Toronto Marlies goaltender Ben Scrivens talked to InGoal Magazine about his unusual stance and glove position in this week's Ask a Pro. (InGoal file photo)

The Toronto Maple Leafs may be out of the playoffs again, but top goaltending prospect Ben Scrivens is still playing hockey through mid-May with the AHL affiliate Marlies, leading the crosstown farm club through two rounds and to the Calder Cup Semi Finals.

Scrivens leads the AHL with a 1.61 goals-against average and .944 save percentage after eliminating the Abbotsford Heat in five games Wednesday night, and continues to build on a an up-and-down season that saw him struggle with his focus at times in the AHL, but also play his first games at the NHL level, compiling a 4-5-2 record and .903 save percentage with the Maple Leafs.

The thoughtful Alberta native and Cornell University Grad, has been a part of InGoal’s Ask a Pro program before, joining James Reimer and fellow puck-stopping prospect Jussi Rynnas in a two-part session that included thoughts on Toronto’s goaltending development, and how he got started with Leafs’ goaltending guru Francois Allaire in Switzerland. Scrivens took some time out from his playoff run this week to talk to InGoal about everything from his unusual stance and glove positioning, to mental tips, and his season so far, including the important role of his ongoing playoff experiences in the American League:

“I feel more confident right now at this exact moment, Scrivens said. “We’ve got a really good team so that helps any goaltender out, but in terms of my development this is huge. You always want to play meaningful games late in the season and into the summer. Toronto has been pretty adamant about getting their guys playing if they are not in the playoffs. Guys are always in the World Championships if they are not here playing meaningful hockey, and as a goalie it’s no different. You want to test your mettle in pressure situations, and that’s what the playoffs are.”

~ InGoal reader John Milhouse asks: Do you continue to work on technique in the playoffs, or is it more mental at this point?

Scrivens: “No, it’s mental, it’s consistency, it’s a whole bunch of different stuff, but at this point part of Frankie’s system is you put in the work during the year. We work hard in practices, we do 45-minute goalie session and then we stay on the ice for an hour-and-a-half practice, so it’s a long day some days. But the benefit of going through all that pain during the season is now you get into playoffs and you are not trying to re-invent everything, you aren’t trying to solve issues that have just come up. By this point in the season you should be confident with your game and if there’s a tweak here or there, fine, but it’s not re-inventing anything.

Scrivens has a fairly low, wide base, but still generates a lot of power and speed in his lateral pushes. (InGoal file photo)

“Frankie is with us on the ice in Toronto and [Jean-Ian Filiatrault], our other goalie coach travels with us. He works with the guys in Reading, the fifth guy, and also Garret Sparks in Guelph, so like last year when I as up and Reims was up, Jean-Ian was with us because there was no one in the coast. So right now Jean-Ian comes on the road with us and Frankie is in Toronto with us, so we always have a goaltending coach with us. The amount of input they both have is still huge.

“We talk every single day, we go over every game, goals – this is good, this is bad, keep doing this or that – the only things that changes is we’re not doing long goalie sessions where we work on this play or that play. We’ve done all that work already, so now it’s more about maintaining that and your energy levels and confidence, and just making sure you are ready. Because you never know, in the regular season we can spend 45 minutes on a goalie session and then an hour and a half on the ice. You can spend two and a half hours in your gear and you know the most you are going to play the next day is 65 minutes, right? Even if it goes into a shootout it’s not going any longer. I know now how much I can push myself and when I’m like ‘okay I need to take a few less reps here to make sure I have the energy to get through tonight.’ Because you can end up playing 120 minutes in the playoffs, you never know how long you are going to go. You can’t overexert yourself in practice because you don’t know how long the game might go.”

~ InGoal Facebook fan Edward Sinclair asks: How does he stay mentally focused?

