Playing the Puck Gaffe -- Advice Needed.

[Dolanster]

Okay, I played a situation like a chump last night. Ultimately costing my team a win (game ended in a tie after OT). I need some advice as to what I should have done. Here's the scenario:

About 7 seconds left in the first period and a winger bangs it hard past my right defenseman who's trying to hold it in at their blue line. The puck is coming down to our end, but isn't going to be icing, the puck is going to die somewhere inside my blueline maybe 10 feet from the boards and the winger has jumped by my D and is going to have clear breakaway if I don't come out and get the puck. I'm confident I can beat him to it, but not by much. Something's going to happen just before the buzzer goes. There's no help from anyone, he's alone with no back-checker within 15 feet of him.

I figure in a split second I've got three options:

1) Stay in the net, let him pick up the puck and try to stop the breakaway. Odds in my favor, but he'll get a good chance.

2) Go out and play the puck (somewhere), try to chip it by him or just pass it away from him and let the horn go.

3) Go out and try to cover the puck, although I'm not sure if this is even legal or a delay of game if the goalie is trying to cover the puck out above the circles. Also a bit of a high risk maneuver dropping to cover as you're charging out at full speed.

Option not considered. Go out and stack 'em or collide with him and send him flying. It's beer league.

I go with #2. I'm a standard catch left, shoots left goalie (although my natural player's shot is shoots right). I beat him to the puck, it's about 10 feet inside my blue line and about 5 feet from the boards, and he's close and skating hard. Chipping it by him is going to be dicey, if I hit his shinpad or something I'm burned. I don't quite have enough time to do any dipsy doodle stick-handling maneuver, I need to get rid of it. My choice: I turn my back to him, protecting the puck, and send it back behind my own net (as I wonder, "Isn't that horn going to go now?"). He dodges past me, swoops behind the net and is able to pick up the puck before it gets to the opposite corner, step out, and beat my lame attempt to get back in the net just before the buzzer sounds. In retrospect if I was going to do this strategy, I should have just whipped it has hard as I could around the boards behind the net, although that would have meant hitting the angle perfect and risking it rebounding out to him for an even easier goal. Weak sauce. Lucky the team bailed me out with a tie.

So learned brethren -- what should I have done?

[keeks2915]

Hammer it off glass away from him. Or

If you are out of time and space, just smother it momentarily.

As he goes flying past you swat it out over blue line with your glove. He is now offside and ounce get back to your net.

By then as well, your D should be back.

If ANY doubt just take whistle. Most refs will warn you and even if you take a call, that is better than a goal.

K

[hroark2112]

Pick the puck up & hand it to the ref. Tell him you thought the period was over!

Or just stickhandle it past him & go for the shot on goal.

[Smokey 32]

Tough call. All comes down to how confident you are in your ability to play the puck.

Once you commit to going out for it, the best option, if you have the time, is always, always, always up and off the glass. Brodeur (in his prime) and Roy were masters at this, and made it look so effortless.

[Dolanster]

Originally Posted by keeks2915

Hammer it off glass away from him. Or

If you are out of time and space, just smother it momentarily.

As he goes flying past you swat it out over blue line with your glove. He is now offside and ounce get back to your net.

By then as well, your D should be back.

If ANY doubt just take whistle. Most refs will warn you and even if you take a call, that is better than a goal.

K

Yah -- I should have dropped to one knee and [momentarily] smothered. There wasn't enough time and space to hammer it away from him confidently, he was just a few feet from me when I got the puck. But, you're right that I could have covered just for a second, let him blow by me, and then even lifted my hand again, look around, and with no one near me I could have just waited for the horn. That would have been smart. I was hoping for more help from the clock than I got with my move. Timing was about .5 seconds off.

[sloth2946]

If I don't read 'get to it' immediately, I'll stay in the net. Indecisiveness will cost me getting to it in time even though I'm a reasonably strong skater.

If I decide to get to it, it's going straight to the boards and as high as I can get it quickly, with as much mustard as I have.

Even if he manages to do something with it as it comes off the boards, it's going to be bouncing and tough to get a handle of.

But your solution let you feel shame, which is always funny.

[Dolanster]

I feel shame.

[Smokey 32]

/\ /\ /\

Don't. It happens to all of us.

