Catching pucks used to hurt and sometimes it still does

AKA natural consequences made a difference

I’m not here to brag about beer-league hockey performances, but last night I posted a 4-0 shutout as the Anchormen turned it around after an 0-2 start to the spring season.

This relates, I promise.

On Wednesday afternoon Robert Tiffin and I hosted Episode 3 of Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey. You might have watched it live on YouTube, here on Shap Shots live or over at Robert’s place, Stars Thoughts.

If you haven’t don’t worry, the live replay is up at YouTube, while you can also listen to the entire show in audio form on any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Our first guest this week was Steve Thompson, who serves as the Director of Player Development for goaltending for USA Hockey. I love talking with Steve and he’s been a source for some nerdy goaltending stories in the past we’ve run here at Shap Shots.

Why early specialization and adult-sized nets have hurt goalie development

As the pendulum swings, goaltending is trying to become an art again

Yesterday on the show he brought something up that I knew, but hadn’t thought about it in a bit when it comes to goalies and catching pucks, it used to hurt a lot more if you didn’t do it right.

I’ll let Steve explain here:

That was fresh in my mind last night during my beer-league game. By beer-league standards, I catch a lot of pucks and I catch a lot in the pocket, again by beer-league standards. As my knees have aged poorly, I’ve actually become better maximizing my efficiency with my hands to save wear and tear on my knees — actually trying to listen to my 36-year-old body.

But last night I took a stinger off the pointer finger, it was a slot shot through traffic during a 5-on-3 penalty kill and I didn’t have time to catch it clean. My pointer finger vibrated for a little bit and it’s still a bit sore this morning. It was fitting timing after what Steve said in the clip above, if you didn’t catch pucks clean it was going to be a long day at the office.

It was also a good reminder for me of why I probably started catching pucks well in the first place. I played street hockey before I ever played ice hockey and I played a ton of it, my favorite summer memories are playing road hockey growing up in New Jersey in those old black Mylec pads.

There was no arm protection or pads in the groin region, so you learned to protect those areas with your other tools. Catching the street hockey ball was a much safe alternative to taking it off the elbow or into the nether regions, which still happened often.

When I eventually switched to playing ice hockey, eventually playing up the high school level in New Jersey and Michigan, catching and controlling pucks was always a focus of my game. I truly never thought about how much pain was a teacher in that regard until the conversation with Steve yesterday, but it makes a ton of sense.

As Steve said, we don’t want to go backwards in time equipment wise with goaltending, but it raises a fascinating question and thought process of how natural consequences can be such an efficient teaching tool.

Anywhom, I highly encourage you listen/watch the full episode for both the interview with Steve and Utah Mammoth analyst Dominic Moore who told some great stories.

For housekeeping notes, I’ll have a Stars-Wild playoff preview coming in the next couple days here in back-and-forth format with my pal Bob Sturm. We will also have something up here each weekday — and many weekend days — during the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don’t know what it’ll be, but I can tell you that we will have 20/20s off the Dallas-Minnesota series and other select games as well as the playoffs progress.

That’s one of the reasons this past week was a bit slow, combined with my other work travels, you kind of have to refresh and re-load so you can hit the playoffs hard.

Thanks for reading and we will have more up soon.