Goalie Abused in the crease

I am fairly new to ice hockey goaltending. I have been playing for about 6 months, twice a week after attending a hockey school. I have posted before and appreciated the feed back, however something still perplexes me... that is,how much abuse should a goalie take in the crease?

I can recount several instances of making a trap catcher down on the ice only to have an opposing player hack away at the back of my glove hand with is stick. Or make a solid butterfly trap between my pads and stick only to get a few good slashes to the thighs and groin in an attempt to dislodge the puck. Is this legal and normal?

Last night I had a bad incident after taking a vicious slash to the throat (thank god for plexiglass). A flurry in front of the net, a butterfly paddle down trap, and several good slashes to the my thighs and groin. In my fustration I brought my stick up hard to dislodge the opponents sticks from my groin only to have on of them take exception to it in the form of a punch in the mask. My response was a blocker shot to his mask, wherupon the ref's broke it up. No penaties were assesed. Was this an appropriate response for me? I am not here to fight, but I am also going to protect myself.

Feedback please...

[Bernie]

In my opinion, this is because you are new to goaltending. If you are new to goaltending, you are playing in at least "C" league which, in my experience, means the players make up for their lack of skill by trying to be too aggressive in their play. Some players also just don't know better. If you survive well and play in better leagues with better players, you'll notice a dramatic decrease in the chippiness because the players know better and have more respect for eachother because they are all good players.
My experience in any league has been that the majority of people who play cheap like you described are the least skilled players, because they feel it makes up for their lack of talent.

Bernie

I play on 2 teams, and my "B" team games are much rougher than my high school ones. It's just like Bernie says. Tell you defence not to let that happen. Or just slsh them behind the knees.

|Sachin|

I play on 2 teams, and my "B" team games are much rougher than my high school ones. It's just like Bernie says. Tell you defence not to let that happen. Or just slash them behind the knees.

|Sachin|

[badgerit]

Your defense oughta be pounding the offending players' asses to the ice! The goalie should NOT be taking multiple slashes when he covers the puck! At most, they should get half a slash in before they find themselves on their backs with someone prepared to crush their faces into bloody pulps....

[robbf]

Well said Bernie. I have found that to be very true, moving from the B league to the A league was a vast difference in quality and quickness...for the better.
Jester if this does not get any better, next time your getting ready in the locker room take a good long look at how some of your teammates wear their gear, especailly the forwards. Take some mental notes and think how you can creatively use your stick to offset some of the cheap crap you are getting. You may want to look over a pair of skates and find the 'weak spots' as well. Just trying to be helpful....

You are the goalie. Nobody on the ice is more important than you. If someone slashes you, then they should know that they will get it back from you and your defense. I have almost mastered the art of punishing players without getting caught. They players will give you respect if you can defend yourself. A lot of people think goalies are wimps thats why we are back in the net. I always say that to be a good goalie you have to have big balls. Remember you are god.

[KDB]

If I've covered the puck, I'll give them until the whistle to hack a bit. Anything after that gets some words, to them and my defense. It's usually enough.

I'm rarely hacked in the thighs, but I'll give 'em the same time to do some stuff.

I guess you can say that I let them poke around a bit up to the whistle, but slashing and anything after the whistle gets dealt with...

[Aaron]

You shouldn't take that kinda crap from those scrawny weaklings hehe but seriously..for one, your defensemen should be skating in to protect you on a cover up. I've experienced a few guys trying to even slash my glove when I CAUGHT the puck! This really pisses me off.

Try to remember who it was and if they screen you later in the game, give the back of their skate a little shove

I would agree with Bernie on this too. In my league the better players don't bother to slash at me. Finally the ref's warned him not to or else he'd be assesed a penalty.

One big bully we play with had a hard shot, but other than that, he pretty much sucked. He'd scream and yell and hack, but he was so lazy he would just stand around and not skate much. Now he doesn't even play anymore.

[Kuzma]

I take exception to people being anywhere near the crease and the guys I've played with know it. I'll hook a player following one of my guys behind the net so they know I'm not above retaliation. The best way to get a player to stop is to hack away at him after he starts it.

[Bryan]

Higher level hockey is less chippy? Man Bernie, American Roller Hockey must be an entirely different world! The higher level the hockey, the more the pressure to perform, the more people will do whatever it takes to get the upper hand! There are 180 teams in the league I play in. In the rec divisions there's hardly ever a penalty, because they're all just out to have fun. In the premier division, where there's a spot at the nationals on the line, it's a war. That having been said, the level of vicious aggression I see in my premier div. games is nothing compared to going to see a junior A or senior A game. These guys take no prisoners. There's opportunities for major junior or college on the line! Canadian major junior is at the same time both the most skilled AND the most dirty 20 and under hockey on the planet. These guys are looking at pro careers!

I wish Canadian ice hockey worked the way you described. If it was, I wouldn't be such a regular customer at the Pan-Am SportsMedicine clinic! Maybe more of the Canadian boys who do make it to the NHL would still have teeth!

[daemyn75]

Jester,

These guy are right. I had some guys do that at practice. I found out they were just preparing me for what would happen in games, but I didn't know. Well I delt with it in my own way. Next time they wouls skate in I would swing my leg out for a kick save only to kick there skate out form under them. A few of those saves and they got the point. I trey to hide something like that in trying to play the puck so I don't get the penalty.

[Bernie]

No, I do agree with you Bryan, but we're talking in a house league, not major junior. I can easily imagine people pushing the limits in a 180 team A league to get some stats. But as far as the original question was concerned, there's no doubt that the better players show more poise.

I hope Kuzma was joking about the best way to prevent being hacked is to hack away first. Obviously, that's not true at all.


This all reminds me of a funny story. Once a few years back after I covered the puck during a scramble in front of the net, one of the opposing players said "Nice save" and gave me a friendly tap on the butt with his stick. Well, one of my doofus defensemen, thinking this guy gave me a hack well after the whistle, proceeded to confront the guy fists-a-blazing. Both were ejected from the game!

Bernie

As I write this I have an ice pack on the bruise I got at the end of last nights game.
We were winning 9-1 with seconds left and I am facing a breakaway. I stoned the guy with a pad save and covered up the puck with my glove as the buzzer sounded.

He was obviously choked and expressed his rage ala 2 hander across my arm. My hand went numb and I now have a nice black mark across the tendons where the bicep meets the fore-arm. My defence tought him a very valuable lesson like they always do when I am attacked.

What really got me though was when I went to the ref to complain about why there was 'NO CALL' he says "That's why you have padding, tough it up". Excuse me?!? How am I supposed to respect the refs authority when he says crap like this? My reply was "Tough is a broken arm." and he then told me not to be such a wuss. So I shoved him, which is wrong, but I was pretty upset. The second ref steps in and decides to make a goaltender interference call against the slasher. Figure that one out.

My point is that you have to let these guys know that they don't want to mess with you. I find that a blocker in the back of the knee does wonders. So does a stick on the inner thigh. Pushing them out of your crease with a blocker to the kidneys works well and will usually draw a retaliation penalty against the offender.

You may get called now and then but they will learn real quick not to get in your face. I don't like to promote violence but you gotta look out for number one and that's the goalie.

Well, I definatly appreciate the response. Just so all of you know, most of my hockey experience lately has been "pick-up". I just recently began on this league. I am in a 30 & over league so I am not familiar with the A,B,C, rating you are referring to...