Scrivens: “I had a hiccup this year in late January and February where I was just making mental mistakes and it wasn’t any one thing, it was a culmination of errors, where there is no ‘oh, I did this wrong and I’ll just change that.’ It was finding out all I have to do in order to stay sharp for a full 60 minutes and going through that definitely helped me out at this point now because I am able to gauge myself. I have kind of a checklist now, where instead of what am I doing wrong, it’s just make sure I am doing this now or that now, and they are all connected to each other and when one slips they all slip. So I have to make sure they are all at a high level.”

Scriven comes out of his crease, stands alone atop the hash marks, and puts his head down to concentrate during long breaks in action. (InGoal File Photo)

~ InGoal follow up: Is that what you’re doing during breaks in the game when you come out to the top of hash marks facing the opposing net, and put your head down? It looks like you might be talking to yourself there.

Scrivens: “Yeah, just kind of talking to myself and going through that mental checklist, but it’s a lot of killing time too. One of the things I found this year was when your mind starts to wander, and that talk within your head is kind of getting to ‘oh, what did I have for dinner or I wonder what so and so … ’ humans are notoriously terrible multitaskers so if you try to think about this and do that, everything goes downhill. So one of the things [Marlies head coach] Dallas [Eakins] suggested to me was talking to myself. You can’t think about anything else when you are talking to yourself because you can only really do one thing at once. So just by reciting different stuff, like the checklist out loud, it keeps you focused.”

~ What kinds of things are on your checklist
“Things like ‘top of the crease,’ or ‘watch the puck,’ just simple things, nothing earth shattering. It just keeps you focused with positive reinforcement, and again there is a parallel to golf: Before you line up to take your shot, it’s ‘keep your head down, back straight, follow through with your elbow.’ It’s nothing that I’m sure hundreds of goalies don’t do anyway.”

~ InGoal Facebook Fan Steve Pace asks” You have a very unusual glove positioning; how did that develop and why? And Marvin Pinero has a similar question: Why is your catcher so high up? What benefits do you get from it than having a normal stance?

Scrivens likes to hold his glove so it is more perpendicular to the path of a puck coming up off the ice, effectively maximizing the surface area that is square to the puck. (InGoal File Photo)

Scrivens: “My thinking behind it – and I am huge into logic and reason in terms of how I do things – so if you have your glove sideways [with the thumb pointed straight up or even more open] where does the puck come from? The puck comes up from the ice, so the angle it comes at is up so I want to face as much of the glove as possible perpendicular to that path. And then the other thing I was going with, is what’s harder to do – because mostly every goalie is dropping while they are making saves – so what’s harder to do, lift a limb back up against the momentum of your body, or start with the arm up top and keep it there? So you have gravity and momentum working with you more. Again so much of it is trial and error, and everybody has their own way of doing things. But I found that works for me. I like to stay up top because that’s where guys shoot the most if they’ve got time and space. They are looking upstairs, so try and take that away visually and then if they shoot it up there you are not moving anything, it’s not as much of a reaction save to try and windmill it every time. And then anything down I am already going down, and I’ve got gravity and momentum going down and that helps me get it down and close everything up fast still.”

Toronto Marlies goaltender Ben Scrivens talked to InGoal Magazine about his unusual stance and glove position in this week's Ask a Pro. (InGoal file photo)

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This guest article is from Larry Sadler, the Director of Smartgoalie.com.

Author Larry Sadler argues that the number of Canadian goaltenders in the NHL, like recent playoff phenom Braden Holtby seen here, actually exceeds the expected number, based on the number of registered players in Canada. Scott Slingsby photo

The intent of Jeff Hall’s recent article here at InGoal comparing Canadian and American goaltenders was admirable: to take a look at the list of NHL goalies and to see which country had bragging rights when it comes to goaltending.

In Jeff’s article he uses the word depth to describe the US goaltender situation. Depth is an interesting word. He, in his article, implies that it relates to talent, or skill. In fact, it means more than that. In my opinion, it also relates to the quality of numbers. In fact, I feel it would be best to look at depth in terms of fulfilled potential when we examine the condition of goaltending development in the US and Canada.

