- Jan 9, 2009
- 15,986
- 10,507
Have the Flames found a diamond in the rough here? This guy has been really good in every game I've watched him play this pre-season.
Per Devin Cooley:
Per Devin Cooley:
"I didn’t have, really, any consistent goalie coaching until I went to the USHL at 18, 19 years old,” Cooley explained. I feel like my entire career, I’ve been trying to play catch-up."
“I always had this raw, athletic ability; I was mobile, I was quick, I was tall, so I had all the tools but I honestly had no idea what I was doing, for the longest time. In the USHL I finished like last in save percentage and goals-against average, so that wasn’t good at all, but I had all the tools, but like if you would have asked me ‘Hey, in this situation, what do you do here?’ I would be like ‘I dunno, I just figure it out.’ So that doesn’t work at the higher levels.”
“So now it’s like taking this raw talent and structuring it, and now being a lot more technical with things. Now I’m feeling a lot more confident, where it’s like if there’s a certain situation, I feel like ‘OK, I know exactly what to do here.’ Now it’s just continuing to build off that muscle memory, and get better and better.”
This summer, Cooley focused on staying taller in his net, along with little adjustments - ‘having my butt up,’ he says, for starters - along with a move away from ‘sitting back’ in his crease, and hand positioning.
His summer work was all about building the aforementioned muscle memory, rep after rep after rep.
“That’s been like a huge game-changer for me, just letting pucks come to me and using my body for them to hit me instead of feeling ‘I’ve got to get so low and track everything.’ It’s so hard to track, like it comes so fast sometimes.
“Having pucks hit me a lot more, it’s just made the game a lot easier for me.”
