Goalie Tracking: Eye exercises, Saros making saves with geometry and breakaway wizardry

By now, youve probably seen at least one video of a goalie sitting on the bench, in the middle of an empty arena hours before puck drop, darting his eyes back and forth across the freshly cut ice.

If you havent, heres a clip of Connor Hellebuyck doing it prior to Game 7 of the 2018 second round, courtesy of the NHLs YouTube page .

Welcome back to Goalie Tracking, where we examine the details of goaltending and attempt to explain why goalies do what they do.

This week, well look at how the shortest goalie in the NHL Nashvilles Juuse Saros makes himself bigger to shooters, and an interesting technique that Washingtons Logan Thompson has been using to stonewall breakaways with impressive regularity.

But first, back to the art of puck tracking at the highest level (tracking is the columns namesake, after all).

Advertisement Goalies perform all sorts of eye exercises before games.

Some sit on the bench with their eyes darting back and forth.

Some hold both hands out in front of their face and switch their focus between the thumbs.

Some bounce a lacrosse ball against the concrete wall in the bowels of the arena.

Theyre all designed to warm up the eyes and help goalies track the puck through traffic and follow it off of their pads on rebounds.

If you watch the goaltender close during pregame warmups, youll notice many exaggerate their tracking, watching the puck all the way into their glove and off of their blocker into the corner.

Heres a clip of Edmonton s Stuart Skinner warming up, courtesy of Stars emergency backup goalie Chris Dudo , in which you can really see the exaggerated tracking.

Its all an attempt to build muscle memory so their eyes will track the puck amidst the chaos around the crease in an NHL game.

Its honestly mystifying how well the worlds best goalies maintain sight of the puck.

Heres a simple example, in which Vancouvers Thatcher Demko made the initial save on Utah forward Alexander Kerfoot with the blade of his stick.

You can see Demko lock his eyes on the puck as it ramps up the blade and into the air, and he easily blockers it to the corner and out of harms way.

Then theres this save by Toronto s Joseph Woll , which is a bit more impressive.

Woll made the initial stop on a one-timer by Pittsburgh winger Michael Bunting , but he missed the puck with his blocker and it just clipped the top of his right leg pad, popping it straight into the air behind him.

Woll lost sight of the puck for a fraction of a second, but quickly located it floating perilously behind his head and knocked it aside.

Those eye exercises paid off.

Sam Montembeault is having another excellent season in Montreal, ranking 12th in the league with 8.59 GSAx.

One of the biggest reasons is hes an excellent puck-tracker.

He fights hard to see through screens, and does an excellent job of following the puck on rebounds.

This sequence on Dec.

3 against the New York Islanders is a good example of just how high-level some of these NHL goalies are when it comes to tracking the puck.

First, Montembeault had to deal with a screen on Grant Huttons initial wrist shot, following the puck across the body of Islanders forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau to make a pad save back against the flow of the play.

Thats probably why the save looks a little awkward, with Montembeault falling backward.

The really impressive part, though, is how his vision stayed locked onto the puck as it bounced back to his right.

At first glance, it may look like Montembeault is just flailing his arms in panic, but the overhead camera angle shows his head tracking the puck as it bounces to Pageau, and he sticks his blocker-side arm out just in time for a spectacular save.

Thompsons breakaway brilliance Thompson, who was traded from Vegas to Washington this summer, may be the best value in the NHL.

The 27-year-old carries a cap hit of only $766,667, which is actually below the league minimum salary, but hes been one of the best goalies in the league this season.

Thompson ranks fifth in save percentage (.916) and sixth in GSAx (14.05), and has won 16 of his 20 starts to help Washington to the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Hes done it with an unorthodox, athletic style of goaltending that allows his compete level to shine.

Thompson is a bit of a maverick.

He finds different ways to make saves.

Its probably a big reason his path to the NHL was different from most , but it has served him well at every level.

Advertisement Thompsons unique style is visible in the way he defends breakaways, which was on full display during Washingtons win over Montreal on Dec.

7.

He stopped 22 of 24 shots that night, including three breakaways in the third period alone.

This stop on Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki kept the game tied 2-2.

