Your Scoreboard Is Not Your Report Card: A Better Mindset for Young Goalies

One puck goes in.

Then another.

What happens inside your head?

For young goalies, that answer matters.

Do you immediately think:

“I’m playing terrible.”

Do you blame the defense?

Do you look up at the scoreboard?

Do you start trying harder and harder to make up for what happened?

In this episode of The Ride to The Rink, Lee Elias talks with Dave “Hutch” Hutchison, co-founder of InGoal Magazine, about one of the most important mental skills a young goalie can develop:

Learning to separate performance from results.

And although the conversation is aimed heavily at goalies, the lesson matters for every young hockey player.

A Goal Is Not Automatically a Failure

Goaltending can feel brutally simple.

The puck went in.

Or it didn’t.

Because the result is so obvious, adults and players often immediately search for what went wrong.

Was the goalie too deep?

Too far out?

Late?

Off angle?

Slow getting across?

That kind of analysis can sometimes help.

But if every goal becomes an investigation into failure, a young goalie can start to believe that every puck in the net means they did something wrong.

That is not always true.

Sometimes the shooter makes a great play.

Sometimes there is traffic.

Sometimes there is a rebound.

Sometimes the goalie reads the situation correctly and still gets beaten.

Learning requires technical honesty.

It also requires perspective.

Catch Players Doing Something Right

Hutch shares an idea that applies far beyond goaltending:

Catch kids being good.

Instead of constantly waiting for a mistake to correct, look for the moment when the player applies what they have been learning.

Hutch gives the example of a young goalie who had been taught to challenge aggressively.

Hutch wanted him to play with slightly more conservative depth so he could better recover to rebound chances.

Instead of yelling repeated corrections, he waited.

Then the goalie did it correctly.

He handled the initial play and recovered to the backdoor opportunity.

Hutch celebrated the moment.

The goalie understood immediately.

That lesson stuck.

Positive Feedback Can Be Specific

Positive coaching does not mean saying:

“Great job!”

after everything.

Specific feedback is far more powerful.

For a goalie, that might sound like:

“You stayed on your feet across the crease.”

“You were square when the shot came.”

“You tracked that pass really well.”

“You were ready for the second chance.”

“You made the read we’ve been practicing.”

Those statements help the goalie understand why something worked.

Now they can repeat it.

Find Your Own Highlights

Hutch says that after his son’s games, he often focused on a moment that almost nobody else in the rink would have noticed.

Not necessarily the huge glove save.

Something smaller.

Something developmental.

That is an excellent habit for young players.

After your next game, ask:

What was one thing I did today that shows I’m getting better?

Maybe you did not score.

Maybe your team lost.

Maybe several goals went in.

You can still find evidence of progress.

Skaters Can Help Goalies Too

This episode is not just for the player wearing the pads.

Skaters have a responsibility too.

Goalies spend most of the game physically separated from their teammates.

A forward plays a shift, returns to the bench, talks with teammates, hears from coaches, catches their breath, and goes back out.

The goalie stays in the crease.

That makes teammate support especially meaningful.

Do Not Tell Your Goalie What They “Should Have Had”

One phrase goalies hear constantly is:

“You should have had that.”

It rarely helps.

Hutch points out something obvious but important:

The goalie already wanted to stop it.

They do not need a teammate reminding them that the puck went in.

If anything, piling more pressure on a goalie can make the next save harder.

Goaltending Is Not a “Try Harder” Position

This is one of the most interesting ideas in the episode.

Many sports reward increased effort immediately.

Run harder.

Push harder.

Compete harder.

But goalies often need something different during the game.

Calm.

Patience.

Trust.

If a goalie starts desperately trying to make every save, they may become overly aggressive.

They may chase the play.

They may tighten up.

They may lose their reads.

The preparation happens in practice.

During the game, they need to trust the preparation.

Create an Environment Where Goalies Can Play

Teammates can help.

So can coaches.

A goalie who feels like one mistake will create criticism from the entire bench is not playing freely.

A goalie who knows the team still trusts them after a goal can reset much faster.

The goal is not to pretend mistakes do not matter.

The goal is to create an environment where players can respond productively.

Practice Awareness Matters Too

Lee gives young skaters a very practical example.

Two players accidentally arrive at the net during a drill at the same time.

Both have pucks.

Both shoot.

What did either player actually gain?

The goalie cannot realistically prepare for two simultaneous shots.

One shooter may essentially score into an empty net.

That is not development.

Be Aware Before You Shoot

If you see another player already approaching the net, you have options.

Slow down.

Peel away.

Wait.

Reset.

Give the goalie a real chance to prepare.

Then take your shot.

That makes the rep better for the goalie.

And it makes the rep better for you.

A Real Shot Should Challenge a Ready Goalie

Lee explains that as a player, he wanted to shoot against a goalie who was actually ready.

