, with Coach pointing out saves both goalies had made and breaking them down. Then suddenly he remembered why we were there. “Ok enough of this. Back to work.” Why is it that whenever we go off on a side tangent discussion and he reels it back in and says ‘back to work’, I end up with a real ass-kicking drill? This was another new-to-me drill, the point of which was to build conditioning and speed in dropping into the butterfly. Close range shot after shot, with barely enough time to get back up again before initiating the next knee drive. (Ha, like that casual usage of technical terminology? That’s not even from lessons, that’s from all the goalie magazines I’ve been reading.)

We have a game tonight, and so far I’m still revved up and raring to go. I think one of the smartest things I ever did was stop doing lessons on the same day that I had a game later that night, but I have to say it did go a long way in getting me psyched for the game. I feel great. I feel like eating pucks for midnight snacks.