Butterfly Goalies Described Inside Out

Butterfly Goalies Described inside out
www.QNHL.com, March 14, 2006 by Sean McKnight

In the history of hockey there have been many goalies, some good and some bad. But there has always been one thing that each goalie had in common. They each had a certain defined style of goaltending. Two of the biggest categorys of goaltending style are butterfly and standup, with butterfly being the dominant of the two, and with that in mind in this weeks article I will be talking about the butterfly style of goaltending. This is my prefered style of goaltending, and also the style in which I play in life as well. I will be covering several points of the butterfly style of goaltending, to hopefully give you a more in depth view of the style and why it is the prefered choice for most goalies.

So why do most goaltenders play butterfly style? Simply put it is the best way to cover the lower portion of the net which is where most goals are scored. In the NHL you will see highlights of nice goals in the top corners, or goalies being deked and such things like that. But in reality most goals are not very pretty and are usually just smashed in during a flurry in front of the net, or a deflection, or something crazy like that. And the best way to try and prevent this is by playing in the butterfly position which covers shots that are on the ice, or the lower portion of the net and also in the corners.

Imagine being a defenceman, you have the puck on the blue line, and your about to take a shot and you look up to see aim your shot. Shooting it for the top of the net provides a problem, there is huge bodys in the way and you can hardly even see the net from there. A low shot provides much better chance of actually reaching the net and you can see the corners in between the small legs of the players. Now the goalie, on the other end of this situation is thinking the same thing. He can't see the defence on the blue line with the puck through the bodies that are screening his view, so he looks low and can see the stick of the defenceman about to come down hard on the puck for the shot.

Lots of shots from defence go in because the goalie can't see the puck in time and it just goes in one of the low corners, with this being said, this is where the butterfly position comes in handy. You can get low to cover the corners and the bottom portion of the net, and also see the puck coming from the shot.

The butterfly position is also useful on breakaways or penalty shots. If you keep your body up straight and square with the oncoming attacker, you will not leave much chose of shot for the shooter and he will either shoot at your body or miss the net.

Now that you have a simple and basic understanding of why to use the butterfly style of goaltending I will tell you a bit of how to play it and some key techniques to always remember when playing. Hopefully from reading this you will be able to improve your game.

Key point number one, always keep your stick on the ice. How many times have I seen a goalie go down into the butterfly position with his stick off the ice and the puck goes in through the small five hole. When going down in the butterfly positon, no matter how tight you get your pads there will always be at least a tiny hole where the five hole is, and this is where the stick comes in handy to block that hole.

Keep your stick on a bit of an angle as well so if the puck does hit your stick it will deflect up into your body where you can make an easy save and trap it with your glove. Make sure to keep your stick square with the puck as well though so that the puck doesn't deflect up on an angle and over your pads and into the net! As a general idea, the pallet on your stick should act as your 3rd eye. Always following the puck, whether you are standing up or down in the butterfly position.

Key point numer two, if you do decide on playing as a butterfly style goalie you should get the appropriate pads, as they help alot in covering more area and overall movement, skill, and ease of playing butterfly. Most pads now a days are usually made like this, but as reference I would recommend pads that have the same look and style as these :

When going down in the butterfly position, keep your body as compact as possible, keep your gloves low, your stick in front of the five hole, and your pads as push forward as your body will let you. Stretching before games and practices will help this, I usually will get the whole bottom half of my equipment on (Pads, jock, pants, skates) then I put just my two gloves on, get my stick and go out AT LEAST 30 minutes before the game to get good stretches in, this has proven to help my game immensly. During the game I am able to stretch my legs farther and thus stopping more, and am just more flexible.

You stop a shot while in the butterfly positon off your pads, but this gives off a rebound out in front of your empty net, your down on your knees, how do you possibly get over to cover the empty net and prevent a goal? You do a pick slide, this is achieved by raising the opposite leg of the direction you want to go in (ie : If you want to go left, raise your right leg). Then with your skate on the ice now, push to the side while keeping your whole body in perfect form, fully compact. If you watch an NHL game you can watch this technique in action from the goalies, then see what they are doing and mimic it during your own practices.

From the butterfly positon your also able to do recoverys. A recovery is performed to limit the number of movements it takes to go from the center of the net and in the butterfly positon, to then standing up and on your chosen side of the net. The way this is performed is a bit tricky at first and may take some practice to get right for some time, but when you do get it down pat, it can greatly help to increase your speed and movement. Let's say you make a save and the puck deflects into the left corner, but an opposing player is there and scoops up the puck quickly, you now need to get to the corner. So you need to reach the left side of the net, to do this you first need to swing your left leg and make it hit your right leg to twist your whole body over, and at the same time you must be raising your right leg and putting your right skate on the ice to push off as you are twisting to push yourself towards the left side of the net and at the same time be facing the puck.

The whole procedure of it may sound a bit confusing and complicated at first, but just by watching and NHL game you may be able to see it in action and get what I am saying. Then go and practice it, it may take you a while at first to get right but once you get it once you will never forget how it and it will just come naturally.

I also just want to point out a picture of a goalie in a BAD butterfly position. As you can see to the picture on the left, his gloves are both way too high up, especially on his catcher side, that should all be brought down and made more compact. He is trying to stop pucks, not scare away little animals.

For now that is all, in future articles look for more specific help on certain topics of goaltending to help improve your game. Some of the practices of being a butterfly goalie do take some time and practice. If you do not practice anything you will never get better and will probably give up. If you practice you will become better and by playing better you will most likely have more fun as well, just remember never to give up and always keep trying new things.

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Sean McKnight

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