Markstrom keeps Canucks in playoff hunt by keeping pucks out
Team’s goalie coach sees starter Markstom making major improvements to his game
Jacob Markstrom, working with his third goaltending coach in five seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, is asked to describe his relationship with Ian Clark.
“Goalie coach and goalie,” Markstrom said. “Whatever that is. It’s different for everybody.”
Now here’s Clark on the same subject. See if you can spot the difference:
“As far as my time with Marky, obviously he had taken a step last season,” the 52-year-old Vancouver native said. “Yeah, we did some things with his stance. But the biggest thing for me was I felt he was working too hard to keep up with the activity of the game last year.
“We’ve tried to put a more cohesive package together so he’s a little more organized and he’s not falling behind the pace of the game. At this level, things happen very quickly and multiple things happen very quickly.
“So, do you have the ability to connect those moments with more calmness? That unleashes your mental game to be much stronger. If I’m busy physically chasing the game, I have no chance to be visual and cerebral out there. You don’t have the clarity in your game because you’re working too hard.”
Yes that explains it, I think. Markstrom and Clark, as you may have surmised, might explain things differently but they are united in one purpose: developing Markstrom into an elite NHL goalie.
As it happens, the 28-yearold Swede might be on that path after a few stops and starts in his Canucks’ career. Since a Dec. 6 win in Nashville, Markstrom has played the best hockey of his NHL career, going 10-3-2 with a goals-against average of just over 2.00 and a .922 save percentage while starting 15 of the Canucks’ 18 games.
Aside from another Swede — spoiler alert, it’s Elias Pettersson — Markstrom is the biggest reason the Canucks are in the Western Conference playoff hunt. The next question is: Can he sustain this level of play?
That question yields some fascinating answers from Clark, who returned to the Canucks this season after a seven-year stint in Columbus.
“I’ve been lucky in my career to work with some pretty fine goalies,” Clark said. “More importantly, they were goalies who wanted to work and were passionate about the position. That makes my job easier and Marky is no different in his passion and his competitiveness.
“A lot of people have been involved in his progression, his journey and it’s a journey for goaltenders. You go through so many different things — head coaches, goalie coaches and they all have a different impact. You just hope you take something from all those experiences and put them in the bank.”
Clark, as you must know by now, comes at the art of goaltending a little different than most and has developed a reputation as a goalie-whisperer in his 28 years in the NHL.
Starting with Florida back in 2001, Clark moved to the Canucks in 2002 where he worked with Dan Cloutier, the man he’d replace as the goalie coach in his second go-round in Vancouver, Among others, he’s coached Roberto Luongo, Cory Schneider and Sergei Bobrovsky in his time in the NHL.
Markstrom has the physical gifts of all those goalies. But he didn’t start to mould those gifts into — what was that term again? — ah yes, a cohesive package until last season when he started 60 games and posted a .912 save percentage.
This season, after a wonky start, he appears to have taken another step. Markstrom says the game finally has started to slow down for him and, while he isn’t big on details, he points to his work with Clark as being instrumental in that development.
“You have to build your game and you want to do it, not the easiest way, but the best way,” Markstrom said. “Every goalie is different but I feel we’re building on something really good and I’m feeling more comfortable.”
That comfort level is expressed a couple of ways. A fiery personality, Markstrom looked like he was playing the position angrily and that competitiveness didn’t always send the right message to his teammates.
He now plays a quieter, more composed game that, according to Clark, has a calming effect on the entire team.
“He has a bigger responsibility than just being a goalie and stopping pucks,” Clark said. “His body language, the way he carries himself, the way he reacts to moments. These are all important things.
“More eyes are on the goalie than any other position and that includes teammates watching from the bench.”
Clark can sound like Stephen Hawking when he gets rolling on his favourite subject and the metaphor of the journey is central to his teaching of the position. The journey can be short — as with Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa Bay.
More often it is long and difficult but, as long as the player is willing to put in the work and live with the position’s inevitable and daunting challenges, that journey will be a success.
That’s at least the way Clark puts it. Markstrom just words it differently.
“Ian expects a lot out of me and I expect a lot out of myself,” he said. “I want to become a better goalie.”
Looks like he’s on the way.