Think goalies are weird? It’s 100 percent nurture, Constantine says
Published 8:25 pm Thursday, February 18, 2016
As typically happens when I interview Everett Silvertips head coach Kevin Constantine for a feature, I wind up with all sorts of quotes that don’t make it into the story.
Thursday’s story was about backup goaltender Mario Petit, who is making the most of his limited opportunities in backing up Carter Hart.
In speaking with Constantine the common saying that “goaltenders are different” came up. Constantine, a former goalie himself, is a firm believer that the strangeness associated with goaltenders is zero percent nature and 100 percent nurture.
“When I grew up the saying was, ‘Go to the playground and find the weirdest kid and that kid can probably be your goalie, because goalies are weird,’” Constantine said Tuesday. “And then as I went through being a goalie, observing the goalies, being part of the fraternity, I don’t think it’s that at all. I think we take very normal athletes and we make them a goalie, and the process of doing that makes you weird. It makes you different.”
Constantine noted the isolation that comes in spending all your time in the crease while teammates skate all over the ice and to and from the bench dozens of times per game.
“You don’t get the coaching, you don’t have anybody to pair up with like a defensive linemate, you don’t get to come back to the bench and talk about how things are going,” he said. “You’re just isolated and that willing(ness) to go in harm’s way and the isolation you play with, I think if you do that repetitively you become a bit of a strange duck. So yeah, goalies are a little weird.”
Goalies also have to be mentally tough. All eyes are on them as the last line of defense.
“For me it’s the hardest job in hockey from a mental standpoint because forwards’ mistakes turn into defensemen covering for them, and defensemen mistakes turn into goalies covering for them,” Constantine said. “Goalies’ mistakes turn into a red light going on and everyone in the building knowing you screwed up. Your margin for error is so much less, and yet you gotta be able to do it, to be good at it, to be 93 percent successful with what you do, and if you don’t do it you have to forget about it and keep playing. I think goalies are pretty mentally strong people.”
The Silvertips are in Kennewick tomorrow for a match-up with Tri-City. Then it’s home for games Saturday and Sunday against Seattle and Spokane, respectively.
Colleague Glen Erickson over at Hockey’s Future has a list of the top WHL draft eligible players (guess which Tip makes the list) and this list of the top WHL defensemen whose rights are currently held by NHL teams (Noah Juulsen ranks pretty highly).
