Allen, Hellebuyck expanding video training to learn from game situations

Expanded use of video training has helped NHL goalies stay mentally engaged in the game and the reads they make on the ice since the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

Instead of serving primarily as a tool to look back at past plays to identify trends and tendencies -- positive and negative -- video sessions are being used to help re-create the feeling of being in game situations.

St. Louis Blues goalie Jake Allen has been using video review once a week, sometimes watching with goaltending coach Dave Alexander on a video call, sometimes on his own.

"It just keeps my mind a bit fresher just seeing myself," Allen said. "I'm just imagining I'm doing things right, and just to be able to see yourself in a game situation again makes a big difference."

That ability to re-engage with game action and the reads a goalie makes while playing was also why Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck said watching highlights was among his main activities during the initial stage of the pause.

"Try to kind of live in the moment with that," Hellebuyck said. "Trying to picture myself in those moments to keep my reads of the game still up and dialed in."

Some goalies have gotten back on the ice in recent weeks, where local rules and conditions allow, to face shots and regain the feel of reacting to a puck coming off a stick blade. Others will be able to return starting June 8, when the NHL transitions to Phase 2 of its Return to Play Plan, which will allow players to skate and work out together in small groups at team facilities.

But none of those scenarios are the same as processing the speed and rhythm of a game. Keeping track of the puck and 10 players is far different than facing shots in practice.

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Allen, who also started using virtual reality as a cognitive training tool after the season paused, said weekly video review isn't something he does during a typical offseason. But with timelines uncertain for when NHL play will resume, and the need to quickly ramp up into a postseason mindset once it happens, Allen doesn't want to get too relaxed mentally.

"Video definitely triggers the mind a little more, and all you are trying to do is not get so far checked out for so long that it's so much further to check back in," Allen said. "I feel like most players can remember 90 percent of the plays, especially when you see a clip of it, and you sort of get that return-to-the-moment type feeling like, 'Oh, yeah, I remember this play.' Maybe not a couple of years ago, but last season definitely."

Not all the video work with NHL goalies during the past two and a half months has focused on maintaining a game-action mindset and keeping play-reading skills sharp. There are other ways to use video sessions.

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry said he and teammate Matt Murray have been reviewing each other's play during video sessions with goaltending coach Mike Buckley, looking for ways they can help each other get better by sharing sometimes differing views.

Edmonton Oilers goaltending coach Dustin Schwartz is using game video to teach prospects how to read plays better, a big part of the virtual development camp he's been running online for goalies throughout the Edmonton system.

"You'd be surprised that when you watch hockey and you watch yourself, how it kind of puts your body and your mind back into that performance stage," New Jersey Devils rookie Mackenzie Blackwood said. "It's kind of like whatever you're watching, you feel it."

Blackwood has no idea when he'll play his next game because the Devils were not among the 24 teams to make the Qualifying Round or Seeding Round Robin when the NHL announced its Return to Play Plan on May 26 and the start date of the 2020-21 NHL season has not been announced.

"I've still been watching some clips here and there, just kind of keeping my brain aware of hockey and reads and situations but not to the nth extreme," Blackwood said.

He said his process is to watch a particular highlight and then replay it in his mind, processing the decisions he made.

"You never really get to see yourself play unless you watch a clip, which is kind of strange because you don't know how you look while you're moving, so when you watch it from the bird's-eye view you see the big picture," Blackwood said.

"Then I look at it from my view and more. 'What am I thinking? What am I seeing?' I get the dual aspect of it, seeing what's going on, and I can then also remember back to what I was thinking or what I was seeing and correlate the two and say, 'Oh, this is what I did good, and this is what I could have done better here,' so it's a little bit of both, and I think that helps me a lot when I'm in the next situation."