It's a constant battle of evolution among goalies and shooters.

You might be asking yourself, “What’s with all of these short side goals going in during the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs? Aren’t those supposed to be low percentage shots?”

You are correct, they are shots from bad angles and should be low percentage shots. Right now they aren’t as low as they have been in the past due to a newer goalie technique called the RVH.

Why are goalies using the RVH?

To fully answer that question, let’s talk about a tale that is old as time itself… the battle of cat and mouse. Or in our case, the constant battle of evolution among goalies and shooters. Let’s dive into the goalie side of the battle.

Understanding goalie language

Before we dive in we need to understand some goalie terminology.

• Save selection: The goalie’s proper save choice in a given situation.
• Blocking save: A save in which the goalie does not have the time or ability to react to the shot. Goalies attempt to block off as much space as possible due to the fact they cannot react to the puck.
• Reactive save: A save in which the goalie  has the ability to react to the shot.
• Post play: Goalie’s play into, at, and off of their goal posts.

Hockey is not a game of shots. It’s a game of situations.

“Beer pong is a game of shots. Quarters is a game of shots. Playing goal is not a game of shots. It’s a game of situations and every situation you have to figure out.” – Mitch Korn (World’s best goalie coach)

Just like players, goalies have to acquire and utilize their hockey sense. They need to consciously make decisions when choosing their save selections.

Goalies want to make saves (no duh). In order to accomplish that they want to give themselves the best chance at making the save while being able to react to the changing situations. When we talk about RVH we are talking about post play situations when pucks are coming from dead angles when a blocking save will likely be most appropriate.

History lesson in dead angle play

There has been evolution in post play save selections through the decades.

• Stand up: Pre-mask days and into the 1980s. There are many issues with mobility and rebound control.
• Butterfly: When the butterfly came into existence and wide use, it was a massive win for the goalies in the 1990s. There is an  issue with the overlap beyond the net and rebound control.
• VH (Vertical Horizontal): Developed by Francois Allaire and Jean-Sebastien Giguere in Anaheim with the Ducks in the mid-2000s. Again there are mobility issues, especially with a goalies hands and edges.
• RVH (Reverse VH): Developed in Sweden and made famous during Jonathan Quick’s Stanley Cup winning playoff runs in 2012 + 2014. He even won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 2012. This was much better at rebound control and mobility.

The good

There are some big advantages for goalies using the RVH:

• A goalie can be quicker to move into their butterfly. Their pads are already down and ready to handle low shots.
• Rebounds will stay on one side of the ice more often and limit the holes offered to shooters.
• Their hands are more free to move and make saves are to earlier common save selections.
• They are able to keep more of their body in the net.

Goalies must worry about quick in-tight plays around the net such as wrap-arounds and jam plays. Those situations generally result in a low shot or on-the-ice shot. The RVH allows the goaltender to be in a blocking position with pads already sealed to the ice. Think about how many pucks take deflections off a goalies own defender’s skates or extremities — the RVH allows for a greater chance at making those saves.

RVH is a really useful tool in the goalie’s toolbox for many reasons, but because of it’s many benefits every goalie is being taught it and allows shooters to have predictable spots in which to shoot.

Like anything in life, there is give and take with the RVH. No save selection is perfect in all situations. RVH allows the goaltender to be in a blocking position for dead angle shots while also providing the mobility to explode off the post to react to in-tight cross ice plays, an element the previous favourite VH lacked.

“There is no other body position in the history of the game that allows us to dynamically connect everything we do away from our post to everything we do on our post.” – Ian Clark

The bad

The problems start to arise when the RVH becomes the default and thoughtless. These are situations where goalies drop into the RVH too early or places where they shouldn’t move into it to begin with.  While not often a problem at the professional level, many youth goalies have used the RVH as a resting position and position that they play for majority of the situations they face.

With almost every goalie learning and playing the RVH there are consistent spots where shooters are able to exploit.  If a current adult league player like myself is looking for and picking those spots regularly, you can safely assume that NHL players are doing the same.

Now goals are being scored high short side with regularity. High short-side goals so far — Petry on Murray (Game 3), Bjorkstrand on Vasilevsky (Game 1), Highmore on Lehner (Game 4), Staal vs Markstrom (Game 4), and Armia on Hart (Game 5).

Those aren’t the only spots to attack. Watch at players attack right over the leg pads on the goalie’s hip…  Foudy on Anderson (Game 5), Ovechkin on Varlamov (Game 2),  Kunin vs Markstrom (Game 4).

Or you might say, “just stand up”… there are issues with that as well. Goals scored while goalies are standing up — Bergeron on Mrazek (Game 5), Beauvillier on Bobrovsky (Game 4), Virtanen on Allen (Game 4)

The RVH requires discretion, not automation. Coaches should be receptive to the RVH as a tool in the goalie’s toolkit, but also let your shooters know where to look when firing shots at the net. There will never be a perfect, catch all way of doing things.

Goalies made their change and shooters are responding. The battle of cat and mouse continues to rage on.