Coaches like consistency. They need to know what they are going to get game in and game out. Don Lucia told me at the University of Minnesota, "We want you to make all the saves you are supposed to." He depended on me to make the simple plays. Anything positive after that was an added bonus.

Consistent good play breeds confidence. But in order to play well, a goaltender should be playing with a style or system that makes him/her comfortable. Playing with a system allows a goaltender to put together pieces of a style to achieve method of playing rather than just making random saves. I have found a good style should involve making plays and saves based on the percentages of a game.

Playing the percentages means basing your actions on the odds of a certain play succeeding. Example, keeping your body in front of the puck as much as possible on a save is a high percentage play. If on the same shot you only wave your glove hand at the puck, you have just made a lower percentage play. Why? Because your arm is much smaller than your entire body. The odds of the puck hitting your body is higher than it hitting your arm.

Notice how a goaltender may catch your eye with a spectacular save on a seemingly impossible play, but may also puzzle you when missing on a chance to make a relatively fundamental save. These are the goalies who are usually going for the high risk (low percentage) plays/saves; flashy glove or diving stick saves for example. These saves are usually caused by the goaltender being out of position. As the play changes, it forces him/her to recover wildly.

A goaltender playing the high percentages of the game may end up sacrificing a spectacular save in order to ensure he/she is able and/or ready to make the more simple save (high percentage play). These are the goaltenders you may not notice as much because their patience and positioning during the play allow them the luxury of not having to wave around wildly hoping to make the spectacular save.

We derive our block first, save second theory on the percentages of the game. If you have not read our previous article on blocking, please do so here.