It's hard to stop something that you can't see.

Sometimes in hockey, we overthink things and forget about the fundamentals. Remember, it’s hard to stop something that you can’t see. It allows the offensive team to create more scoring chances.

Like Team Canada head coach Andre Tourigny said during his presentation at our Hockey Coaches Conference in 2019: “It’s not net presence, but goalie presence. We need to be in front of the goalie, not the net. The net is big, it’s easy for a player to stand around the net.”

From here, I wanted to take a look at the 2020 NHL playoffs and see how effective players were at being a “goalie presence.”

1. Power play

Most teams play a typical 1-3-1 power play with a player stationed in front of the goalie. I’ve focused on these clips because of the goalie presence of the net-front player and the impact they have on the goal, without even touching the puck.

Take a look on how they “blind” the goalie, when the shot comes from the point or the flank.

2. Offensive zone

Taking away the goalie’s eyes is an important offensive zone strategy. Even though these next examples don’t score on every shot, it can create a rebound for a goal as well.

3. Face-off and passing

A lot of teams have a set face-off for every single draw in the game. But sometimes, taking a shoot with a great goalie presence could be more effective than anything else.

Make sure to take a look at the last part of the video (look closely at TBL17). This is my favourite clip by far. We could also label this clip “goalie presence 101.” Anton Khudobin loses sight of the puck, and has to overcommit to the one-timer because he is behind the play, then a pass across the Royal Road leads to an open net tap in.