The North is not a simple division
The math hasn’t been pretty for many of the goaltenders,
Have a look at the NHL scoring leaders — Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Tyler Toffoli, Nikolaj Ehlers — and on it goes. Eight of the top 10 goal-scorers reside in the North Division.
That’s terrific, right? But pity the goaltenders.
“Only goalies feel sorry for goalies,” Calgary coach Geoff Ward said. “It’s such an important position. You want the guy in your net that’s playing the best. Other than that, we don’t worry about it too much.
“But seriously, there is a lot of scoring in this division. Teams here can put two lines together, sometimes three and sometimes stretch it to four that can score. Goals are happening in this division.”
Matthews set a personal record by scoring in eight straight games. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl combined for 11 points in two periods one night. When they get going, things like #SittlerWatch trend on Twitter because one of the North’s goalies could end up with a worse night that Dave Reece did against former Leafs captain Darryl Sittler, who managed six goals and four assists for an NHL-record 10 points against Boston on Feb. 7, 1976.
“It’s just another part of the job description,” Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen said.
And fan bases around Canada fret about the coach’s goaltending decision. Perhaps with good reason.
Collectively, the save percentage in the North is the lowest among the four divisions, at .903 (though up slightly from where it was a week ago at .899).
“Don’t we love it,” said Kelly Hrudey, a former goalie and current “Hockey Night in Canada” analyst. “It reminds me of the old Smythe Division. High scoring and all the best offensive players.”
The West is best at .911, the Central is at .908, the East is at .906. All numbers are courtesy of Sportlogiq, and as of the end of play Thursday night.
The high-end offensive talent in the North Division is what makes it so watchable, and enjoyable. It’s the division that defence largely forgot. Some nights, it feels like the 1980s again. But it can take a toll, from the goalie’s perspective.
“We check in with our goalies to make sure they’re doing fine,” said Vancouver coach Travis Green, whose Canucks are 29th in the league in save percentage. “A goalie can go home and feel like this is on him, because this is such an individual position. We try to make sure they’re in the right frame of mind. You can tell a player anything you want, but some of them have to see results. It’s a fine line.”
A goalie quickly has to be able to get over what just happened to focus on what’s next. Andersen said that’s a skill he works on every day. When he let in a goal on Montreal’s first shot Wednesday, you could almost feel Leaf Nation groan. But he held steady the rest of the way, turning aside 33 of the next 34 shots.
“That’s a skill you’ve got to have as a goalie,” Andersen said. “You can’t let that bother you. Even after a great save, you can’t live in the past. You’ve got to be really quick to turn the page.
“As a goalie, me personally, I guess you can never work enough on it. You’ve got to keep practising that skill. It’s something you can work on. You’ve got to continue to compartmentalize that quick and move on.”
It could be the goalies in the long run will be better for the experience.
“Part of your progression as a goalie is learning to play when games are 5-5 all the time,” Hrudey said. “You’ve got to understand how to play in highscoring games, and still make a big save when needed.
“The hockey has been like that in the North, huge momentum changes from period to period, unlike most years. “The goalie is in a difficult position right now because you don’t know based on your team’s play if you’re going to face three shots in a period, or 19.”
It’s not like the North is a collection of elite teams. Elite talent, yes. But teams? It’s actually a weak division compared to the others, based on recent history.
The last Stanley Cup champion among them dates to 1993 (Montreal). The last Cup finalist is Vancouver (2011). The last President’s Trophy winner: Vancouver (2012). Montreal is the most recent of the teams to finish first in a division (2017) and even that is a lifetime ago, given its ensuing roster overhaul.
Young and rebuilding teams tend to take to defence last. So it’s a recurring theme among the division’s coaches.
“We’re talking about our play without the puck a lot more than we’re talking about our play with the puck,” Green said.
“You’ve got to be responsible with the puck, and you’ve got to be responsible without the puck,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said.
“For us, we want to be a team that brings offence and scores goals. But it’s getting tougher because teams are getting better defensively. But at the same time, there’s a lot of firepower in our division, so when we don’t have the puck we have to be sound defensively. We have to work on both aspects of the game, and hopefully we find a good balance there.”
So if the North is akin to the Smythe Division of the 1980s, who’s its Grant Fuhr, a Hall of Famer with a 3.69 goals-against average in 10 years with the Oilers?
“I don’t know if we have that answer right now,” Hrudey said. “It’s still early.”