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Shooting Tips with Gophers Coach Grant Potulny

By Aaron Paitich, Touchpoint Media, 11/04/14, 9:30AM CST

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Grant Potulny scored plenty of goals in his hockey career, including a rather important one in 2002 that lifted the Gophers to the NCAA championship in overtime.

It wasn’t a slap shot. In fact, most goals are scored with wrist shots and other quick-release shots. Last year, the Toronto Sun collected data to prove that NHL goal scoring is dominated by wrist shots.

Now, Potulny is in charge of coaching the Gophers’ forwards and has helped the Gophers lead the country in scoring two out of the past three seasons. Potulny joined us to share his advice for youngsters looking to score goals and create more offensive chances for their team.

Quick Release

The goal-scoring shot doesn’t have to always be a snipe, where the puck fits just perfectly into the top corner.

“What beats goaltenders is a quick release,” Potulny said.

Don’t telegraph your shot. Keep your feet moving while you shoot. If the goaltender isn’t ready for your shot or it comes at an unexpected angle, it’s much tougher for them to stop it.

Comfort Is Not Key

“Very rarely during a game are you going to have time to catch the puck, massage it and then shoot it,” Potulny said. “Put yourself in uncomfortable situations during practice. The more and more uncomfortable reps you get in practice, the more comfortable it’ll start to feel in the games.”

Potulny and the Gophers coaching staff are always putting their players in uncomfortable positions and making them find ways to get pucks on net. Players will not always get a perfect pass on their tape, so fire it in their skates or on their backhand. Have a defender shadow them and poke-check them. Simulate game-like situations.

Net-Front Work

“Goalies are getting better and better these days, so it’s getting tougher and tougher to score on them,” Potulny said. “A lot of goals now are generated off of second chances.”

Those second chances come in front of the net. Practice net-front presence, positioning and shooting. Potulny and Wild forward Thomas Vanek both scored a lot of their goals in front of the net (they were both stationed there on the power play).

“Most people, when they see the rebound come out, will want to just reach with their hands to get to the puck. But in the meantime the defenseman is closing in on you and disrupting you.”

Use your feet and body to get good position on the puck and the defenders. Once you get a hold of it, aim for the upper quadrants of the net, as goaltenders in that situation will most often be down on the ice.

Change Your Shooting Lanes

“You see it more and more in today’s game, whether it’s the NHL, college, high school or even youth hockey – players are blocking more and more shots,” Potulny said. “You have to move your feet, stickhandle and position yourself into new shooting lanes to get the shot through.”

If you’re winding up for a slap shot, your shooting lane has probably already shrunk or disappeared by the time you actually fire the puck. Shooting lanes open and close. Keep your head up and use your stickhandling and skating to find lanes – then use that quick release to get the puck on net.

Shooting from the Point

It’s always pretty to see a slap shot from the point find the upper corner, but winding up isn’t always the best option.

“The most important thing is getting the puck through traffic and to the net,” Potulny said.

That goes back to shooting lanes. There will be more layers of traffic when you’re shooting from the point, so it’s tougher to get through. Defensemen can use their feet to create new shooting lanes, whether it’s skating laterally across the blue line, spinning out of harm’s way, carrying the puck forward, etc. You can also try faking shots to get defenders to bite.

Pull the puck toward yourself and snap it off quickly from the point. Low shots – between 6 and 12 inches off the ice – are more likely to find their way through traffic while generating rebounds off the goalie’s leg pads. Then let your net-front teammates take care of those second-chance opportunities.

Skills and Hockey Sense

This is all skill work, repetition and developing hockey sense – and the Gophers work on it every day.

“We joke about it sometimes, because we say practice starts at 1:30 but everybody’s out there early working on this stuff,” Potulny said. “We’ll have three nets out there and everybody’s working on it. Kyle Rau is a big-time goal scorer, but he’s still out there learning and improving every day.”

Practice with Purpose

So you want to put in some extra shooting work to improve your game? Excellent. But don’t just fling pucks toward the net and hope it does something for you. Set goals and work on specific shots and skills with a purpose.

“If you’re going to spend extra time working on your shot, whether it’s in your garage or in the basement or on the ice, focus on the quality,” Potulny said. “Have a plan before you start practicing so you can maximize your time and progress. Focus on the quality of each repetition. That’s what will help you as a player.”

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