Depth Decisions as ‘Smaller Goalie’ Not Always What You Expect

After being named top goalie in the AHL each of his first two seasons and League MVP last season (which followed WHL Goalie of the Year awards in his final two seasons of junior) Wolf made his NHL debut late last season. He sat down with InGoal to review some of that footage and his insights did not disappoint.

THE SAVE

Wolf’s NHL debut came against the San Jose Sharks, against a team and players he grew up watching and cheering for in northern California, and in this Pro Reads video session he breaks down a 5-on-5 cycle chance that starts behind his net. While this sequence ends in a point shot with a delayed screen, there isn’t one specific moment that stands out. Rather, it is a handful of different decisions that Wolf analyzes, so rather than freeze frames, watch the whole thing:

Did you notice when Wolf looked off the puck?

What did you see in his decision to come across into a Reverse-VH? Once he got to his left post in a down position, did anything jump out about what happened next?

Lastly, what did you make of his positioning once the puck went back to the point for a shot?

Maybe watch again, note those elements, and ask yourself why he might have done it that way.

THE PRO READ

Now let’s hear Wolf on his approach on all those different parts of this play:

It looks like you’re not an InGoal subscriber (yet). Below we’ve included a brief excerpt from the full ProRead to give you an idea of how it breaks down in the full video. We invite you to subscribe today to see the full ProRead – and hundreds more exclusive articles.