Stephen Valiquette
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So, you know, I can see it going really well for him.
I can.
He's a highly talented goalie.
There was a time that people thought that he was the next Carey Price, and he had the pedigree.
Now, he's had a lot of things going on in his life, but to where he is right now, if he's able to get his mental and mind space in the right frame of mind, he could be an effective goalie, yes.
You know, the one thing that we've seen here, Kipper, is that there's no small goalies in the playoffs this year.
Everybody's got everybody's got a big guy in that all the undersized goalies are out this year.
And I think from what I've seen in our data, Barney, that that really hurts the smaller guys is screens and broken plays at net front.
Defensemen are smarter than ever to not shoot from the point if they have a clear lane to the net.
They're shooting off net more.
And when you shoot off net, you're getting all that crap off the pile of players.
And it's really difficult when a goalie doesn't have length, meaning...
wingspan to be able to make up for and get an extra couple of inches when they need it on a stretch save.
And trying to get across the crease is an extra challenge, especially when you don't see it clean all the way in because the bodies are in front of you.
And I feel like now players are more willing to stand net front for a couple of reasons.
They're not getting whacked the way they used to.
And defensemen now are almost never taking slap shots.
It's safer because the trust is there between net front and the defensemen.
And we're seeing scoring rates go up and save percentage drop because net fronts going in more frequently.
From the Olympic break to the end of the season, Jack Greaves gave up 11 goals through screens.