“Watch the puck.” That seems like obvious advice for you goalies, but “see through the view of the puck” is a statement rarely taught to young goal scorers. Goaltenders are taught to line up their angle with the puck, not the shooter. This concept is often overlooked when teaching the art of scoring and capitalizing on chances. Understanding the tricks your eyes can play on perception could prevent players from continually pounding the puck in the goalies glove where they think there is room, when in actuality there is no space at all.
In a ready position to take a shot, a player’s eye could be more than five feet away from where the puck is on the ice. This is a rather large gap when considering what corner to pick. This shooter’s illusion is the difference between what amount of room the shooter believes is available from what their eyes see and the actual amount of scoring area available from the puck’s perspective.
Although the difference between illusion and reality can occur with a shot from anywhere inside the offensive zone, we will look at five scenarios for a right handed shot where the view could prevent the shooter from picking the successful target to aim for. Remember, it is the area available from the puck’s perspective that determines how much room the goalie is giving the shooter, not the area from the shooter’s eyes.