Jan 20th 2009: NHL Saves of the Week
I'll admit. I was a bit skeptical this week of whether I would find a theme for the January 20th Saves of the Week, but it couldn't be more obvious. Glove Saves.
First, I have to give a shout-out to Yann Danis for making the top ten. I watched him in college (I think he graduated from Brown a year before I graduated), and it is great to see him make it to the show. His glove save, while not as flashy as the other sprawling-lateral saves, was impressive in the amount of control he had under the puck. It was a very efficient and quick save (the shot was so fast, the camera could not really keep up with it).
So generally speaking about glove saves, with the exception of Thomas' great glove save (on a shot going top corner no less), one of the most important and most common features of each save is the goalie's ability to "track" the shot. Starting with Mike Smith's save (#9), he finds the puck through the traffic and watches the puck all the way into the glove. Finding the puck through traffic is often the hardest aspect of these saves -- it is very easy to get distracted or lose sight of the puck with all the traffic. When I played, some of my most regrettable goals were the ones where I would lose sight of the puck in the forward's black pants (the black puck would get lost in them). This in particular annoyed me because I had made the right move, the good read, and in the end, it was as simple as losing sight of the puck that prevented me from making the save.
On more thing -- does anyone really know what a "mastadonic" save is? :p
**Note on this video. This video is from NHL.com and runs on Adobe Flash video plugin. Right now, this embedded video does not have the capability to pause and play the video (you can only stop and then would have to reload the web page). To go to the video source where you can pause and play:
follow this link: NHL Saves of Week January 20th