Emery Loses His Stick Discipline

UE Motto: Be a Warrior!!

I came across this goal while watching a full recap of the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers series.  I found a large portion of the goals against Emery came from plays that passed in front of him to his right to his left.  Many of these were very good goals that would have been scored against many an NHL tender.  I did notice that Emery, when torquing hard to his trapper side, he had a lot of difficulty keeping control of his stick.  This is not uncommon and the harder and more sudden a goalie has to shift, the greater trouble he's going to have in maintaining his stick discipline.  Stick discipline in this case is where the goalie keeps the stick on the ice, usually protecting his five-hole.

Now not to over-criticize, as most of these plays were bing-bang plays that moved the puck 40-50 feet east to west.  However, the forth goal in the third game was a lot less excusable.  Firstly, the pass was not to the farside so much as to a streaking player moving right up the middle.  Emery had very little lateral movement required here.  Secondly, the timing of the goal was especially harsh as it was the nail in the coffin for game 3.

I wanted to draw attention to this, not so much as to belittle Emery, but to highlight this issue with my young goalies.  Spring hockey has allowed me to work with a bunch of new netminders from my usual crop, so they are getting a lot of "flack" from me on their lack of stick discipline during lateral slides, especially to their trapper side.  But at least with Emery's example, they are in good company and it goes to show everyone, that even the pros need to work on the basics.  Banger Maxim #17:  Some things are simple to understand but they are not easy to execute.

I think it can be easily said that Ray Emery has had a tumultous career.  He has had some inspirational events in his career, as well, that I think could be motivational fodder for any aspiring goaltender.  Take a read of his Wikipedia bio.