# @coach_bosak on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUy3xBYkmac
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/56321406-coach-bosak-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f96faa3f9a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-02-15T22:21:59.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** George Bosak (@coach_bosak) — https://gondola.cc/coach_bosak

## Caption

Just this morning, I saw a great clip about TJ Oshie discussing the importance of Hockey IQ being just as important as your skill and talent.

As I have stated frequently, I like to take a look at the difficult goals against and use them as teaching points. Let’s face it, if you are going to advance the next level and keep developing, your ability to stop the ones that maybe you shouldn’t is going to be just as important as saving all the ones that you should. 

Looking at this goal from Austin Matthews, it certainly does not go in the category of bad goal against. However, there are a couple of important teaching points off of this. One, the player passing the puck is a left-handed shot and when he passes it, he is at the top of the circle and outside of the dot. Look at the goaltenders positioning. It’s a tad over aggressive given the situation. The goaltender did get a shoulder check, but I am curious if he was fully aware of how open Matthews was here. Two, Matthews gets the deflection from inside the crease. Using your positioning, especially here considering the size of this goaltender, this can not happen. If he has more conservative positioning, he would be able to cut off the puck or jam the stick blade with his proximity to the net. Always remember that Hockey is a game of time in space, and if you give elite players time and space in tight, your job is going to be extremely difficult. Third, look at the movement off of the initial pass up to the top of the circle. The Goaltender actually gets a higher center of gravity when he is moving out. He loses a fraction of a second and some body control off of not getting truly set before this pass back across to Matthews. It is important to move with urgency. 

As I said, this is a difficult goal against, but it’s a situation that you will see often. Learning how to position yourself based upon player positioning, and hand of the shooters is just as important as your skill development. When learning from your own performance, learn to critically assess situations and breakdown what is going on prior to the goal, not just the goal itself. 

#goalies #scantheice #readtheplay #nhl

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,696
- **Likes:** 134
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- **Comments:** 4

## Tags

goalies, scantheice, readtheplay

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