Frederik Andersen excelling by doing less

Frederik Andersen found his comfort zone as the Toronto Maple Leafs No.1 goaltender when he realized he didn't need to adjust his game to meet changing the expectations that came with his new job.
After a rough start that included an .851 save percentage in his first five games and mounting pressure because of the five-year, $25 million contract signed shortly after being acquired from the Anaheim Ducks on June 20, Andersen has bounced back with a .928 save percentage in his past 16 starts, including a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.

"The biggest adjustment was just to relax and play my game," Andersen said. "Subconsciously when you have this big move and get a longer contract you think you have to try to work harder and do more, do things differently, when in reality you just kind of figure out how to play like you did before, how to be yourself. That was my biggest mistake coming in."
Andersen is hardly the first goaltender to suffer for trying to do too much in an increased role. Cam Talbot talked about it after struggling through his first few months as the Edmonton Oilers' new No. 1 last season. Jake Allen learned the same lesson in his first shot at starting for the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs; he credits his background as a top junior golfer for understanding that swinging harder is not usually a recipe for success.
Andersen used a similar analogy to describe his start in Toronto.
"You want to impress people, especially the management and the team, and that sometimes makes you swing harder than usual and miss the fairway," Andersen said. "As a goalie you can't go dictate when you want to make a save. You can't be like, 'Yeah, right now I should try to make a really big save.' You just have to wait for the puck to come to you first and then you react and make the simple save, and then all of a sudden you see yourself stopping more shots and then that's when the big saves come, when you feel like you are playing well. You put those things together in the long run, you can't start chasing the puck. That's one thing I did a little too much of coming in."

Andersen was uncharacteristically aggressive early. He'd come out of his crease even on end-zone plays, which left him late getting into position on lateral passes and led to speculation the Maple Leafs asked him to adjust his positioning.
It's no secret in the goaltending community that Toronto coach Mike Babcock takes pride in letting his goalies focus on the shooter, because they trust the system and their teammates to take care of backdoor plays. Whether it was Jimmy Howard during his time with the Detroit Red Wings or James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier last season, Babcock's first with the Maple Leafs, goalies who've played for him have talked about using more aggressive positioning.
Andersen thinks all that talk may have played a role in his early charges out of the crease.
"In the back of my mind, even though [Babcock] and [goalie coach Steve Briere] never said they wanted me to play more aggressive, I think I had that point of view coming from outside," Andersen said. "I kind of thought like, 'The way they played there, I better make sure I have the shot all the time because that's how he likes it, he wants the goalies to focus on the puck,' and subconsciously I thought I need to be a foot more out just to make sure I make the save."

Andersen learned quickly there is a fine line between being confident you can lock in on a shooter without worrying about a backdoor pass and chasing that shooter. During his first month in Toronto, he struggled to find the correct side of that line, which for many is at the edge of the crease. While many mistake aggressive goaltending for athletic goaltending because it looks more active, the reality is that taking too much ice can turn you into a blocker.
"If you go out more, you think you don't have to react at all to make a save, you think you are just going to get hit," Andersen said. "But then once they come in closer, you keep those habits of not reacting and making a save and tracking the puck.
"Had this happened in Anaheim at the beginning of last year, I could just say 'I've played here, I've played well for this team, I know what I have to do.' But here it was tough to just trust it, and then it finally clicked when I figured out, 'You know what, I'm going to do exactly what I did in Anaheim.' Those focal points that I focused on for playing the game there, they became the most important thing to me."
Those focal points all came back to prioritizing angle over depth in his positioning.
"One thing was to get my feet set and be in position early," said Andersen, who went over footage of his time in Anaheim with Briere. "Whereas before I might be out chasing the puck by being a foot outside my crease, now I'm taking a step back and being just five or 10 percent less distance I have to cover for a push across the ice, it's going to make a huge difference. That just proves sometimes less is more."
After his early struggles in Toronto, Andersen knows the opposite is also true: Trying to do more in the crease can lead to less saves.