Thursday, May 19, 2011

Snap Your Butterfly!

The bread and butter of any modern goaltender's repertoire is the butterfly.  French-Canadian super-star Patrick Roy, perhaps the greatest goaltender of all time, pioneered the butterfly style in the NHL, thus the term "Quebecois Butterfly Style".  It is so common, that it is utilized for as many as 90% of some goaltender's saves.  It is so effective, that it has led to the NHL changing rules (narrower pads, smaller creases, etc), because it is so difficult to score against a well-trained butterfly goaltender.

No holes here!  Patrick Roy, the master at work.

There are many variations to this one save, too many in fact to write in one article.  Today I will be discussing butterflying from a set stance, square to a shot, as opposed to sliding into a butterfly.  I will first explain why the butterfly is such an important save.  I will then discuss the proper way to "snap" a butterfly.  I will finally differentiate between a traditional butterfly save, and a blocking butterfly.

Are you a gambling man?  The best goaltenders are.  The best goaltenders gamble that the shooter can't make a "perfect" shot---which is basically the only way to beat a well placed butterfly save.  The basic idea behind the butterfly save is to drop to one's knees to take away the majority of the bottom of the net.  A perfect shot may sneak just outside the pad, but the goaltender can always guide the puck away with his stick, or extend a pad to save this shot.  The goaltender's body covers the majority of the remaining goal, with his hands and arms free to police the upper corners. 


Textbook extended butterfly save from Roy.  Just got it by a toenail!

MYTH EXPOSED:  I can't believe how often I hear parents complaining that a young goaltender, "goes down too much."  If they watch an NHL game they would see that almost every single shot elicits a butterfly save from the goalie.  In a perfectly executed butterfly, the goaltender's shoulders will only drop a few inches, so the difference in height from stance to butterfly is minimal.  The real problem is that young goalies are shorter, and therefore need to come out further on their angles.  The shorter you are, the further you need to play out! 

Halak (on the right) needs to come out further to cover the same amount of net as Price (on the left).  To me, they both look a bit unbalanced up top.  I'm surprised they aren't sitting up taller with even shoulders...get it together pros!!!

The way that one would say they "save" a shot, or they "make" a pass, they should say a goaltender "snaps" a butterfly.  If there is one piece of vital information to take away from this entry, it is that when you butterfly, your knees SNAP down together (as pictured above).  Flexibility varies greatly in goaltenders, and many goalies try to compensate for poor knee flexibility by butterflying with their knees apart, but remember....

GOALS GO THROUGH HOLES!!!

The key to a solid butterfly is that the knees SNAP together TIGHT.  If you aren't the most flexible, you will need to use the extended butterfly save more often, but it is much easier to extend out away from your body than it is to squeeze together.  Another common mistake is what I call a lazy butterfly, where only 1 knee hits the ice, and the other comes only 80% of the way down.  I think we've all been burned by a lazy butterfly, and there is really no excuse for it. 

It is imperative that your butterfly is 1) snapped and 2) tight--no holes.

The final thing I want to do in this entry is differentiate between a traditional butterfly and a blocking butterfly.  In a traditional butterfly, the hands don't move from where they were in the stance, up and out in front of the body.  This gives our hands and stick the best opportunity to react to the shot coming at us.  We will use this butterfly anytime a shot comes in from outside, with no traffic.

A traditional butterfly makes it easy to pick off high shots with your hands, or control rebounds with your stick.

In a blocking butterfly, the hands drop to the tops of the pads, and our arms suck in tight to our sides.  The blocking butterfly is extremely popular, because it eliminates all holes in the goalie's body.  The downside to this save is that it makes rebound control tricky, and should really be used only for point blank shots, or shots through screens or traffic in front.  This save makes your body as big as possible and dares the shooter to go around it.

Halak and Price take notes!  It would require a pretty special shot to beat his blocking butterfly.

PRO SECRET:  Many times players will try to go over the glove hand of a goalie in a blocking butterfly.  Swinging a glove up in a waving fashion is way too slow (wave good-bye to that shot!), so instead, we use a technique called the "chicken wing."  In this save you lift your elbow up quickly, so that the side of your arm  stops the shot.  While its nearly impossible to control a rebound this way, it's much quicker than swinging your glove, and keeps your shoulders square to the shot.

TJ keeps a high one out with a chicken wing save.

The butterfly should be used for any shot below your waist, any point blank shot, any one timer, and any shot through traffic.  Basically, almost every shot you see should be met with this basic technique. 

Times have changed for goaltenders. In the 80's and 90's goalies were doing the splits, stacking their pads, diving across and flopping about, making the position look stylish and exciting, and something only an acrobat with catlike reflexes could master.  In contrast, today's butterfly goalies make the position look easy--if not boring.  They find their angle, set their feet, snap their butterfly, recover to their feet, and repeat.  Sure it's boring...but it's effective!  I'm not sure how fans feel about it, but coaches will pick the boring guy that keeps the puck out of the net any day of the week!

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