Origin of the five-hole?

[Shawn Lee]

A hockey newbie asks: Where did the term "five-hole" come from anyway?

[William Ferris]

From the goal scorer's target. There are five places to shoot when you look
at the goalie, left and right top corners, left and right bottom corners and
between the goalies legs. Numbering the 5 spots placed the number 5 as the
spot between the goalie's legs, hence 5-hole. It is not the goalie's belly
button as some players think!!

Bill
Shawn Lee <le...@uillinois.edu> wrote in message
news:3731AB15...@uillinois.edu...

[Luis M Sanchez]

William Ferris <billf...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
(response snipped)

Anyone remember who the goalie was that originated the term "seventeen
hole," I seem to think it was Ken Wregget or one of those Pittsburgh
goalies from the mid-90s. He called the "seventeen hole" the slot between
his glove hand and torso, but I think it was just an excuse for being
quite the sieve, employing the swiss cheese approach to goaltending.

Luis M. Sanchez - TSDBITL

[Doug Norris]

"William Ferris" <billf...@worldnet.att.net> writes:

>From the goal scorer's target. There are five places to shoot when you look
>at the goalie, left and right top corners, left and right bottom corners and
>between the goalies legs. Numbering the 5 spots placed the number 5 as the
>spot between the goalie's legs, hence 5-hole. It is not the goalie's belly
>button as some players think!!

A footnote: the earliest I've seen these holes numbered was in Jacques
Plante's 1971 book "Goaltending", recently reprinted.

Interesting enough, he numbers all five holes (1 through 5), whereas
nowadays you don't hear about the first four.

Doug

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas Todd Norris (norr...@euclid.colorado.edu) "The Mad Kobold"
Hockey Goaltender Home Page:http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~norrisdt/goalie.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself.
Mankind. Basically, it's made up of two separate words---"mank" and "ind".
What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind."
- Deep Thought, Jack Handey

[William C Wendel]

I know there are five holes on the goalie, and the fifth is between the
legs. The others are the four corners of the net, i.e. high glove side,
low stick side, etc, but I'm not sure which is which.

b.c.

[ROCKRAT1]

Doug is correct. Jacques plante was the man to number the areas of the net a
goalie had to cover. As seen from the shooters perspective the lower left is
the #1 hole, the lower right is the #2 hole, upper right is the #3 hole and
upper left is the #4 hole. There was no #5 hole since Plantes method is based
on the "stand up " goalie and the legs were kept together as much as possible
as you were to remain in the standing position. Going down was a NO- NO. With
the advent of the Butterfly style, being that 70% of the shots being taken in
the NHL are along the ice, it makes more sense to cover more space low. To
accomplish this the goalie has to widen the stance to cover holes #1-2. This
wide stance thus created the 5 hole as well as two others that are less widely
know, those being the 6 and 7 hole. These holes are located under each arm of
the goalie while in the butterfly and the arms are raised.

>Subject: Re: Origin of the five-hole?
>From: norr...@rintintin.colorado.edu (Doug Norris)
>Date: 5/6/99 1:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <norrisdt....@rintintin.colorado.edu>

[Roy A. Fletcher]

Shawn Lee (le...@uillinois.edu) wrote:
with editing...
: A hockey newbie asks: Where did the term "five-hole" come from anyway?

From the pool hall.
The pockets are numbered 1 through 6. The side pockets are numbered
2 and 5. If a pool table is turned vertical, the 2-hole is at the
top middle; the 5-hole is at the bottom middle.

Pool halls are as common as hockey rinks in Canadian towns.
Don't ever play an NHL'er for cash at the pool table. Most of them
have perfected the soft hand needed for handling the puck at the
pool hall.

Regards. RAF

[pe...@otterspace.com]

In article <7gsato$fed$1...@bgtnsc02.worldnet.att.net>,

"William Ferris" <billf...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> From the goal scorer's target. There are five places to shoot when you look
> at the goalie, left and right top corners, left and right bottom corners and
> between the goalies legs. Numbering the 5 spots placed the number 5 as the
> spot between the goalie's legs, hence 5-hole. It is not the goalie's belly
> button as some players think!!
>

I tend to hit goalie in the middle of the chest.

Pete "No wonder I score so few Goals"

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[rwoods]

Ask Ray Bourque about holes 1 - 4, he certainly knows how to pick those spots in
a game or at all star skills competition.

Rob Woods

Doug Norris wrote:

> "William Ferris" <billf...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>
> >From the goal scorer's target. There are five places to shoot when you look
> >at the goalie, left and right top corners, left and right bottom corners and
> >between the goalies legs. Numbering the 5 spots placed the number 5 as the
> >spot between the goalie's legs, hence 5-hole. It is not the goalie's belly
> >button as some players think!!
>

> A footnote: the earliest I've seen these holes numbered was in Jacques
> Plante's 1971 book "Goaltending", recently reprinted.
>
> Interesting enough, he numbers all five holes (1 through 5), whereas
> nowadays you don't hear about the first four.
>
> Doug
>