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Goalie Issue 2021
Goaltending is the most important position in hockey. Get the latest on coaching techniques and programs from advisors who work with the very best. And find out what's driving the latest wave of hot stoppers – Igor Shesterkin in New York, Cal Petersen in Los Angeles and Thatcher Demko in Vancouver.
DOGGED DETERMINATION
IT WAS THE SUMMER of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic at a rink in the Chicago suburbs that goalie coach Oliver Freij came to the realization his star pupil was going to be just fine. At the end of a gruelling on-ice session, he conducted a “compete” drill where the skater goes to the front of the net to tip a shot, then tries to jam in the rebound. Freij remembers Tucker Tynan stopping 10 straight shooters before allowing a goal. Tynan moved all over the net, diving for saves, going into the butterfly without hesitation, attacking the puck and standing his ground. “That fire never left,” Freij said. “It didn’t look very pretty, but he was dominant.” In isolation, that’s not a big deal. Shake a tree hard…
JUST ONE OF THE LADS
TRY AS HE MIGHT TO block them out, Andrew Ladd had his moments of self-doubt. There were times during his prolonged journey back to the NHL he wondered if he’d ever suit up in the league again or even get the chance to prove he could still contribute. Who could blame him? In all, his layoff from big-league action spanned 400 days, during which he spent what amounted to nearly a full season in the AHL, spent time on the New York Islanders’ taxi squad and went through one especially challenging stretch in which he played only a single game (Game 2 of the 2020 Eastern Conference final) at any pro level in precisely one year. But what’s important to understand about Ladd, 35, is something his mother, Kim, has known about…
AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE
NOT TO SUGGEST BRIAN Boyle is getting up there, but Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Brian Dumoulin, the dressing room DJ, has made some accommodations for Boyle this season by adding “some older music for him and songs he knows” to the playlist. Boyle, who turns 37 in December, readily admits his musical tastes skew differently from what many of his younger teammates listen to. “I think some of the new, trendier, 20-something music is hit or miss for me,” Boyle said. “My dad had control of the music when I was in the car going to hockey and stuff. I guess you could say I was cultured that way, listening to a lot of Billy Joel and Don McLean. We’d get some Meat Loaf. When we really wanted to get jacked up,…
CENTRAL DIVISION
KAREL VEJMELKA’S signing wasn’t met with fanfare. It read simply as a calculated risk: he was young, had the physical attributes – 6-foot-3, 225 pounds – of a modern NHL stopper and had posted good-but-not-great numbers in the Czech League. Yet one season after posting a .911 save percentage and 2.79 goals-against average for Brno, the 25-year-old made the cut out of camp and now finds himself splitting time in the Coyotes’ cage. His 32 saves on 33 shots in his debut proved Vejmelka can compete on the big stage. JONATHAN TOEWS had to fight to put a Blackhawks sweater on again. After the 33-year-old missed 2020-21 with an illness, Toews revealed this past summer he had been battling chronic immune response syndrome. The symptoms left him fatigued and sometimes struggling…
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