Quote:
Originally Posted by CubanPuckstoppr
How about a thread that discusses center of the ice breakaways, but under the following circumstances.
The shooter has a 1 ro 2 stride lead on the defender.
The shooter has a 3 to 5 stride lead on the defender.
The shooter has no defensive pressure (let's assume that there is enough time for the shooter to take a second, or layup shot).
Most of the breakaway articles I see describe this situation in a general manner.
I'd like to see some conversation that discusses how to take advantage of the pressure, tactics to use to as the defender closes the gap, how to not over rely on that defensive pressure, should I split my focus between my defender's position and the cues I get from reading the shooter's stick, position, stride, shooting stance.
It might be after we discuss this that we decide the general presentations of playing the breakaway were perfectly suitable for the circumstances described above.
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First and foremost, shooters are liars, they want you to think one thing so they can do another. The one thing that doesn't lie, is the PUCK, so keep your eyes on it at all times.
At our school, we teach our goalies two ways to play breakaways. We discuss with them both ways and allow the goaltender to choose which way they feel more comfortable with.
The first option, the goaltender changes nothing from the norm; still wanting to grab two feet of white ice and will not start to back up until the puck hits the hash marks (top for younger goalies and bottom hash marks for older goalies). This enables the goalie to close the gap between him and the shooter, which takes away one of the shooters options, which is to take a direct shot . At this point, the goaltender has forced the shooter into deking. Now he needs to beat the shooter back to one of the posts by keeping their feet moving all the way back and execute a sliding butterfly back to one of the posts.
The second option is for the goaltender to grab about 3 feet of white ice above the crease as soon as they recognize the breakaway situation. At this point the goaltender must gauge the shooters speed and take two hard pushes backwards, then glide back, again taking away one of the shooters options (the shot) and beat the shooter back to the post.
Always remember, the more the shooter has to do (skating, stick handling etc.) the greater the possibility of an error. A goalie must remember to be patient and stay under control and they will have greater success in this type of situation.
A trick to remember is when the shooter gets in close (hash mark area) to lower your head down on top of the puck. This will remove your peripheral vision from getting distracted and will keep your focus on the puck all the way into your body and increase your ability to read the play in tight.
Some errors goalies make on breakaways:
1. Sometimes goalies follow the shooter back way too far. This gives shooters much more net to shoot at. Try to time your retreat so that you are just outside the top of the crease with the shooter so he must make his final move.
2. Remember that that you have to react strongly to the shooter’s last move. At times, goalies tend to go for a move that the shooter makes two feet in front of them and then the shooter cuts back and has a wide open net. This basically means that the goalie is having trouble knowing which move is actually the final move for the shooter.
3. Some goalies don't come back to the post as a complete package and do not follow the order of three (Head, Hands, Feet). This will ultimately make the goalie come back to his post with holes and giving the shooter more options which is never a good situation.
Good Luck!