Goalies Playing the Puck

I don't know if I'm just angry because I'm a goalie.

Or I don't know if I'm confused because I'm so used to seeing Marty Brodeur doing it 100 times a night.

But there's a problem in the NHL today.

Goalies are having major difficulty playing the puck in their own zone.

Last night in game 1 during the Western Conference Finals between the San Jose' Sharks and the Vancouver Canucks, Joe Thornton scored a goal on a terrible turnover by Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo.

Expectedly, the announcers chewed him out but, hey. It was a mistake. What can you do. But then the second goal of the game also had a turnover by a goalie. Except it was a type of turnover that literally happens 5 or 6 times a game from behind the net. A goalie skates behind the net to play the puck and tries to rap it around the boards but a player reads it and gets in the way and intercepts the puck. This type of turnover led to Maxim Lapierre's goal for Vancouver.

The announcers at first didn't even point out the turnover by Sharks' goalie Antti Niemi. I figured after they trashed Luongo for his turnover they'd at least point out Niemi's turnover. But no such point was made by the announcers in the booth (eventually they realized the turnover by Niemi but they still criticized the defense more for not getting the puck out). This may be because goalies aren't expected to play the puck WELL anymore. People don't trust that the goalies will play the puck well and get it out so they don't make as much of a big deal out of it as they used to. The NHL appeared to be changing with guys like Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur who've played the puck consistently well for their entire careers. Here's Martin Brodeur simply clearing the puck off the boards and all the way out of the zone (ignore the announcers. Just pay attention to his clear)

It was plays like this that the NHL should want more of. Notice how the defenseman for the Devils doesn't even skate all the way into his zone to help out. He trusts Marty to play the puck right. The Devils have had this sort of "Sixth Defenseman" advantage for a long time now. The NHL pretty much made the trapezoid (a trapezoid shape behind the net. The goalie is only allowed to play the puck within the trapezoid behind the red goal line. If he plays the puck outside of the trapezoid it will result in a delay of game penalty) for more scoring because goalies couldn't help out as much as they used to forcing the defenseman to make more pressured plays and in doing so might lead to more offense. What this rule has done, has lowered the amount of practice put in for goalies to play the puck. They treat it as a non-necessity and this is why there are not many goaltenders nowadays who play the puck well.

A few years ago, I was watching a hockey game with my dad. After a bad turnover by the goalie he turned to me and said, "If the NHL wants more scoring, they should TAKE AWAY the trapezoid". We laughed it off at the time but now I realize that eradicating this rule might help stress the importance of  goalies playing the puck well and might give us more scoring chances for their team as well. Goalies would work harder to play the puck up the ice and may give their offenseman better chances. 

So hopefully goalies will one day get better at playing the puck.

Because I can only take so much more of bonehead turnovers like this:

Or this:

Or this:

And especially not this: