Why are goalie goal attempts on the rise?

Mike McKenna
Mike McKenna(MikeMcKenna56)
Why are goalie goal attempts on the rise?

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Doesn’t it seem like goalie goal attempts are on the rise? I sure think so. And I’ll be frank: I don’t have any stats to back it up. I don’t think they even exist if I wanted to find them. It’s all anecdotal.

But for someone like myself that has lived and breathed goaltending for nearly 35 years, I feel confident in my take: goalies are scoring and attempting goals at a pace never seen before. And the genie isn’t going back in the bottle any time soon, unless opposing teams smarten up.

Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark has already scored this season. And his goalie partner, Jeremy Swayman, missed by inches earlier in the campaign. New York Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin has taken a shot and missed. Pyotr Kochetkov – the Carolina Hurricanes rookie sensation – buried one in the AHL this year – just like the St. Louis Blues’ Joel Hofer did for the Springfield Thunderbirds during the 2021-22 Calder Cup playoffs.

I mean, look at Wednesday’s game between Pittsburgh and Colorado. Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry tried twice to score on the empty net. He missed both times. But I can’t remember a goalie ever taking two cracks in one game at the open cage.

Jarry already has a goal in the AHL, so this isn’t anything new for him. But I think there are a few reasons why more attempts are happening. And Wednesday’s game was a perfect illustration.

See the score? It’s 4-2 in favor of the Penguins. So Jarry has some room to breathe. Even if he turns the puck over and the Avalanche score, his team is still leading. So he has the confidence to go for the open net.

That’s key. Because it used to be the common refrain from goalies that they weren’t willing to go for it unless their team was leading by at least two goals.

NHL teams are pulling their goaltender for the extra attacker earlier than ever before. Coaches used to wait until 1:30 remaining in the game before they’d even think about it.

Analytics changed that line of thinking. And again, this is anecdotal from what numbers geeks have told me, but the metrics showed that pulling the goalie with three or even four minutes remaining resulted in teams having a better chance at scoring.

So NHL teams adapted by pulling earlier than before, and when down by multiple goals. 10 years ago teams rarely went for the extra attacker when trailing by two or three goals. Now it’s commonplace. And by doing so, it’s given goalies more time – and confidence – to shoot.

The mentality of shooting for the open net has also changed, and not just for goalies. The old-school thinking was that a player needed to cross the red line before taking a shot. Coaches didn’t think the risk of taking an icing – and the subsequent faceoff in the defensive zone – was worth it.

I always thought that was so stupid. Going up by two goals puts a dagger in the opposing team. If a player misses the open net, so what. Win the faceoff and get the puck out of the defensive zone. At the very least, the icing call would run some time off the clock. I always thought going for the open net was worth it, no matter where the player was located on the ice surface.

I think a fair number of coaches and players have finally come around to my line of thinking: that an aggressive approach to empty net goal scoring is more conducive to winning than sitting back and hoping the opposition doesn’t score.

That feeling has filtered down to the goaltenders. And here’s the key: they want to score. There’s a burning desire amongst the goalie union to join that special club of goal scorers. And unlike in the past when a lot of netminders couldn’t break a pane of glass with their shot, most are capable of hoisting the puck to at least the far blue line.

Goalie goals have become a matter of opportunity, rather than capability. They can all fire the puck. Shooting and passing with authority is a necessity for pro netminders in today’s game.

But what blows me away is how NHL teams keep dumping the puck to poor areas and allowing goalies a chance to shoot. A lazy rim around the board is easy pickings. A dump straight on the goalie is flat out stupid. Yet it keeps happening.

There are nights where the NHL’s best puckhandling goaltenders hardly touch the puck outside their crease. And that only happens when a team is diligent about where they place the puck on dump-ins. Corners are safe. Rims around the glass are a viable second option. Yet some teams are horrible about it: they consistently give the puck to the opposing goalie.

Why players are so mentally lazy is beyond me. Pre-scouts are detailed. Teams know which goalies can handle the puck. Yet some players simply don’t think when they dump it. 

The tired old phrase “get pucks deep” sure comes to mind. Players are so focused on getting the puck below the goal line that they forget to put it into a spot that’s favorable for a retrieval. It’s dumb hockey personified. And it gives goalies the chance to go for the open net.

Back in 2001, I scored while playing for the Springfield Jr. Blues of the NAHL. I was 17 years old, and it was the first goalie goal in the history of the league. It was the best moment of my life at the time. The adrenaline rush was something I can’t describe. 

Scoring a goalie goal was a dream ever since I saw Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall score the first one in 1987. I was four years old at the time and the visual never left me. I wanted to score a goal equally as much as I wanted to play in the NHL.

I see that same enthusiasm from today’s NHL goalies. The desire burns brighter than ever. They all dream of scoring. And the key difference from yesteryear is that today’s netminders all have the skill to make it happen.

Mike Smith scored in 2013. Pekka Rinne potted one in 2020. And Ullmark’s goal was on Feb. 25, 2023. Years went by between each of them. But here’s my prediction: another NHL goalie will score sometime in the next 365 days. And it won’t be long before it happens again.

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