Goalies get scored on. It doesn’t matter how good you are. You will get scored on, and it will probably happen in the next game you play. But one of the things that separates great goalies from good goalies is that great goalies forget about the goals that get scored on them — at least for a little while.
How many times have you found yourself mentally stuck on a goal you let in? Or you find yourself thinking about that last goal that you just should have stopped? You’re only 5 minutes into the game, and you’ve let in a goal, and all you can think about is how your save percentage is now 0.50. By getting mentally stuck on that goal that you’ve let in, you can easily go from being a good goalie to being a bad goalie for the other 55 minutes of the game. You’ve got to learn to forget the goals that you let in while you’re playing so that you can continue to be effective against the shots that are to come.
One of the things that great goalies do is learn to forget the goals that go in and focus on the present moment. Great goalies stay focused on the puck, focused on the developing play, and focused on being the best they can be in the moment. The goals that have gone in can never be undone — they can only be learned from. So during games, great goalies forget about the goals they let in and focus on stopping all of the next shots.
Great goalies are great at forgetting goals, but they’re also very good at remembering those goals at a later time so that they can analyze how they could have played the situation more effectively. It’s only at the end of the game that great goalies will allow themselves to think about goals that have gone in.
When you’re on the ice in a game, forget about the goals that go in. Keep yourself focused on stopping pucks. Once the game is over, you’re off the ice, and you’re calm and collected, take the time to analyze the goals that went in and figure out how to make yourself an even better goalie. That is how good goalies become great, and that’s what you should be doing to make yourself the best goalie you can be.
by Goalie Coach Matt Hsu