Thompson reads this play incredibly and is one step ahead of Suzuki the entire way.

When Suzuki kicks his left leg up and fakes a shot at the hashmarks, Thompson drops his right leg pad into a half-butterfly position, which is something you rarely see in the NHL these days.

Notice a couple things from this still frame.

First, Thompson is slightly to his left of the center of the net.

Thats because hes squaring himself up to the puck, not Suzukis body.

An easy mistake for goalies to make on a breakaway is to square themselves to the shooter, which leaves holes.

Because Thompson is on angle, it forces Suzuki to deke.

Next, notice that Thompsons right leg is already down in the half-butterfly, well before Suzuki makes his move.

Dropping that pad early sets up Thompson for an easy slide to his right, and he stuffs Suzukis backhand attempt with relative ease.

Most of the time, patience is key for goalies, but Thompson is actually making the first move himself.

Just a few minutes prior to this play, Thompson faced a breakaway from Montreal defenseman Jayden Struble and used the same technique.

This time, Thompson dropped his left pad to the ice early, because that was the direction the shooter would have to deke to get around him.

Struble opted to shoot rather than deke, and Thompsons half-butterfly left no holes for the puck to find.

He sealed the ice to prepare for a shot, while still maintaining lateral mobility in case of a deke.

Why dont we see more goalies doing this? Making the first move in a one-on-one situation can be risky.

Guessing incorrectly can leave the goalie out of position and allow an easy goal.

That can certainly happen, but Thompsons athleticism allows him to make saves even when he guesses incorrectly.

Heres an example from last years playoff run with the Vegas Golden Knights .

Stars forward Tyler Seguin walked in all alone and Thompson dropped his left pad early, anticipating Seguin would deke to the far side of the net.

Seguin instead deked back to the short side, which shouldve beat Thompson, but he quickly dug his left skate into the ice and exploded back to his right, stuffing Seguins backhand attempt.

This may not be the most traditional way of playing a breakaway, but Thompson is using it incredibly effectively.

Hes the best deal in the NHL, but not for long.

Hell be an unrestricted free agent after this season, and if he maintains his current level of play, hell be due for a massive raise.

How Saros makes himself bigger to the shooter Theres a reason only one goalie under 6-feet has played in the NHL this season.

The combination of the skill of todays shooters and advancements in stick technology mean that modern goaltending is all about geometry.

Goalies rarely have time to react to shots, so cutting off angles and giving shooters nowhere to fire the puck is imperative.

The smaller the goalie, the more difficult that becomes, but it hasnt prevented Saros from becoming one of the best in the world.

Advertisement Saros has elite edgework and athleticism, but he also has fantastic structure to his stance that maximizes his net coverage, especially in one-on-one situations.

Goalie coaches use a term called box control, which essentially means that the closer a goalie gets to the puck, the smaller area he has to protect because the puck can only travel in a straight line.

Heres a visual from a coaching video by David Schultz at Stop-It Goaltending and Pure Hockey to help explain the concept.

In order to hit the net, the puck must travel through each of those boxes.

The closer the goalie is, the smaller the box he has to cover.

Its why goalies are coached to play with their gloves out in front of their body, and few do it better than Saros.

Watch this glove save on a breakaway by Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck on Dec.

17.

Saros uses a really wide stance as the puck gets close to him, making it nearly impossible to beat him along the ice.

That should leave room up top, especially considering his size, but he takes that away by projecting his gloves well out in front of his body.

It may look like Trocheck did Saros a favor and shot the puck straight into his glove, but thats only because Saros gave him no angle to get the puck over his glove.

Saros glove hand is so far in front of him that any shot over the top of his glove has no chance of sneaking under the crossbar.

If he held his glove just a few inches further back, to his side, its likely a goal.

Instead, it looks like a simple glove save.

From Trochecks point of view, he sees space on the glove side, but its an illusion.

If we could see a camera angle from the pucks point of view, we would see little to no space available in that part of the net.

It highlights the importance of the small details in a goalies stance, and how minor adjustments can make saves look much easier.

(Photo of Juuse Saros: Steph Chambers / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.