Butterfly style
Many factors helped make it a de facto standard style of play today, including the popularization of the goalie mask by Jacques Plante, Vladislav Tretiak's outstanding use of the style at the 1972 Canada–USSR Summit Series, the National Hockey League (NHL) emergence of Tony Esposito in the 1970s and Dominik Hašek in the 1990s, the development of lightweight materials for pads and the influence of professional goaltending coaches such as Warren Strelow, and Benoit and François Allaire.
[1] Although it is effective and popular among goaltenders, the butterfly style can leave the upper portion of the net more vulnerable to scoring attempts.
[4] Other contemporaries, such as Terry Sawchuk and Jacques Plante (who, while not having invented the goalie mask, is credited with having popularized it) relied mostly on the stand-up style.
Plante actually tried the butterfly style when sharing goaltending duties with Glenn Hall in St. Louis, but cautioned others against its use except under certain types of screened shots.
Modern, lightweight plastics and energy absorbent foams allowed goaltenders to block and trap shots with their bodies.
Modern hybrid coaches such as the late Warren Strelow worked with goaltenders associated with the profly style such as Miikka Kiprusoff.
The butterfly term is often used to describe the newer profly style of goaltending refined by players including Ed Belfour, making it popular in the early 2000s by goaltenders such as Rick DiPietro, Martin Biron, Roberto Luongo, Marc-André Fleury, Marc Denis, Henrik Lundqvist and Jean-Sébastien Giguère, the latter being very profly-oriented.
Common (but not exclusive) attributes of profly/blocking goaltenders are those have wide butterflies, use stiffer leg pads (often with no knee breaks), and tendencies to cover the lower portion of the net.
Profly goalies tend to modify their save techniques to take up as much net as possible and leave shooters with the smallest space possible to shoot at.
Modern stand-up goaltenders commonly have excellent mobility on their skates and show above-average proficiency in puck-handling and making saves with their stick.
If a goaltender is on the inside corners or if the pad faces as in non-progressed "butterfly" styles, the push results in a tendency to roll over onto one's chest and belly.
The advantage is on coverage against quick shots to the near side of the net, while still covering the option to track passes to the front of the goal mouth.
