MAX Hockey

The Reverse Horizontal aka the “RVH” in hockey lingo, is the new fad goalies love to use for any plays down low in the corners or behind the net. Let’s take a look at how Nico Daws of the New Jersey Devils implemented this save technique.

I think even Daws would agree, this is a shot that should not go in the net. So what went wrong and how can we learn from this?

If you’re not familiar with RVH, check out the article on RVH vs VH and their advantages and disadvantages to learn more about the different save selections. We’ll refrain from repeating ourselves here and focus on what happened in this play.

We can see the shot is from the corner. It squeaks by Daws as he is going down. The first question we should be raising is why is Daws going down into RVH at this point? This is the result of a habit where goalies instantly go to RVH when the puck crosses below the circles. Even when the puck is in the corner posing little threat.

If that play resulted with a pass behind the net to the other player, then RVH makes sense. But in this situation, if Daws had maintained his positioning, he would’ve been able to react with his hands and made the easy save.

The rule of thumb to coach your goalie is to move into the RVH when the puck is in that area of the trapezoid behind the net, or if the play is in close below the circles and within the faceoff dots. Again, this is a rule of thumb and every play is unique.

RVH is always a hot topic with questions and arguments, so feel free to fire away in the comments. Thanks for reading!