Alex Lyon Pro Reads 8
With Alex Lyon
Scoring Trends and Skate-or-Slide Choices at 6-on-5
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Alex Lyon has been a welcome addition to Pro Reads, with his open and insightful breakdowns delivering on technical, tactical, equipment and even psychological levels. Since we haven’t heard from the Red Wings stopper since late-January, we didn’t want to wait much longer to get back to him for another video session.
As usual, the eight-year NHL veteran did not disappoint with his analysis.
THE SEQUENCE
Lyon is facing a 6-on-5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning:
The freeze frame above does not do justice to this situation without a little added context: 1. That is Nikita Kucherov with his head up and the puck on his stick in the right corner (to Lyon’s left), and 2. This is from late last season, so in addition to the in-tight left shot passing threat on the backdoor, right-shot sniper Steven Stamkos is lurking just outside the photo at the top of the left face-off circle?
With all that additional information in mind, and looking at where the defense is playing, what is the primary threat, and why? Is it Kucherov as a shooter even from that angle? If not, what do you make of Lyon about to drop into his RVH? Is it the left shot on the back door? Or is it Stamkos higher in the zone?
Ask yourself how you are pushing out of the RVH in each case?
THE SAVE
Watch the sequence and replays below to see if the option you worried about most was the one that played out, and be sure to note how Lyon moves and handles it.
Did you identify the proper threat? Lyon came across on his feet — is that how you would have moved once you read that pass was going to Stamkos? Why?
It’s a lot different than how Lyon played Tim Stutzle of the Ottawa Senators on a pass from a similarly bad angle in his previous Pro Reads. Maybe go back and take another look at that one and see if you can identify the difference as to why.
THE PRO READ
Now let’s Lyon explains how he played this, and how it differed from the last one:
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- Alex Lyon breaks down his 6-on-5 save against Tampa Bay, facing Kucherov in the corner with Stamkos threatening from the left face-off circle and a backdoor left shot also in play.
- Lyon chose to move across on his feet to the Stamkos option rather than push from his RVH — a deliberate contrast to how he handled a similar bad-angle pass situation against Tim Stutzle in his previous session.
- Lyon identifies why the same initial RVH setup can require different exit movements depending on which threat materializes and the passer's angle.
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