Unmasked: More NHL goalies embracing acrobatic saves
The increased focus on speed and skill, combined with a better understanding that east-west plays and passes increase the odds of scoring, have made life harder than ever for NHL goalies. With that comes the acceptance by that some of those desperation saves that their predecessors may have frowned upon are becoming more necessary.
“Now if you ask every single goalie, everyone loves a highlight-reel save at this point,” said Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren, who is in his 10th NHL season. “The game has definitely changed. There are so many more great chances — the laterals, the playmaking skills. Our opponents now are so good at creating open nets just by the high level of skill in the game today. So that highlight-reel save, that extra effort, whenever you can keep a puck out of the net, especially in this day and age, you’ll take every single save you can get.”
That doesn’t mean that current goalies still don’t prefer to take a puck in the chest.
The sprawling saves that end up on highlight reels might look more athletic and reactive, but goalies know there is often more athleticism in harnessing the lateral power worked on throughout the offseason to maintain body control in order to make good reads to beat those side-to-side plays and passes across the ice.
Most would rather, as Dubnyk put it in 2018, “make a big save or a great chance look like nothing than a medium chance look like a lot more than it should be” and point to saves that don’t make the weekly top-10 highlights as a favorite.
Current goalies have to accept that they’ll probably have to break from their structure more often against ever more-skilled opponents.
“There’s a lot of different factors and guys aren’t afraid to try anything (on offense),” Allen said. “There’s zero fear anymore, which generates more offense and more chances, and when these guys have a little bit of time and space, it’s special what they can do. It’s part of the game now.”
