Goalie Quotes

The Goalie Academy Staff has compiled a number of quotes from professional goalies and their coaches that should help young goalies motivate themselves to work hard and improve their game. See what the best goalies and their coaches have to say about style, practice, hard work, confidence and continued improvement. 📷"Right now the puck looks like a beach ball to him," Phoenix coach Bob Francis said. "He's following it, squaring up, getting sound positionally, and his concentration level is outstanding." Boucher says his style has become a hybrid of things learned over the years. "I think I mix it up a little. At times, I stand up and I butterfly too. It all depends on the situation on what move I'm going to make. But now, working with Benoit Allaire, he's got me not being so far out of my crease and being more in control of my game. Maybe staying back a little more and using my size to my advantage this way if a pass moved across you could react a lot better maybe if you're back a little bit more as opposed to being three feet out of your crease. Now you have to move a heck of a lot more to get to your next shot. It's a work in progress and we're still working on it, but I think we're seeing results." 📷"I've come a long way this season," Mika Noronen, Buffalo Sabres' goalie, said. "Considering the fact that I began the season watching the first two games from press box, I think I've done well. All along I've practiced hard in every practice. I've battled for every puck in practice in hopes that I would get my chance later on." Noronen Competes for Every Puck, All the Time! 📷Brodeur (30-17-10) had to make only 20 saves in moving ahead of recently retired Patrick Roy for consecutive 30-win seasons. "That's amazing," Devils forward Brian Gionta said of the streak by the goaltender who has led New Jersey to three Stanley Cups since 1995. "He is the best goalie in the league, and year after year he shows it. It's because of his work ethic. He never wants to get beat, be it practice, pregame skate, warmups or in the game." Brodeur Competes for Every Puck, All the Time! 📷"He (Scott Meyer) wants to stop every puck in games and every puck in practice,” said Checkers coach Don MacAdam. "He tries to stop every puck, every time.” "I've been doubted before,” said Meyer, a native of White Bear Lake, Minn., near St. Paul. "I'm known as a hard worker. I'm very competitive. I compete as much as I can to make up for any lack of talent that I might have. I hope to prove that I can play." 📷"A goalie has to show he's confident to his teammates, as well as himself," Patrick Roy said. "You are the last guy before that special red line. You have to make yourself confident. You make yourself hard to beat." 📷"The athletes going into goaltending are definitely better, especially in Quebec," says Marc Denis. "It used to be that the guy who couldn't skate on the team became the goaltender. But, it's not that way now, not by a long shot." 📷"It's just different for every individual, but for goaltenders focus is the main part. Once you get on the ice, the main objective besides warming up and stretching is your mindset. You have to be able to react to whatever happens. as soon as you have one thought in your head before or while a guy is shooting, you're in trouble. So you've just got make sure you get out there clear-headed and focused." Marty Turco 📷"When you're losing, it's tougher to get into a groove. You're battling yourself; When you're losing, you find ways to lose instead of trying to find a way to win. You think too much and as a goalie when you start thinking, you're done." - Olaf Kolzig on the mental aspect of the game "I strive to be the best goalie in the league," Kolzig says. "Everybody should have that motivation to be the best at what they do. If I am or if I'm not, it's relevant to what other people think; it's what I believe." 📷"The zone just doesn't come in and out, it's just something that you work and work and work. When it's time to play as well as you can, you just try to bring it." "Francois [Allaire] gave me confidence by giving me tools to work with, a technique that's very simple to use," said Giguere, who came from Calgary for a second-round draft pick. "Whenever things go wrong or whenever things go right, I always try to stay with the same foundation. You can't change your game plan. If I give (up) two, three goals in the next game in the first period, I'm not going to change the way I play because of that." -J.S. Giguere 📷"You don't really know a player until you have to live with him, day in and day out," Devils coach Pat Burns said of his goaltender, Martin Brodeur. "He loves this game. He loves playing and practicing -- and he hates to give up a goal, even in practice. "It's real important to work hard and you either have skill or you don't, but you have to refine your skills by working hard. For me, I have a lot of skill, but anybody that's played with me will tell you what makes me different from other people is the work ethic. I don't care how skilled you are, if you don't have the work ethic and put in the time to develop your talent and technique, you'll never make it. It's important. All the best goalies I've come across at All-Star Games and the Olympics, we have one thing in common and it's that we really care about what we do." Martin Brodeur 📷"My love of hockey made me become a goalie. I was always a forward and I had the option of playing on a second team as a backup goalie. I thought it was great to play on two teams. I didn't care what position I played. I enjoyed playing goal and decided the following year that I wanted to be a goalie and not a forward. It's really because I had the opportunity and somebody asked me. I was just because I loved hockey so much and wanted to play it so much. I started playing the position at seven, so I had a good three years of skating, which I think is important, before I became a goalie." Martin Brodeur 📷"I'm proud of the fact that I made it to the NHL, but even more proud of the fact that I learned to be a better goaltender," he [Richter] told me early in the 1997 season. "Times change and if you don't change with the times, you're lost. I remember playing for the famed Eddie Shore in the American Hockey League and having him tie me to the crossbar so that I couldn't leave my feet and had to stand up and face the shooter." "But I wouldn't be in the game anymore if I was still a standup goaltender all the way with the way the game is played today -- so much east to west with the European influence we have seen in the way the puck in passed from side to side. Look at the flow of the game, from up and down the wing to a criss-crossing skating and passing game -- especially the quick passing game in front of the net that has forced goalies to go from side to side. Let me tell you, you can't do that if you stand up." 📷"It was tough to get better when you had so many telling you that you were better than you really were." -Jim Craig