Don’t tell Jonathan Quick he just made a lucky save.
“In the NHL, 90 per cent of the save happens before the player shoots the puck,” the Los Angeles Kings goaltender wrote in a post for The Players’ Tribune. “As a goalie, if you’re relying on your reaction time to make saves, you’re going to get yanked in a hurry.”
In a rare glimpse into the mind and process of one of hockey’s top goaltenders, the two-time Stanley Cup champion and 2012 Conn Smythe Trophy winner breaks down how he has — and how he hasn’t — shut down some of hockey’s best goal-scorers.
“Keeping pucks out of the net is mostly about intuition and geometry,” Quick wrote. “You’re watching the puck carrier and processing all of the guy’s options on the ice, plus you’re looking at his feet, hands and body positioning. Is he shooting? High or low? Where’s his passing lane? What’s the play here?”
In the post, he also pointed out which of the NHL’s top snipers are toughest to play against, and why.
Here are a few excerpts:
On Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry:
A minute of them playing in your zone is equivalent to a minute and a half of another team … They may not even score, but those heavy minutes kind of soften you up a bit for the next line.
On Pavel Datsyuk:
He will be way out on the wall … Next thing you know — what the hell? — the puck is behind you in the net. He shot it. Who shoots from there? Datsyuk shoots from there.
On Sidney Crosby:
Crosby just does everything so well. When you’re in the locker room before a game, you look at the two or three stars on the other team and you try to figure out how to make them play to their weaknesses. You point to a name on the whiteboard and say, “Alright, he’s not good at X, so let’s force him to do it as much as possible.” There’s not a single part of Crosby’s game that we can take advantage of. He’s simply an all-around unbelievable hockey player.
On Alexander Ovechkin:
Guys like Ovi shoot it so hard that it’s almost like you’re a batter in baseball. You see the blur of the puck coming at you in frames. One frame, two frames … by the third frame it’s already hitting you. If you’re trying to make a reaction save against Ovi, you’re already beat.
On Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane:
When a guy like Kane is on the ice, you immediately take notice as a goalie. He’s on your radar constantly as the play is unfolding. But add in Toews to the mix and it’s a totally different level. The thing with Toews is that he is constantly moving, constantly working, and possesses an unholy ability to know where the puck is going before it even happens. He’s like a psychic out there.
