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Bad Medicine
This article is about the
BARREL BLOCK. It will discuss the origins of the barrel block, its intended
use, the gradual overuse, and finally the undesirable results of the
barrel block being used as the base system of play. This article is
intended to point out that this move is just that, a move, just like
a skate save or stacking the pads is a move. IT IS NOT A SYSTEM OF
PLAY. I will explain some of the bad byproducts that infect a goalie’s
game if the barrel block move is transformed into a system of play.
This article is meant to stop young goalies from adhering to a false
religion, and to keep goalie schools, coaches, and parents from teaching
or encouraging one.
WHAT IS A SYSTEM OF PLAY
As we all know, pundits of goaltending like to pigeonhole
goalies into either ‘butterfly’ or ‘stand-up’ styles.
What is meant by these terms is that the goalie either falls down to
his knees to make most saves, or stays on his skate blades to make most
saves. I call these terms an individual goalie’s "SYSTEM
OF PLAY". It’s what each goalie does with the lower half
of his body when a shot is taken. He either falls down in a ‘stance
on his knees’, or stays up in a ‘stance on his feet’.
Both systems allow, and demand, that the goalie react and move to shots
that are not going to hit him. One simply is doing it from a lower starting
position than the other. The point to note with both systems of play
is that they both let the goalie react to a shot directed anywhere towards
the net. The goalie can kick his legs or reach out with his arms and
hands. These two systems do not restrict the goalie’s chances
or ability to react either side, high or low.
Over the past 5 or 6 years, a
‘new’ philosophy has started to challenge the two older systems
of play. If you look closely however, a pretender, not a contender,
is revealed. It is not a legitimate system of play being used, but instead
a save masking as a system of play.
DIAGNOSING A PROBLEM
There is some bad medicine being handed out to our young
goalies, and you can round up the usual suspects and charge them with
spreading the poison. The process of infection is nothing new. It happens
every few years when a N.H.L goalie gets hot, kids copy how he looks,
and ‘surface thinking’ goalie schools teach the ‘new’
look like it was a system hand delivered by Moses himself.
Other outbreaks over the years
have included the Stand On Your Feet At All Costs Philosophy,
spread by disciples of the great Bernie Parent; Shoot And Handle
Every Puck, spread by followers of Ron Hextall; and Go Down On
Every Shot, spread by the zealot Patrick Roy faithful. These 2 systems
of play and 1 skill are valid, if used correctly at the right times
and blended with the goalie’s existing skills. When overstressed
though, young goalies fall victim to the new idea beginning to dominate.
Thus, too many goals go in low because they stand up at all costs, they
forget that their job is stopping the puck and begin over handling it,
or they start falling down early on every shot and never acquire any
patience.
In 1981 I nicknamed a new move
I noticed after the goalie I saw first using it effectively: the
Bouchard (after Dan Bouchard of the Quebec Nordiques). Over time
it has been renamed by many goalie schools and goalie instructors as
the Belfour. I have since seen old pictures and video of Plante, Dryden,
Parent (gasp), and Don Simmons using the move, so it has been around
a while.
These days I refer to and teach
the move as the BARREL BLOCK, because that is exactly what the
move is, a blocking position with the barrel of the goalie stick flat
on the ice. Recently though, the move has taken on a life of it’s
own. What started out as just one of many weapons in the goalie’s
arsenal has mutated into a style of play, to the point that it has become
the only arrow in many goalie’s quiver. What should be recognized
as an effective save technique for some situations is being taught as
the first move to make whenever the puck is shot.
WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO MAKE IT
The Barrel Block Save is a simple physical move that is
always made to the glove side. A goalie slams the stick barrel flat
on the ice, drops down to his blocker side knee, and makes a half pad
save. The catcher stays on top of the kicked pad, and the chest stays
as upright as it can be kept. As a goalie gets better at it, he can
move around the ice by ‘hopping’ on the blocker side knee.
You can also ‘flow’ into the save from a T-Push or shuffle,
and use the move to replace a pad stack or a ‘just drop down and
kick’. The play is also effective for screen shots when a goalie
gets a look at the direction of the point shot and pushes out and down
into the barrel block. * Note that this move is done by falling down
to one knee from your stance, not ‘jumping up, over, and down’
into the save. The stick gets down first. There is never an instance
when no equipment is on the ice.
The obvious advantage that this
move gives a goalie is that when a puck is shot from very close to him,
the upper portion of the net is taken away by the chest and glove, and
the lower portion of the net is well covered by the pad, stick, and
dropped knee. The only place the puck could go in would be through a
hole in the body, or under the stick or pad. Because the goalie is low
and spread out, he does not have far to move to adjust to shots going
for any of these locations. The move prevents many goals on the ice,
and if one is alert, reduces rebounds off the pads because the barrel
of the stick deadens the puck very well. Another advantage of the move
is that it is very easy to recover and get back up from.
The Barrel Block is an interesting
move for more than the practical reasons stated above. The save is a
one sided move, it can only be made effectively to the catching glove
side. Kicking with the blocker side leg and trying to get the barrel
down in front of the pad is next to impossible. Even if you can, the
area above the outstretched leg is exposed with no glove hand to protect
it. (Of course the blocker is still on the ice. The amount of time it
takes to pull the blocker off the ice to reach a high shot makes the
move unfeasible) Because this move can only be made towards the glove
side, saving a shot to the other side requires an interesting twist.
The same move is made, the push applied by the other leg. So, instead
of being able to drop and kick (relatively) into the save like on the
glove hand side, the blocker side move requires the goalie to push with
the glove side leg and fall into the save. In conclusion, the barrel
block can be used for both sides, BUT for both sides you make the same
move. The direction you are sliding will either make it work towards
the blocker side or not. ‘I cannot think of a save that doesn’t
have a mirror opposite move other than the barrel block. This is where
one of the big problems with the move shows up when used as a system
of play.’
continue
to page 2
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