I took a quick look at the stats for NHL goaltenders  in the 2011-2012 regular season and have come up with the following tables. When we look at the numbers of goaltenders and their country of origin we find one set of figures. By themselves these numbers reveal just a small fragment of the facts. To better appreciate the true definition of depth we have to consider potential – fulfilled potential, in fact. Take a look at the tables below. They don’t just show the numbers of NHL goalies and where they “hail from” – they also show the IIHF registration figures for each of these countries and what percentage of the IIHF total each country makes up. To me the sign of true depth is whether the country is living up to its percentage of IIHF membership. In other words, does the percentage of NHL members reflect that country’s level of overall participation?

When we look at the number of total NHL goaltenders this season and then look at their country of origin we see the following:

This shows us that Canada makes up 47.19% of goaltenders having played in the NHL this past season. When we look at its registration numbers we also see Canada has 36.93% of total IIHF membership and 45.24% of U20 registered players. So even though this number has declined in the past 10 years, Canada still makes up a higher percentage of NHL goalies than one would expect considering our percentage of membership in the IIHF.

Finland makes up 8.99% of NHL goalie totals and this is well above their IIHF & U20 numbers with their percentages almost double and triple the expected, respectively.

Sweden is even stronger with more than twice their registration numbers and more than three times their U20 numbers.

The US makes up just 19.10% of NHL goalies. This percentage has only improved slightly over the past 10 years, despite their high number of registered participants. Their NHL participation levels are below their percentage of IIHF membership numbers and U20 numbers. Their registration numbers are 87% of the Canadian registration numbers but their NHL numbers are just 40% of the Canadian numbers.

Let’s look at those goaltenders that have played 20 or more games:

This chart shows us that Canada makes up 47.19% of NHL goaltenders having played 20 or more games.

The US now makes up just 16.33% of NHL goalies. Again, this is below their percentage of IIHF membership numbers and U20 numbers.

Finland and Sweden continue to be strong.

Finally, we should look at those who have played 40 or more NHL games:

Canada makes up 24.49% of NHL goaltenders having played 40 or more games. The US makes up just 10.20% of NHL goalies, tied with Finland who has 13% of the US registration numbers.

In conclusion, we see that the US actually lacks depth, or at least is not developing as many top NHL goaltenders as one would expect based on their level of participation in the game. We see a large number of registered players in the US but their NHL numbers do not measure up. The US goaltending figures show they have unfulfilled potential.

The question that should be asked here is why there aren’t more US goaltenders playing when you consider their registration numbers.

Larry Sadler is the Director of Smartgoalie.com.

For further information on goaltending instruction please contact Larry at lsadler@smartgoalie.com.

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Winnipeg Jets Goaltender Chris Mason extends further, and faster, than he could otherwise by employing the “snow-angel” technique. Ken DeNardo photo

Benoit Allaire says, “If you focus on technique and your technique is perfect, you will have success.” I definitely believe in developing proper technique and I believe in the comment by Allaire; however, there are times when proper form is of little value and I just want the goaltender to battle and make the save regardless of how it is done. It is with this in mind that I wish to discuss the situation of an off-square rebound and the use of the “snow-angel” technique as a desperation save.

In a perfect world a goaltender would not create any rebounds subsequent to a shot. This is however not realistic and hence we teach our students how to both minimize and deal with these rebounds in the appropriate fashion. One common situation encountered is a point shot with net front traffic. In this situation a goaltender commonly assumes a butterfly position to prevent cheap goals along the ice in case visual attachment and tracking is impossible, or difficult at best. A shot is taken and a pad save is made often with the creation of a rebound to the side of the goalie. Depending on your team’s defensive strategy in front of the net, an opponent may be left unchecked with a great scoring opportunity off this rebound.

The ideal manner with which to address this situation (a post-save response) would involve several technical components including the following: (1) The goaltender would put his head-on-a-swivel to regain visual attachment to the puck immediately (2) A pivot of the shoulders, torso, hips and pads would place goaltender back on a square line of attack to the puck albeit off angle and (3) a dynamic butterfly slide (power slide) would be performed to get back on angle making a blocking type save in tight zone play possible. By doing all this, the goalie stays upright, which provides maximum vertical net coverage. It also allows him to stay in control and potentially battle with further scoring opportunities with a solid down game. This however is predicated on the fact that enough time is available for said goaltender to perform all the biomechanical elements prior to the release of the second shot by the opportunistic attacker at the side of the net!

