Struggling Markstrom ready for relief
Numbers show goalie has been solid on high-danger shots, suspect on longer ones
SAN JOSE, CALIF. Like the rest of his struggling Vancouver team, there was no hiding the frustration that goalie Jacob Markstrom was feeling after Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
“I gotta work harder. You don’t just get lucky, you earn your luck, and you gotta earn your bounces. I guess I gotta work harder,” he said after the loss, the Canucks’ sixth straight in regulation, seventh straight if you include a Nov. 10 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Markstrom is making many difficult saves, night in, night out.
Teammates have been acknowledging the netminder’s heavy workload — including Monday’s 20-save effort in the first period against the Winnipeg Jets, where the visitors scored three times but could have had three more — while also insisting they’ve got to do a much better job in front of him.
“Too many good chances to the other team,” Antoine Roussel said after Wednesday ’s loss at the Honda Center.
But Markstrom’s also undoing his good work by conceding goals any goalie would like back, on shots from far out or on bad shooting angles.
Take the goal Adam Henrique scored from down low, to the right of the net on Wednesday. The Canucks’ struggling penalty kill took away the pass — something Henrique himself highlighted postgame — forcing him to take a lowpercentage shot.
He managed to pick the top of corner of the net, the only spot Markstrom hadn’t covered.
On TSN 1040 Thursday morning, goalie analyst Kevin Woodley was critical of the reverse-VH technique Markstrom is defaulting to on shots from tough angles.
“It’s designed to be a technique used on dead angles,” he explained, like when the puck is behind the net, not when the shooter is at the bottom of the faceoff circle, like Henrique was.
“It’s a technique that worked early on because shooters hadn’t figured it out.”
Not so much anymore, he said. Applying such an approach was a mental error, one possibly the result of fatigue, Woodley suggested.
The return of Anders Nilsson, who has had more success with similar shots to the ones that have handcuffed Markstrom this season, surely will help Markstrom tidy up his game.
We’ve seen him perform much better in the past when given breaks to recover physically and mentally.
When you dig into the numbers you find some interesting things. The league average save percentage on high-danger shots, ones basically on top of the crease, is 82.8 per cent. Markstrom actually is a hair below, posting an 82.2 save percentage. That’s still in “decent” territory.
Even on shots from inside the scoring chance area, between the faceoff dots and down toward the crease, Markstrom has posted respectable numbers.
It’s long shots where he’s had real struggles. There are 72 goalies who have suited up in an NHL game this season. Markstrom is in the bottom third when it comes to the average distance at which goals are going in against him.
Add it all up and he’s looking at a 90.1 even-strength save percentage, which is in the bottom-third of the league.
It’s important to understand that save percentage isn’t all about the goalie. It’s about what the team in front of him is doing, too.
The Canucks have done a better job at eliminating shots off the rush, which are a more dangerous form of shot, but they ’re still yielding too many shots from the prime scoring areas.
Turnovers in the slot certainly don’t help.
The defensive struggles are putting heavy pressure on the goalie, and when you’re leaning heavily on just one, it’s a big ask.
And so, while Markstrom searches for answers, maybe it’s just a little rest that he needs.
And some help in front.
I gotta work harder. You don’t just get lucky, you earn your luck, and you gotta earn your bounces.