By Mike Beasley /
Now that Marc-Andre Fleury is back tending goal in the National Hockey League for the Pittsburgh Penguins after a lengthy injury, did you ever wonder what he did during his down time to be able to return to action?
Sure there was a lot of rehabilitation on a high ankle sprain that kept him out of the Pens line-up for over three month plus a conditioning stint in the American Hockey League with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins. But a big reason for his return had to be countless hours working with a goaltending coach going over the little things that can make a net-minder successful.
One gentleman who knows exactly what it takes to be an effective puck stopper is Tom Dempsey.
The Ottawa-native and current Ottawa 67’s goaltending coach was Fleury’s crease adviser when he was playing Junior with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
“I remember getting the call from Cape Breton asking me if I was interested in working with Fleury who at the time was the highest ranked goalie in the world,” Dempsey recalled. “It was a marvellous opportunity and turned out to be a tremendous experience that helped shape where I am today.”
Fleury is just one name on a long list of high profile goaltenders that Dempsey has worked with over the last couple of years.
During the NHL lockout in 2004/05, Dempsey had in his words “the pleasure” of working with Dominik Hasek when he was a member of the Ottawa Senators.
Dempsey would meet the gumby-like goalie almost every day at the Ottawa Civic Centre and the two would go over in detail the mechanics of stopping pucks.
“Dom was the consummate professional,” Dempsey said. “He would always arrive on time, do his stretching then go on the ice and work harder than anybody I had ever seen. After watching him train for a couple of days there was no secret as to why he was so good and was able to frustrate so many shooters at the NHL level.”
Dempsey is a strong advocate of having a goaltending coach as part of the coaching staff.
“In my opinion, every competitive level team should have a coach that can look after the goalies. There needs to be someone who understands what they’re going through and be able to guide and help them when needed.”
According to Dempsey, the ideology behind goaltending changed around the time Patrick Roy was playing for the Montreal Canadiens in the mid 1980’s.
“Patrick had a dedicated goalie coach that helped with his success leading a lot of the Quebec junior teams to hire one as well. That’s when Quebec goalies started to dominate the rosters of Canada’s World Junior team. Now it’s pretty common to see the name of a goalie coach included with the others on a team’s roster.”
Even though goaltending is a pretty sophisticated position, the approach that Dempsey uses with his pupils is pretty simple. “I always compliment what they’ve already learned prior to working with me, I never change a guy’s style, I try to fine-tune what they have. In the beginning, no matter if its Junior or Pro, I get them to work on angles, rebound control, use of their stick, lateral movement and seeing the puck/executing movement to the puck. Then they work on five or six drills that address those skills and have them execute at a high pace.
When he was working with Fleury and Hasek, the retired civil servant turned full-time goaltending instructor would use different scenarios to keep them sharp, adding feedback when needed.
“It was all about reinforcing what they were doing right and keeping them on top of their game,” Dempsey said. “The key to a successful goalie is to have strong techniques, above average work ethic and be willing to battle at all times just like Hasek and Fleury do almost every night.”
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