Often criticized for employing the "snow-angel," Roberto Luongo has been taught, and practices, this technique to extend his backward reach along the ice in desperation situations. David Hutchison photo.

The ‘snow-angel’ is a reactionary desperation save when the goaltender decides there is insufficient time to perform the above noted sequence. The goaltender plays the odds of sealing the ice by dropping prone on the stomach and flaring the pads out as far as necessary, or as allowed based on flexibility and anatomical restrictions, and hopes that time and space limitations prevent anything more than a quick one-timer along the ice. If the snow-angel is performed to the goaltender’s trapper side the glove should be kept open, somewhat off the ice and out in front of the body. This sometimes allows the goaltender to make a great glove save which always becomes a highlight reel favourite! Although more difficult on the blocker side, the arm can be slightly raised with the posterior surface of the paddle facing outward and occasionally knocking down a low shot. It is true that choosing the “snow-angel” save basically leaves the goaltender down and out for further play (something I have always referred to as the “floppy fish” position) but you can only ask so much of your goalie. Hopefully teammates arrive after the second save and knock the opponent down hard.

Danny Taylor of the Abbottsford Heat taught a simple drill to me a couple of years ago for this situation. Ask the goaltender to assume a butterfly position in the middle of the blue paint and slightly off centre to one side. Only one puck is required! Upon giving the command “go” the goalie drops into the prone snow-angel formation with as much flare as possible maintaining the pads flush with the ice. The instructor takes a quick shot along the ice a short distance from the goalie. The purpose is not to score but to practice the mechanics. Once proficient, the instructor may add a second shot to the drill. This could be either a chest or pad save from a shooter in front of the goalie following by the off-square shot mimicking the rebound. This should only be done when the goalie is comfortable with mechanics and technique in the initial basic drill.

In conclusion, being a technically sound goaltender is an important element in trying to succeed in ice hockey. There are however some goaltenders who rely too much on technique and become robotic in their movements. The only thing that matters is stopping the black projectile and sometimes you can throw technique out the window. The “snow-angel” is a reactionary desperation save. We have all seen it be used with success in elite play and it can work for you as well.

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The last time InGoal caught up with highly touted Los Angeles backup Jonathan Bernier, he was coming off an up and down rookie season with the Kings, one that improved decidedly after adjusting some practice expectations, and coming a little further out of his crease midway through.

Bernier’s second season was a struggle as well, but only to find playing time behind Vezina Trophy finalist Jonathan Quick.

Just because he only played 16 games – a career low at any level – doesn’t mean the 23-year-old wasn’t still looking to improve. In addition to how he dealt with all the down time, Bernier’s evolution included a slightly altered glove position, which was the first question InGoal posed to him after practice during the first round of the playoffs for this Ask A Pro segment:

The question came from InGoal Facebook Fan Cody Osborne: Your glove position is unique to most NHL goalies in that it is kept high, but not palm down. What drills do you focus on to keep it high when making crease movements and butterfly slides?

Bernier worked hard, with some help form his goaltending coaches, to keep the glove up even when he was down. (Ken Denardo photo)

Bernier: “When I was younger I kept it really low, so I’m just trying to get a better presentation with my glove, so it looks bigger and that space doesn’t look too big up there. Having a goalie coach around definitely helps you with that. It’s not so much specific drills as it is maintaining it in all drills, and it’s more when you are getting tired that you start forgetting and old habits start to come back. And that’s when [Kings goaltending coach Bill Ranford] would remind me to keep it up. Once you get used to it, you don’t really think about it any more. But if it’s down, he can tell you right away.”

~ InGoal reader Jack Hardwick asks: Why are your toe ties so different; why did you modify them?

