Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
right, but that's what I mean by consistency. He has the ability to make some incredible saves, and then lets in a pretty weak one. It balances out, but it also deflates the team.
It's the same as seeing Huberdeau score early, but then turn the puck over at the offensive blue line to Kucherov who goes in and scores easily on a clean breakaway from the neutral zone. It's deflating and demoralizing. It's hard to expect your team to compete to actually win when things happen like that on the regular.
It's happened so much lately that the team is beginning to fold at the first sign of adversity, rather than coming back in the third period like they did earlier in the year. Those singular events matter for team morale. Even if guys make great plays, those really bad plays undermine the team confidence.
It's why Cam Talbot keeps getting starting goalie jobs. He's not fantastic, but he's consistent. He has holes in his game, but they're the same holes every night, and the team knows what to expect from him. You can build a game plan around that consistent flaw. When you don't know what to expect, it becomes really hard to game plan and win.
|
Vasilevsky let in a similar one to that. All goalies do - sometimes the puck gets past them. Goaltending is hard, and the puck is weirdly shaped - sometimes it comes off the stick in unexpected ways, and makes the goalie look silly.
But Flames fans jump all over the goalies every time the red light goes on (unless Wolf is in net)