Hart vs. Wedgewood goalie matchup in Western Conference Final

Goaltending is an integral part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. To better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each goaltender, NHL.com charted 100 goals against each goaltender late in the regular season and through the first two rounds of the postseason to see the patterns that emerge. Here is the comparison between Carter Hart of the Vegas Golden Knights and Scott Wedgewood of the Colorado Avalanche, who meet in the Western Conference Final.

The Western Conference Final features a battle between two 6-foot-2 goalies with similar skillsets but very different methods of utilizing those skills. It’s Vegas Golden Knights No.1 Carter Hart, who has started each of the 12 playoff games, and Scott Wedgewood, who has started seven of the nine games in the first two rounds for the Avalanche.

There could be a third approach added to the best-of-7 series in Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, who picked up a win in the second round against the Minnesota Wild, but that could depend how well each team identifies and attacks the starters.

Carter Hart

Vegas Golden Knights 

Hart earned the playoff starting job ahead of 2023 Stanley Cup winner Adin Hill by returning from a nearly three-month absence due to a lower-body injury and finishing the season on a 6-0-0 run with a .930 save percentage under new coach John Tortorella. There were only 46 goals to track in the regular season, but another 30 in the first two rounds continued to build the scouting report for a goalie in just his second career NHL playoff run.

Blocker side off the hip: Even with the smaller samples, Hart has a mostly balanced goal chart to match a mostly balanced, contained style. But the number of clean looks from distance that went in blocker side, either coming down the right wing or off passes from the right side, is a trend worth watching. That includes three of the four that went in between his arm and body in the second round against the Anaheim Ducks alone, with six under the arm on that side already in the postseason (20 percent), way more than the 3.8 percent average for the more than 10,000 goals tracked for this project since 2017. Some came off great shots or screens and others off tough bounces, like the Mikael Granlund shot in a Game 4 loss that bounced off a teammate and skipped off the ice and under the blocker arm. But Hart does have a tendency to turn and reach on blocker-side shots rather than closing down and cutting them off in front of him. That can open holes and areas of the net. While a flared elbow on that side can help on high shots to the blocker, it can also delay the ability to seal it against his body.

Against the grain: Five of the seven clean-look goals in the regular season came on shots against the direction of play, part of a larger trend across several chance types that includes the above-mentioned trend of shooting to the blocker when skating down the right wing. The larger regular-season sample included a couple goals from higher in the zone, including lateral carries across the middle. Fourteen goals (30.4 percent) coming on shots against the grain, well above the 18.4 percent tracked average. It continued in the first round with six of the 18 goals (33.3 percent) against the Utah Mammoth, and in the second round with five of 12 (41.7 percent) involving an against-the-grain element. 

Low or high glove? It’s important to remember goal totals are not save percentages, but the nine goals (20 percent) under Hart’s glove in the regular season are almost double the 10.4 percent tracked average. That number was down to two (11.1 percent) in the first round, and the only low-glove goal against Anaheim was a screened, against-the-grain shot from a dangerous area by Granlund in Game 6. The Ducks scored four goals over Hart’s glove, but two were from cross-ice plays and the other two came on one-timers after passes from below the goal line, so it’s not like they were beating him clean high. Hart’s “fingers-up” glove position makes it easier to access high shots but harder to turn that pocket down atop the pad, something that shooters are taught to seek. Utah forward Michael Carcone took advantage of it with a one-timer under the glove from well outside the right face-off dot in Game 4 of the first round. The key may be the type of play: shoot over the glove after forcing him to move, but under the glove on straight-line attacks. 

Beware stick working down low: Hart is active and effective with his stick, trying to cut off passes from below the goal line. If you can avoid that stick with a pop pass out front, the reach delays Hart’s ability to cover the far side of the net. The Ducks scored twice with passes from below the goal line on the blocker side finished with one-timers over the glove. Those low-high plays from behind the net, or attacks from below the bottom of the face-off circles, were a factor on nine goals (19.6 percent) in the regular season, slightly above the 17.1 percent average, eight total in the playoffs (26.7 percent), and five against Anaheim (41.7 percent), including an Alex Killorn net drive in Game 4 that went in under the blocker arm after Hart turned his stick blade in preparation for a potential poke check.

