BREAKOUT SEASON
The Capitals place their faith in their goalie like no other NHL team.
It was labelled the stomach flu, and it was a doozy.
White as a ghost and shaking all over, Braden Holtby could not stop vomiting shortly after the playoffs began. Eventually, he was given an IV to replenish the fluids that he had lost.
Fans did not see any of this. All they knew was that the Washington Capitals goaltender who had been so good in the regular season had struggled mightily in a first-round Game 1 loss to the New York Islanders and then was mercifully kept out of Game 2.
“Under the weather,” was the term head coach Barry Trotz used. But few would have been surprised if there was an additional diagnosis of exhaustion.
Holtby played in 73 games during the regular season. He logged more minutes in net, 4,247, than any other goaltender in the NHL. In fact, in the last five years, only two other goaltenders (Carolina’s Cam Ward in 2010-11 and Anaheim’s Jonas Hiller in 2011-12) played more minutes than Holtby did.
Had the Capitals, who played Holtby for 24 of the final 25 games of the seasons, burned out their No. 1 goalie?
Not exactly. Since missing that first-round game, which the Capitals won, Holtby has a 1.54 goals-against average and a .949 save percentage. In two games against the New York Rangers, he has given up just four goals and looked every bit as sharp as Henrik Lundqvist, who only played in 46 games this season because of a long layoff from a neck injury.
“Obviously, playoffs are tough on guys,” said Holtby, who’s had the bushy beard of a Stanley Cup finalist all season. “Part of the fun of it is pushing your body to the limit and seeing what you can get out of yourself.”
This was a breakout season for the 25-year-old Saskatchewan native. Not only did Holtby face the most shots in the NHL, but he also made the most saves and tied Nashville’s Pekka Rinne with the secondmost wins (41). With a 2.22 goals-against average, .923 save percentage and nine shutouts, he put himself up there with the league’s best.
That made it easy for Trotz to rely on him so heavily.
“After the first 20 games we sort of dug ourselves a little hole and we had to dig ourselves out of it,” Trotz said of the Capitals’ tepid 9-8-3 start. “One thing led to another and he just kept performing well.”
A year ago, Holtby could never have played this many games. For one, his play did not warrant it. And he would have burned himself out by the midway point. Acrobatic and athletic, Holtby used to make the goaltending position look as difficult as it is. He was good. But he was too aggressive and not efficient enough in his movements to become great.
And then Mitch Korn came along and changed everything.
“He thought of ways to fix things in my game that I knew needed fixing but I didn’t know how to change them,” Holtby said of the Capitals’ goaltending coach. “It’s still a work in progress, but he’s brilliant in the fact that if you have something that you want to fix, he knows how to do it right away. You don’t waste time doubting yourself.”
Korn, who spent the past 15 seasons working alongside Trotz in Nashville, has worked with NHLers such as Dominik Hasek and Pekka Rinne. In 2010, The Hockey News included him as one of the 10 geniuses in the game. His disciples call themselves the Children of the Korn, in reference to the mid1980s horror movie.
“He’s …” Holtby said, searching for a right word, “different.”
Prior to training camp, Korn took Holtby to a vision centre in Minneapolis to help “train his eyes” to see the puck better. In one of their first practices together, he shot pucks at Holtby that had been painted white and had him try to stop shots while clutching a medicine ball in his hands in an effort to make him more compact and controlled in his crease.
“When you have to hold onto a medicine ball, you have no choice but to bring your legs in because you need them both to balance yourself,” Holtby said.
If it was unorthodox, it was certainly effective. Holtby has not allowed any so-called soft goals in the second round and on Saturday effortlessly gloved a one-timer from Ryan McDonagh that was screaming towards the top corner. Like Lundqvist and some of the best in the game, he’s making the position look easier than it should be.
With the Capitals seeking a deep playoff run for the first time since losing in the Stanley Cup final in 1998, Trotz knows Holtby is the key. They both like it that way.
“I found that when I didn’t play him he would stay on the ice for two hours and instead of taking 40 shots a game he would take 500,” Trotz said. “I figured, we might as well play him.”
When I didn’t play him he would stay on the ice for two hours