[CoopALoop1234]

Normally, covering the puck out there will result in a penalty. Unless the refs like you.

With that amount of time left, I'd attempt to bank it by the winger and hope for:

1. Time will run out before he has a chance to recover it and get a shot off.
2. If he does recover it, you can hopefully back up and recover enough to make a save to end the period.

I've been burned on this before and my puck handling skills are sub-par, but I've usually had marginal success with these attempts.

I've also saved my own *** by getting back in time for a shot as well.

Pretty much it sums up to: Get better at your puck handling skills!

[Dolanster]

Originally Posted by CoopALoop1234

Normally, covering the puck out there will result in a penalty. Unless the refs like you.

With that amount of time left, I'd attempt to bank it by the winger and hope for:

1. Time will run out before he has a chance to recover it and get a shot off.
2. If he does recover it, you can hopefully back up and recover enough to make a save to end the period.

I've been burned on this before and my puck handling skills are sub-par, but I've usually had marginal success with these attempts.

I've also saved my own *** by getting back in time for a shot as well.

Pretty much it sums up to: Get better at your puck handling skills!

I'm not sure that my odds of playing it by him would have been better than just staying in the net and making a save on a breakaway. I'd give myself maybe 70% odds in my favor on both. What I was looking to do was not have to do either, and do something with a much lower chance of success for them, but I think the cover maneuver is the only thing that would have done it in retrospect. Keeks is right, even if I got called that would have been better than a goal. Zero odds of a goal should have been my #1 concern.

[PSULion22]

That's not as bad as the time I went out to play a clearing puck on the power play. It came all the way down on the ice in the center of the rink, so I came out to about the middle of the the defensive zone to play it up ice to my defenseman. At which point I whiffed on it. Just flat out missed it when I looked up to see where I was passing to instead of stopping it first. I can't even blame it on a bouncing puck it was flat and not moving that fast. Right between my legs and into the net. To make it worse, when I realized I missed it, I turned to get it behind me and caught a skate on my pad and tripped, making miss it by 3 inches with my stick.

[CoopALoop1234]

Originally Posted by PSULion22

That's not as bad as the time I went out to play a clearing puck on the power play. It came all the way down on the ice in the center of the rink, so I came out to about the middle of the the defensive zone to play it up ice to my defenseman. At which point I whiffed on it. Just flat out missed it when I looked up to see where I was passing to instead of stopping it first. I can't even blame it on a bouncing puck it was flat and not moving that fast. Right between my legs and into the net. To make it worse, when I realized I missed it, I turned to get it behind me and caught a skate on my pad and tripped, making miss it by 3 inches with my stick.

I've had a share of embarrassing moments, but damn. That's rough!

Dolanster: Fair enough. I don't think I'd really stack my chances of saving a clear breakaway against attempting to get it past in a riskier move myself. But hey, I take some unecessary risks in net.

[Dolanster]

Originally Posted by CoopALoop1234

Fair enough. I don't think I'd really stack my chances of saving a clear breakaway against attempting to get it past in a riskier move myself. But hey, I take some unecessary risks in net.

Maybe I'm being generous to myself, but I think any decent goalie's chances of stopping a breakaway is somewhere between 2-out-of-3 (66%) and 3-out-of-4 (75%). I'd say there was a similar chance of me screwing up the get-it-past-him clear.

At least if he scored on a breakaway he would have earned it more --- less obvious shame factor.

[pucking_goalie]

Those are brutal, but they happen to everyone. I handle the puck pretty poorly, but I'll typically try and dump it into the bench in a situation like that. I've also just skated it into the boards and held it with my skate. That's not very fun, since the player might jam you to try and get it out, but the pads usually help out.

And, in an effort to make you feel a bit better, a couple of years ago the goalie in the other end came out to play the puck at the bottom of the circle, turned around and fired it right into his own goal! I asked him what he was trying to do, and he said sling it around the net. That might have been the best fail I've ever witnessed though!

[habs96]

I got burned last week in a similar situation ( minus the 7 sec left). We were on a PP and weren't generating anything. I thought I could beat him to it but I was wrong and it ended up in the back of the net. I should have stayed in my net and try and stop a breakaway especially when I know that I am not a strong puck handler.
Regardless I made the decision to go, and once you make that decision you have to go (all or nothing). You never have time to hesitate.