Bernier: “My toe tie is anchored on the far inside edge of the toe bridge, it’s fixed, and I tie four knots in the lace between the pad and where it ties to the skate. In my Memorial Cup year I had a high ankle sprain, so I had to modify it, and this way my skate doesn’t go up as high [towards the middle of the pad] because it’s anchored on the inside, closer to the ice. There’s not many goalies that wear it like that, but usually if it’s in the middle of the pad your ankle kind of goes higher. And for me, my ankle never really recovered as good as I wanted to so I had to make that adjustment on my pad.”

~ Mark Ferrante asks through the InGoal Facebook page: How do you decide on which pads to use? And how long does it take to break them in?

Bernier: “I live 15 minutes from where [former Koho and current Reebok equipment guru Michel] Lefevre makes the pads, so I kind of help him out on stuff I like and change a little things. I’ve been going there since I was in Pee Wee. I was in Koho before and just stuck with Lefevre. … And it usually takes me about a week to break my pads in.”

~ InGoal reader Richie Jiaravanon asks: What mods do you have in your equipment and why?

Bernier has a long-standing relationship with Reebok gear guru Michel Lefevre. (Ken Denardo photo)

Bernier: “I’ve always had just one strap, not two, going through knee stacks and it is attached on the outside of the pad below the knee rather than wrapping around it, and I’ve always had one less strap on the lower leg [both of which are now standard features on the new Reebok P4]. I have a single break on the outer roll, and a second upper break on the face of the pad, but not a second break on the outer roll. So I still have a little bit of flex, but not as much. I attach the inner Velcro strap around my knee instead of down to the outside of the calf [like Carey Price does]. I also felt like the inner layer of the knee [where it lands] comes up a little, so I put Velcro right to the edge of the stack to hold it down so the end piece wouldn’t pull up. This way it feels a little more solid.

“As for the blocker, it’s standard, and the gloves are actually the 590 break with a one-piece cuff. And yes, I have a practice glove. Drew [Doughty] likes the glove side and he can shoot it (laughs) so I think it helps, especially when you start and your hands are cold and you don’t want to get injurted in practice. Usually you have two gloves anyway, so you just beef one up so it doesn’t hurt. It’s pretty hard to close – I don’t even think I can really close it – but it’s just for practice.”

Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Bernier (Ken Denardo photo)

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Martin Brodeur continues to set records in his 40s.

Brodeur celebrated that milestone by making 20 saves in a 4-2 win over the Flyers on Sunday to give the Devils a 3-1 series lead. In doing so he became the first NHL goaltender to appear in a playoff game in both his teens – his first postseason game came in relief of Chris Terreri, now his goaltending coach, as a 19-year-old straight out of junior was back in 1992 – and his 40s.

The win was Brodeur’s 106th in the playoffs – he posted his milestone 100th in the first round – trailing only Patrick Roy’s 151, and more importantly moved him within one victory of making the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2003, when he won the last of his three Stanley Cups. Brodeur also posted his 24th career playoff shutout in the first round, passing Roy for top spot in that category, and with three assists already, including one on his birthday Sunday, could soon hold that record too.

Brodeur assisted on an empty-net goal by Dainius Zubrus with 44.4 seconds left to play, becoming the oldest player (not just goalies) in NHL history to record a playoff assist on his birthday. With one goal and 11 assists in the playoffs, he moved ahead of Roy into second place all-time with 12 points, behind only Grant Fuhr, who had 14 career playoff assists.

It’s an impressive list for a future first-ballot Hall of Fame goaltender known for maintaining his stand-up style in the era of butterfly stoppers. But it wasn’t always that way for Brodeur. With his recent milestone in mind, it’s a good time to take a look back at an old Ask A Pro the Devils living legend did with InGoal, one in which he revealed he too used to play the butterfly.

That’s right, Brodeur said his “whole thing was the butterfly” in junior. Click here to read the entire Ask A Pro with Brodeur, including how Ron Hextall inspired him to become such a great puck handler.