Why?

Because that is how you improve.

Scoring because the goalie was looking the other direction is not much of an accomplishment in practice.

Beating a set goalie with a strong shot?

That means something.

Development should challenge both sides.

Awareness Makes You a Better Player

This lesson goes beyond respecting the goalie.

If you are aware that another shooter is entering the drill, you are practicing awareness.

If you recognize whether the goalie is set, you are practicing awareness.

If you look around before acting, you are practicing awareness.

Those same habits matter in games.

Where is your teammate?

Where is the defender?

Where is the goalie?

Where is the space?

Good hockey requires players to constantly see more than the puck.

Goalies Need Team Time Too

Hutch also discusses the value of rotating younger goalies during games.

For some families, that idea sounds strange.

Why would a goalie leave the net every few minutes?

One answer is development.

Another is connection.

When the goalie comes to the bench, they get to:

Talk with a coach.

Rest.

Hear feedback.

Sit with teammates.

Feel like part of the group.

At young ages, that can matter.

The Bench Is Part of Team Development

Skaters spend a large part of every game on the bench.

That is where they communicate.

Learn.

Laugh.

Encourage each other.

Understand what the coach is seeing.

Goalies rarely get that experience.

Rotating younger goalies can give them more opportunities to be part of those moments.

As players age, they will eventually need to learn how to handle complete games.

But youth development does not always need to imitate adult hockey immediately.

Stop Letting the Scoreboard Grade You

This is Hutch’s biggest message for young goalies.

The scoreboard gives you the result.

It does not give you a complete evaluation.

Imagine two games.

Game One

Your team wins 6–1.

You barely face any dangerous chances.

Maybe you are not particularly sharp.

You still win.

Game Two

Your team loses 7–3.

You face breakaways.

Backdoor plays.

Rebounds.

Screens.

You make several excellent saves.

Which game did you play better?

The scoreboard cannot answer that.

You have to learn how.

Stats Have the Same Problem

Statistics can be useful.

But they can also become a trap.

Save percentage.

Goals against.

Wins.

Losses.

Those numbers describe outcomes.

They do not always describe your game.

Especially in youth hockey, team quality, scoring opportunities, shot counting, and game situations can dramatically change the numbers.

Do not make a statistic your identity.

Ask Yourself Better Questions

After a game, instead of starting with:

“How many goals went in?”

ask:

“What did I do well?”

“What improved?”

“What was I proud of?”

“What did I read correctly?”

“How did I respond when something went wrong?”

“What do I want to work on next?”

Those questions lead to development.

You Can Play Well and Lose

This is difficult for competitive athletes.

You want to win.

You should want to win.

But winning and playing well are not always identical.

Hutch reminds young goalies that they can give up several goals and still have had an excellent game.

They can also allow only one and know they were not at their best.

The more mature you become as an athlete, the better you become at understanding the difference.

Competition Still Matters

Separating performance from results does not mean pretending results are meaningless.

Hockey is competitive.

The score matters.

Winning is fun.

Losing can hurt.

You do not need to erase those emotions.

You simply need to stop allowing them to become your entire evaluation.

Find Two or Three Wins

Hutch gives young players a practical challenge.

After the game, find two or three things you did well.

Not fake positives.

Real ones.

Maybe:

You recovered well after a goal.

You communicated with your defense.

You battled through traffic.

You made a strong save on a rebound.

You tracked the puck better than last week.

You stayed composed.

Those become the pieces you build on.

Learn From What Happened Without Living in It

There is still room to improve.

Maybe you made a mistake.

Learn from it.

Maybe your depth was wrong.

Work on it.

Maybe you missed a read.

Practice it.

Then move forward.

A mistake should become information.

Not an identity.

Be the Teammate Your Goalie Needs

For skaters, the message is simple.

Your goalie is your teammate.

Support them.

Respect their practice reps.

Do not criticize them in the middle of the game.

Recognize when they make a good play.

Talk to them.

Encourage them.

Remember that they experience the game differently than you do.

And remember that when something breaks down, they are the last teammate trying to save the play.

The Message for Goalies

The puck will go in.

Sometimes several times.

That does not automatically mean you played poorly.

Learn to recognize your own progress.

Learn to identify what you did well.

Learn from what you can improve.

Then let the result go.

Your job is not to be perfect.

Your job is to keep developing.

Believe in Your Game

Young athletes often wait for coaches, parents, teammates, and scoreboards to tell them whether they are doing well.

Part of growing as an athlete is learning to evaluate yourself.

That takes time.

But the sooner you learn how to separate how you played from what the scoreboard says, the more confident and resilient you can become.

So after your next game, take Hutch’s advice.

Find two or three things you did well.

Learn from the rest.

Then move forward.

And wherever you are on your hockey journey, remember the message Lee gives every young player on The Ride to The Rink:

We believe in you. You should, too.