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NHL goalie James Reimer reviews game footage on a laptop in a locker room for InGoal Pro-Reads video series
Pro Reads

Pro-Reads: James Reimer Student of the Game

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With James Reimer

James Reimer's work before the game allows him to be patient on this save.

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James Reimer is a student of the game. As he notes in his analysis for this ProRead, before every game he goes over every shooter he is about to face with his goalie coach, as well as the team’s offensive tendencies. Not to give anything away early, but in today’s ProRead we’ll see that pay off for him.

 

The Situation

After a turnover near the blue line Reimer is quickly faced with a shooter – Jordan Weal, then of the Philadelphia Flyers – who is point blank just outside the hash marks and has a back door option that Reimer and defender Mark Pysyk have to be acutely aware of. 

Have a look at the image below and consider for yourself what Reimer had to quickly consider:

James Reimer holding edges in crease reading play as multiple skaters converge in the offensive zone during an NHL game

The Save

Having studied the situation let’s have a look at the save and see how it develops before we hear from Reimer:

 

The Pro-Read

Nice save on the point blank shot there and in a way we don’t see too often – especially from that distance. Reimer stayed on his feet. So what is it about the situation that left him patient and confident enough to hold his edges?

Let’s listen in as he tells us what he saw and how he chose to make the save. It was part read and part pre-scout. As he told our Kevin Woodley in the video, “before every game, with our goalie coach, I go over every shooter, every player and try and figure out tendencies, if he’s been scoring lately, is he hot…and what d other generate as a team, what kind of chances are you going to get….”

 

 

Still ahead in this article:

Reimer doesn't just describe the pre-scout — he names the exact shooter tendency he had already logged on Jordan Weal, and what that glove hand was already expecting before the puck left the stick.

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