On the RVH and how poor save selection is hurting NHL goalies
Time to for me to talk about something that frustrated me watching the game in Detroit on Friday.
There was a 47-second stretch in the first period of Friday’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings that drove me batty as goaltending enthusiast.
First, with 6:33 remaining in the period, Patrick Kane scored this goal against Sam Montembeault.
It’s a nice shot by Kane, picking the corner over Montembeault’s shoulder, but it’s a goal that only happened because of the Canadiens goalie’s over-reliance on the Reverse Vertical Horizontal (RVH).
The RVH, also known as the integrated post lean, is a valuable tool for today’s NHL goalie, but it’s become overly used and a has become a crutch, particularly for taller goalies. And as shooters, like Kane on Friday, have seen that crutch in use, they’ve been picking hole next to the goalie’s ear.
Look at this angle of the goal, because of the RVH, the hole has been opened here for Kane.
The other thing I want you to notice about this play is the lack of any passing threat for Kane on the other side. Look at all that wide open space, no Red Wings in sight, zero threat of a pass.
The RVH is meant to be used as a tool that helps with transition and threat of a pass to the back door and wrap-arounds, while also allowing a goalie to smother plays right on the doorstep at the same time. But when there is no pass available, and the player isn’t in tight, it just becomes a liability like it was for Montreal on the first-period goal by Kane.
Here’s a good breakdown of when not to use the technique from goaliecoaches.com, a site that specializes in goalie technique and teaching.
Do not use the RVH when the puck is further than 1-2 stick lengths of the goalies net
Do not use the RVH when the puck and attacking team are inside the corner
Do not default to the RVH just because the puck is behind the net
As a general rule of thumb, if you have the opportunity to re-gain your feet instead of remaining in the RVH, you should do so. Holding your feet provides more of an advantage should there be an opportunity for quicker lateral movements required as a scenario develops.
To add to that, here’s a breakdown of how the RVH came together from a piece I did in 2023, talking to Jonathan Quick, who widely popularized the technique.
Quick recalled to me that he had been killed down low in the playoffs by Henrik and Daniel Sedin, and the RVH was born because of the twins.
It worked well for Quick, everyone started copying it, and now the RVH is standard goalie practice.
But everyone took the wrong lesson. While the RVH is a tool, and should be in a goalie’s bag, the real lesson of the technique is how it was born. With a goalie and a coach diagnosing a problem rather than forcing a solution.
“It was something that I needed as part of my game, we worked on it, we tried some things that worked and some things that didn’t,” Quick said. “It was one of those things where we had to find a way to improve.”
You can read that full story I wrote here, FYI:
Now 47 seconds after Kane scored this goal, the Red Wings nearly scored in the same way, where Moritz Seider came down on a rush and hit the post over Montembeault’s left shoulder.
The play was largely ignored in the larger context of the game, but it was wildly infuriating for me watching seeing the goalie go back to the same poor save selection after getting burned on in less than a minute earlier.
David Lassonde is Team USA’s national goaltending coach, I spoke with him earlier this week at training camp for 2025 World Junior Championship and I asked him about the RVH.
“You can transition into that move and it’s not about the space behind you that you need to cover, it’s the space in front of you,” Lassonde said. “And it starts with the hands, it starts with keeping your chest up, how are you limiting those holes while also using it when it’s needed.”
My theory, which I proposed to Lassonde, if taller goalies tend to get caught more often with poor RVH usage. Taller goalies, naturally, have been able to rely on size in most situations throughout their career and growing up, while smaller goalies have had to be a bit more athletic simply to advance through various levels.
Lassonde pointed to what it’s been like working in camp with Trey Augustine and Hampton Slukynsky with Team USA, a pair of 6-foot-1 goalies who, in my view, are less robotic and less reliant on the RVH than most goalie prospects I’ve watched.
“Some of the undersized goalies, they have had to have a really good understanding of how to fill the space in front of them to maximize net coverage, there’s not other choice,” Lassonde said. “Hampton, for example, is really a self-taught guy, didn’t really have much of a goalie coach until last year in Fargo (in the USHL).”
Slukynsky, who I really like as a long-term project for the Los Angeles Kings, has effectively built a style that best fits him as opposed to forcing himself into the current norms of the position.
Now, there aren’t many small goalies in the NHL. Juuse Saros is the only goalie in the NHL or AHL listed under 6-foot. The position is reserved for taller humans, and those taller humans, according to one goalie coach, can use the RVH as a crutch for most of their lives, especially if they never reach the NHL.
“Anything below the AHL, really, and the RVH is a fine percentage play, that’s why I think it’s taught so much as an easy tool for goalie coaches to younger kids, it’s what works for where they are then,” the goalie coach said. “But once you get to the pro level, where everyone can pick their spot, using the technique at the wrong time just creates an advantage for the shooter that wouldn’t exist if you just stood and stayed square.”