Goaltender Nilsson proves he deserves more starts
Canucks goaltender’s play has helped him stake claim to more starts
There is a theory Anders Nilsson doesn’t show well.
Not in practice anyway.
In net, he’s quiet and constrained. It reads, at times, as unathletic, especially when juxtaposed to the sprawling agility possessed by some of his colleagues.
Like, say, Jacob Markstrom. Practice is a different animal. Forwards freely whirl around the slot, picking corners like they have all the time in the world, mostly because they do.
In this environment, more athletic goalies can lunge, extend and ferociously twist their bodies to make incredible saves. You know, saves that get your heart racing.
Calmer goalies, like Nilsson, get corners picked. They look more vulnerable.
Of course, Nilsson has looked anything but in games.
In games, forwards are forced to make split- second decisions. In games, it takes tremendous luck, timing and skill to pick a corner. In games, Nilsson has been a beast.
After 19 days between starts, Nilsson gave up a bad goal on a bad shot Tuesday. He rebounded. He got better as the game unfurled and he closed out the L. A. Kings with his best 20- minute stretch of the season.
That’s saying something because Nilsson’s season, all five games of it, has been unexpectedly great.
He has two shutouts, four wins and after a string of late saves in L. A., he had the fifth- best save percentage in hockey.
Who saw this coming?
Or this: After Tuesday’s win in L. A., the Canucks had the best 5- on- 5 save percentage in the league at .942. Also, their team save percentage in all situations was top 10.
And to think they wanted to resign Ryan Miller.
Leading up to the season, the Canucks under Travis Green sold their situation in net like it was up for grabs. More of an open competition than a goalie controversy.
It made sense. As different as the two goalies play, their resumes are remarkably similar. Markstrom and Nilsson are both 27 years old. Neither had started more than 30 games in a season. Nilsson’s career save percentage is .910 and Markstrom’s .906.
But it hasn’t panned out entirely like we thought. Part of the reason is life. Nilsson’s fiancee delivered a baby boy Nov. 8 and he missed a week.
But part of this has been preference. In games both goalies have been available, Markstrom has been outstarting Nilsson by a 2- 1 rate.
That’s not insignificant.
In some ways, it’s understandable. Markstrom played for Green in Utica. He is paid a little more. He has played really well.
And, oh yeah, he looks good in practice.
Markstrom was the Canucks’ best player in their 5- 3 win in Calgary, which started the road trip. But Nilsson was the best in the game that ended it.
Nilsson made key saves Tuesday with the game on the line and those are the type that get your heart racing.
He faced 15 shots in the third period of what turned into a critical 3- 2 Canucks win. He made a sprawling save to stone Alec Martinez’s backdoor tap- in with 51/2 minutes to go. And with three minutes left, he stopped Anze Kopitar cold from eight feet out.
At some point, save percentage will matter. If there is a substantial difference between the two, it will speak and what has been a slightly open competition will be pried wide open.
Right now, Nilsson’s is .942 and if that level continues for any length of time it is going to be increasingly difficult not to start him in more games.
It may even happen this week. This isn’t really going to be a controversy, by the way. Controversies happen when big- money, established veterans are outplayed. They don’t happen when two guys who are the same age and have the same backgrounds with similar contracts are competing for starts. They don’t happen when there are two goalies still trying to prove they can be counted on to be regular stoppers.
This isn’t about controversies because in reality the Canucks need both to be really good to have any chance at staying competitive. Neither has carried water in the NHL for any real length of time.
The Canucks are just not going to score enough to survive belowaverage goaltending.
Lucky for them, both goalies are thriving.
That, however, doesn’t mean it will always be this way.