Bujan Goaltending

After being a Head Coach of a Jr. team in the OHA the last 2 season's I decided to focus mostly on goaltending. I did however agree to help out with a 99 (Peewee) AAA team in Hamilton as an ASST Coach. I also work with the goaltenders at my goalie school so I knew the team before hand.

Our team last year was a weak team and finished 16 games below .500. This season we finished 14 games above .500 and mostly on the shoulders of goaltending. We have now qualified for the OMHA's which is our Provincials. Over the next few posts I will outline how I am getting our Goaltenders ready for the OMHA weekend. It is a 4 game tournament format before seeding for the Medal Round. We would be considered underdogs going into the tournament but if we get the type of goaltending our goalies are capable of, you never know!

Practice 1: (Wed) Team Practice

We worked on puck handles today. I really focused on directional lines to attack dump-ins as well as reading the oppositions forecheck. Understanding what type of dump-ins teams will use when playing us and how our goalies can help breakdown their pressure.

I worked on reading our D coming back and supporting the puck, as well as verbal cues from our D to help our goalies make good puck decisions. Our goalies are only 12 and their puck shooting ability is not great, so I tried to help them understand that if they choose to use a backhand, they need to beat the first forechecker. They will not be able to rim the puck on their backhand but they need the oppositions F1 to get below the puck.

Our team plays an aggressive style and we ask our D to control a tight gap, especially in the Neutral Zone. Because of this style we have a lot of teams play a dump and chase system against us. If our goaltenders can be comfortable playing the puck and understand how they can beat F1 our transitions game from our own zone will be much more improved and ultimately help us with offense.

Both my goalies will coming to the Goalie Clinic I work at, Saturday morning and Sunday Evening for 1 hour on ice sessions followed by a 1 Hr Strectching session. I will have an update after these two sessions.

"Victory Loves Preparation"