Pucks of a Feather continues our new series, Hockey 201. We want our Anaheim Ducks fans to know the ins and outs of the game on a more advanced level. Today, Jacob Robles breaks down the Butterfly Technique goalies use.
This season at Pucks of A Feather, we’re taking an in-depth look at a variety of different aspects of hockey through our series Hockey 201. Today I’m going to cover the butterfly style/ technique that been the norm in the goaltending world for going on three decades.
For starters, the basis of the butterfly style is fairly simple. The whole point of the butterfly is to drop both knees down to the ice to wall out the bottom portions of the net when a shot is incoming. Its pretty much the basis and starting point of making any and all saves with your pads.
Personally, I don’t consider the butterfly as a style. It’s more of an action that is part of a goalie’s wide arsenal of moves. Pretty much all goalies at any level, nowadays, are taught a hybrid style, primarily focused on the butterfly.
Thanks to Patrick Roy‘s dominance throughout his illustrious career, he was considered one of the best goalies to utilize the technique, even though it was used decades before St. Patrick was around. Greats like Terry Sawchuk and Jacques Plante used it way before masks were commonplace in the NHL, but warned against it as the unpredictability of shots were too much of risk for them.