East-West and up: Forcing goalies to move from one side of the ice to the other is always a good way to increase scoring odds, but Hart has managed these plays well in the playoffs, with six goals total and two against the Ducks. The totals were higher in the regular season with 14 goals (30.3 percent), above the 22.1 percent average, but the only trend was the need to elevate on the other end of those plays. Only three were finished along the ice because Hart usually gets a good push into those plays and seals the ice. Part of that comes with more conservative depth and good rotations to the posts, which can also open a little more of the top of the net. On odd-man rush chances, Hart tends to go into a spread as he slides across, especially to the glove side, which takes away the bottom half of the net but gives him almost no access to the top. 

Traffic and rebounds: Neither stood out as an issue in the regular season, but seven goals in the playoffs (23.3 percent) involved a screen, five of 18 (27.7 percent) in the first round came off a broken play or bounce off a teammate, and three of 12 (25 percent) against Anaheim were scored on a rebound, all more than the tracked averages.

Scott Wedgewood

Colorado Avalanche

Wedgewood led all NHL goalies (minimum 25 games) with a .921 save percentage in the regular season, finishing it with an 11-2-1 record and .945 save percentage after the Olympics. He somehow improved on those numbers with a .950 save percentage while eliminating the Kings in four games but was pulled in Game 3 against the Wild, watched Blackwood win Game 4, and was then reinserted for Blackwood during Game 5, which the Avalanche came back to win in overtime to eliminate Minnesota. Wedgewood gave up 86 goals all season splitting time with Blackwood, and just five in the first round before 11 against the Wild, so like Hart, there is still a relatively small sample size to break down.

Avoid the glove: Using a neutral “handshake” glove position with a slight “fingers-up” twist as he settles into his save stance, Wedgewood has exceptional results both under and over the glove. Even though charted goals don’t represent a save percentage, they are below the averages on the glove side. Wedgewood didn’t give up any clean-look goals over the glove in the regular season, and the only partial-breakaway goal over the glove came after a cross-crease deke off the wing and an elevated backhand in tight. Those trends continued against the Kings, who failed to convert 18 mid- and high-glove shots. Minnesota had more success with three high-glove goals but one was a crazy bounce off Mats Zuccarello after a cross-ice pass in Game 1, another was a Marcus Johansson one-timer after low-high pass across the low slot in Game 2, and a third came on a Kirill Kaprizov breakaway in Game 2. The lone Wild goal under the glove was an against-the-grain shot through a double screen by Quinn Hughes that tipped off a defender’s stick in Game 1. 

Breakaway dekes: The trend among 14 regular-season breakaway goals, which at 16.3 percent is well above the 10.2-percent tracked average, was the success of dekes rather than shots. While two were off in-tight plays, the remaining 12 included three blocker-side shot goals. The other nine goals were scored on dekes, taking advantage of an early low, wide-and-glide retreat by stretching him out in either direction, and twice slipping it back against the grain between the five-hole as he opened up while making his push. The Kings only got three such chances in the first round, with Wedgewood stopping one deke to the five-hole in Game 3, and a low shot in Game 4, but getting beat wide by Quinton Byfield on a penalty shot in Game 2 only to recover with a reach-back glove save. Minnesota, however, scored three of four breakaway goals with wide dekes, twice going against the grain to his glove side and around the pad, and once beating him to the post on the blocker side.

Pop passes: It wasn’t a regular-season trend, but two of five goals against the Kings came from low-high passes below the goal line, and similar plays factored into six of 11 goals against Minnesota, including the above-mentioned Johansson goal. Wedgewood is so good at looking off the puck carrier to scan the zone and that awareness fuels his great play reading. But that’s a lot harder to do when the play is behind the net, and being forced into post-play techniques can delay the ability to get back to his preferred positioning near the top of the crease or catch him moving as he does with quick shots. 

Traffic and chaos: Wedgewood had exceptional traffic results in the regular season but five of 16 in the playoffs involved a screen. While he battles as hard as any goalie on second chances and scrambles, broken plays accounted for 18 goals (20.9 percent) in the regular season and four of 16 (25 percent) in the playoffs, each more than the 14 percent average.

Target positional aggression: Wedgewood is an exceptional skater, whether retreating on his edges, gliding into angles or powering across his crease in a butterfly slide. He uses his skill to play a more aggressive positional game, often starting above the edge of his crease or wide of his posts even on in-zone plays. That led to more goals along the ice outside the skates in the regular season (34.8 percent compared to a 24.3 percent tracked average), and his goal totals on plays across the middle of the ice (25.6 percent) were also one of the few categories above the tracked average (22.1 percent).  The latter trend continued with five playoff goals (31.3 percent) off lateral plays, even if goals along the ice have not.