Stanley's Law No. 1: Block Shots

by Guy Carbonneau for ESPN The Magazine, May 13 2002 issue

Anyone who blocks shots well is a little crazy. Don’t let anyone kid you. There’s fear involved when the puck is coming in at 100 mph. I’ve broken toes and fingers and some bones in my feet but, hey, somebody has to do it. If the other team is good with one-timers and you block their shots, they’ll think twice about blasting a puck and try a softer wrist shot instead.

When you block a shot, you gain the confidence to do it again, and that’s how I got good at it. Don’t go headfirst. Timing and technique are big parts of it. You try to put your shin pad, your pants -- any part of you that is protected -- in front of the puck, always feet-first. I used to look at tape of myself doing it, and I learned to keep myself in position even if I was sliding to block a shot. You need to stay squarely in front of the puck, the same way you do when you play defense with your stick. And it’s always a big advantage if you can keep your stick on the ice. You also have to see the puck and know where it is all the time.

Very few forwards still block shots. The risk of injury is too great. But in the playoffs, there’s no tomorrow. You see forwards like Brendan Shanahan sacrifice themselves. You respect those guys.

Thanks to Joyce Coologhan for finding this article!

SHOT BLOCK!

In game three of the 1999 Stanley Cup finals, Carbonneau made this classic shot block move on Buffalo's Jason Woolley.

In this clip you can see him anticipate the shot, extrapolate the geometry of the puck's motion in the coming milliseconds, calculate his move, and send his body into perfect position, all in the blink of an eye.

The puck was blocked by Guy's ankle and deflected harmlessly away from the goal. It took the other players longer to determine what happened than it did for Carbo to stop the puck.