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He won’t be the first goaltender to be accused of having eyes in the back of his head, but Detroit Red Wing prospect Petr Mrazek certainly has them there in style with this fantastic backplate, painted for the Czech junior star by Andrew Manning of Air Trix Studios. We loved this shot the first time we saw it and artist Valerie Wutti of blitzenphotography.com was kind enough to share it with InGoal readers today.

Mrazek, who tended goal for the Ottawa 67s this past season was one of the sensations of the 2011 World Junior Championship representing the Czech Republic with fist-pumping enthusiasm that earned him the spectators’, if not this opponents’, cheers on numerous occasions. It turns out as we were putting this together Justin Goldman of the Goalie Guild released a Mrazek report to his subscribers today – you can read the Mrazek report and see him trending upwards in Goldman’s NHL depth chart rankings which were released today.

Petr Mrazek has eyes in the back of his head. Andrew Manning, Air Trix Studios. Photo thanks to Valerie Wutti blitzenphotography.com

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Vezina Nominee Jonathan Quick played 69 games this season, the second highest total to make a Conference Finals. (Ken DeNardo photo)

The Kings’ keeper may also be in the process of bucking a trend in post-season puck stopping at the game’s highest level.

Quick’s whopping 69 games played during the regular season is the second highest total to make it to a Conference Finals in seven seasons since NHL lockout ended, and the way he did it may give him a better chance of doing what the other two busiest goalies to precede him could not, and make it to the Stanley Cup Final. In fact, both Evgeni Nabokov, who played 71 games with the San Jose Sharks in 2010, and Cam Ward, who played 68 for Carolina the year before, were swept in their respective Conference Finals.

That was part of the season many thought the days of the workhorse starter having playoff success were over, especially in the west, where the travel is tougher, and even more so on the Pacific Coast, where the only team to hoist a Stanley Cup – the 2007 Anaheim Ducks – did so with Ilya Bryzgalov winning the first three games before a rested Jean-Sebastien won the next 13. And the average number of regular season starts for goalies that both make the Final and win the Stanley Cup since the lockout is less than 45.

That statistical trend will end in the west this season, with Phoenix No.1 Mike Smith (67 starts) and Nashville workhorse Pekka Rinne (73) still competing for the other berth in the Western Conference Final. The way Quick got there – following up his five-game upset of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Canucks in the first round by sweeping aside No.2-seed St. Louis in the second – should ensure he’s well rested, avoiding the extra travel pitfalls that eventually caught up to the Canucks last summer.

Quick certainly didn’t look tired as the Blues were outshooting the Kings 13-2 in the second period on Sunday, coming up with several tough, timely stops to get the Kings into the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1993.

“He’s the same as [Dominik] Hasek, the same as [Ed] Belfour – never quits on a puck,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He never stops looking for a puck. I think there are a few goalies left playing in the League who are like that right now. The guy in Phoenix is the same, so is the guy in Nashville. It is a very unique skill. It is not common. It is hard to find.”

Quick, who was InGoal’s choice for the Vezina Trophy, has to be a Conn Smythe Trophy frontrunner at the midpoint of the playoffs, with a 7-1 record against the League’s top-two regular season teams while posting a .949 save percentage and 1.55 goals-against average.

Quick’s victory over the Canucks and Blues could also end some of the tandem talk going into the playoffs (guilty as charged), as Vancouver used a job share in both the regular season and playoffs, while St. Louis was unable to continue its regular season back-and-forth because of a lower-body injury that prevented Jaroslav Halak from taking over for Brian Elliott in the playoffs.

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Mike Smith has been turning heads in the desert with his mask and his play (InGoal file photo)

InGoal originally debuted Mike Smith’s updated Wile E. Coyote mask in February, but with Phoenix up 2-0 on the Nashville Predators and Smith a (way) early front runner for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, we thought we’d put it back atop the site for all to enjoy again. It certainly deserves the extra attention, because like Smith it’s one of the best in the NHL this season.

Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes is the hottest goalie in the league, earning the NHLs first star last week while recording four wins, a 0.74 goals-against average and a 0.975 save percentage. Today artist David Arrigo is releasing photos of Smith’s “Coyote II – Revenge of the Yote” mask.

Smith began the season with Wile E. Coyote playing goal in retro equipment on his lid, a theme the Coyotes’ keeper came up with himself before handing the artwork over to Arrigo. This new mask features Wile E. in updated gear to match Smith’s own Reebok P4s, but the other change is far more significant for Looney Tunes fans.

“On this one the unthinkable happens,” Arrigo told InGoal in an email. “He gets the Roadrunner!”

Yes, the Roadrunner finally meets his demise, and it’s at the hands of (you guessed it) an Acme goal stick.

For more photos of this mask and other David Arrigo art – and there’s a lot more there than just masks as David has been commissioned to do live murals at the Olympics, the NHL All-star game, and the Superbowl, to name a few – please visit his web site and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Tim Thomas is one of the game's best skating goalies, but often remains on his knees when the play is behind the net. (Scott Slingsby photo)

Despite that, the Boston Bruins’ No.1 goaltender often stays on his knees when the play moves behind the net, an attack tactic that has increased since the lockout, and one most expect to see more and more of if the shape of the net is changed to create more room back there. Not only does Thomas typically stay down once the puck moves below the goal line, he often gets down as soon as the play moves down there, not waiting until it is brought to the net before he drops to his knees.

Just watch Thomas as this play moves back and forth behind the net against the Capitals in the first round:

Thomas was back on his knees to make this outstanding save later in the series, but this time it was originally in response to a wraparound. He then popped off that blocker side post with his pad to deny the ensuing opportunity in the slot:

Thomas isn’t the only NHL goalie going down early and staying there. Mike Smith uses a similar approach in Phoenix, though the much bigger Smith takes up most of the net from his knees, and pops back up more often if the play moves back across and out.

The philosophy is to simplify things when the play moves behind the net, and reduce the possibility of getting caught in the transition from up to down and vice versa. Former Ottawa Senators goalie coach Eli Wilson broke it all down in the April Edition of InGoal Magazine, explaining why his summer students like Thomas and Carey Price are often be seen playing on their knees longer than most other pros. Read the article and learn how to include this tactic in your game today.

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Tim Thomas

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The Washington Capitals move on to the second round with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

“Age and treachery always wins out over youth and enthusiasm” is an old adage that I’ve heard for many years. Well evidently Braden Holtby hasn’t heard that one because the rookie backstop just dispatched the defending Vezina Trophy winner and Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas, and his Bruins to an early off season.  Holtby becomes  the third rookie Caps goalie, along with Semyon Varlamov (2009) and Michal Neuvirth (2011), in four seasons to lead the team to a Stanley Cup series win.

The B’s have been used to high pressure game 7′s lately as they needed to win three of them last year enroute to the Cup. Thomas also had his game seven shutout streak broken at 139:03 that dated back to the last 7:40 of game 7 with Montreal in the 2011 and ECQ and complete game shutouts vs Tampa Bay in the Conference Finals and vs Vancouver in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals.    

The game-winner came at 2:57 of the fourth frame when Mike Knuble and Joel Ward rushed into the offensive zone on a 2 on 1 break and Knuble took a shot on net that Thomas initially stopped. The rebound came right out to Ward who tapped it passed Thomas on the short side for his first goal since Feb 24th.

Matt Hendricks got the Caps on the board at 11:23 of the first period when he deflected a John Carlson shot from the right wing. Tyler Seguin evened the score at one a piece when Johnny Boychuck sent a slapper from inside the right circle that trickled through Holtby’s pads and died inside the crease. Seguin poked it home for the score.

The most touching moment of the night came after the game when Thomas finished up the handshake line and skated over towards his kids, clad in daddy’s jersey and tears rolling down their cheeks, where he put a big smile on his face just to let them know everything was ok.

As the season concludes, the big question will be if Thomas returns for the final year of his contract or not. Only time tell, see ya in October when we’ll start this all over again.

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