Capitals’ goalie prospect showing growth; Princeton off to slow start
HERSHEY, PA. >> Trust the process.
That mantra applies to more than just basketball, of course, as evidenced by Hershey Bears head coach Spencer Carbery talking about his super-prospect goaltender, Ilya Samsonov.
The 21-year-old Russian was the first goalie off the board, taken with the 22nd overall pick in the 2015 National Hockey League Draft by the Bears’ parent club, the Washington Capitals, and remains one of only two players picked that year (Zach Senyshyn is the other) who have yet to make their NHL debut.
Instead, Samsonov honed his craft over the past three seasons in the KHL, posting gaudy numbers that only cemented his status as the Capitals’ goalie of the future. Now that he’s finally here, however, the transition to North America hasn’t come as easily as some had expected.
He’s 4-8 with a 3.84 goals against average and .867 save percentage in his first 12 American Hockey League contests, numbers that improved with a solid showing in a 6-3 Saturday night win over the Hartford Wolf Pack at the Giant Center in Hershey.
“He’s got to feel good about the fact that he gets in the win column, that he plays in a game that we win,” Carbery said. “For him, I think it’s just building off of those positives that he takes from that.”
The overall statistics might not show it, but Carbery used an example from that night’s game — a huge stop with the Bears up by just one goal at the time which Carbery also referenced when addressing Samsonov and the team in the locker room immediately afterwards — in pointing towards his young netminder’s growth.
“Tie it, it could go either way, and they get a Grade-A (chance) in the slot and that changes the game,” he said. “He makes a big, big save there and that’s a momentum thing for me, because you just bailed a team out when we made a mistake, gave up a Grade-A.
“It was a big save in a crucial time when we’re hanging on to a lead and then all of a sudden, we feed off of that, it’s 6-3. You can look at that as a turning point. So hopefully he’s building off not only winning games, but making big saves at big times, which should give him a lot of confidence.”
Samsonov is still learning the English language, and is still unable to speak with the media without the use of a translator — Latvian-born Kris Bindulis had been doing the honors despite a limited knowledge of the Russian language, but was injured and not with the team — so thankfully Carbery had plenty to say when asked about the recent growth he’s seen in his prized prospect’s confidence of late.
“He’s just trying to work, and that’s the most important thing for a young guy. … There are a lot of expectations, and he knows it,” Carbery said.
“He expects a lot from himself. The most important thing is working through that, and the results will come. If they don’t come, eventually if you keep working and putting in the time with (Bears goaltending coach) Alex Westlund and looking at, ‘What do I need to do, how do I get better in this situation, what can we work on today,’ and trust in that process, eventually results will follow. That’s what I felt like he did a better job of this week. He’s getting adjusted to a ton of things: the culture, the language, the practices, the way we practice, how much he’s on the ice. There’s all this sort of stuff that’s brand new for him, so he’s trying to learn this on the fly and what works for him. There’s a lot he’s had to take in, and this week he’s been a lot more comfortable.”
TIGERS STARTING TO STRUGGLE
For a while, the Princeton University men’s hockey team had seemed to have found its identity under head coach Ron Fogarty.
The hard work that kickstarted the slow climb from years of irrelevance to ECAC champions and the NCAA tourney bid that came along with it last year seemed to catapult the team into a stalwart in the national rankings.
A 3-8-1 start to the season later, however, and it’s starting to feel like it’s the same old Tigers once again. Princeton has lost seven straight games dating back to Nov. 16, including a run of six straight defeats at the hands of ranked teams, a group which Fogarty’s team can no longer count themselves as being among.
In their first weekend all season being ranked outside of the Top 20, the Tigers lost both games of a back-toback against Arizona State at Hobey Baker Rink: 4-0 on Friday night, and a 3-2 overtime loss on Saturday.
Friday night’s struggles were particularly glaring. Johnny Walker, the nation’s leading goal-scorer, was left open in the slot and got the Sun Devils on the board just 15 seconds into the first period.
“We were very soft in the first period, and the very first shift they came down in bad coverage,” Fogarty said after Friday night’s loss. “That’s inexcusable. We have to be ready to go from puck drop . ... You get judged on wins and losses, and that’s another loss. We have to bounce back and be ready to go (Saturday) and get a win. That has to be a mandatory win night for us.”
Fogarty’s team did pick up a point in the overtime loss the next night, but is now in a three-way tie for fifth place in the ECAC heading into a non-conference game at Penn State on Saturday that’s set to be held as part of the “Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff” at the Wells Fargo Center.