Goalies trying to avoid highlight-reel saves

VANCOUVER -- It is one of the great ironies of being an NHL goaltender that saves celebrated by others with highlight-of-the-night replays, top-10 lists and viral status on social media often are treated with contempt by the player who made it.

Where others see a highlight-reel save, goaltenders often see a mistake.
"I try not to make acrobatic saves because that means you are out of position," Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask said. "But that's what you have to do to make the highlights. It just goes to show how much these guys know on TV."
As exciting as a head-first Superman dive or reach-back-with-the-paddle-of-the-stick save is to watch, the reality is those saves usually are borne out of desperation because of a technical mistake, a bad read or a premature commitment to the butterfly.
As often as those make-good saves are labeled as athletic, they also usually require an element of good fortune.
"It usually means you have done something wrong when you are out of position and you have to dive across, and you almost feel like, 'Oh, I just got lucky there,'" Vancouver Canucks goaltender Anders Nilsson said. "It's great to make those saves, but deep inside you feel you got lucky and that's not a comfortable feeling to have as a goalie."
That's not to say NHL goaltenders are dismissive of all desperate saves.
With the speed of the attacks and the skill of the players making them each increasing, combined with the introduction of more lateral plays in the offensive zone, it's not always possible to stay in the perfect countering position.
Increasingly, goaltenders must go outside the butterfly box and make a desperate-looking save.
"It depends on the acrobatic save," Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby said. "If it's a play where your footwork is really good and you get there and still had to reach and extend, then it's good. But if you got frozen on a shot you shouldn't have and have to reach across and somehow it hits you, it looks cool but it's not that hard of a save and I'm sure the guys making it feel that way too."
Holtby made highlight reels across the world during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final with a save that falls somewhere between luck and skill. With 1:59 remaining in the third period, he reached back with the paddle of his stick to take an empty net away from Vegas Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch and preserve a 3-2 lead.

Holtby was caught off guard by a bad bounce off the end boards and had committed to the shooter on his left when the puck went to his right, onto the stick of the streaking Tuch.
"Some of them you have no choice but to be desperate," Holtby said.
The willingness to battle beyond a technically sound save is something scouts look for in a goalie.
"I remember going back years ago, I had a scout high up with an organization ask me how many head saves I had made in the last year and I had no idea," said Minnesota Wild backup goalie Alex Stalock, whose more aggressive positioning and style can lead to more extended saves. "And he said, 'Well, you should know because that's not giving up on a puck, that's desperation, you are not giving up on any play.' So you think about it and it actually does kind of make sense. If you are competing and fighting for every puck, sometimes you are out of position and you do take one in the head."
However, most NHL goalies would prefer to take the puck in the chest.
Sprawling saves may look athletic in a reactive sense, but goalies know real athleticism is harnessing the lateral power they train for all summer and maintaining body control while beating side-to-side plays, preferably while still on their skates.
"I find more satisfaction in making a big save or a great chance look like nothing, than a medium chance look like a lot more than it should be," Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk said, adding that he "takes pride" in not making the highlight reels.
So what kind of saves get NHL goalies excited?
Most point to getting across on some type of lateral pass, often on an odd-man rush, to make the save. Nilsson talked about making a reaching glove save in that type of situation, but for other goalies even that still sounded a little too desperate.

"I like when you see the frustration on a guy when he gets a great pass and he makes a great shot and you manage to get over there in control and you just take it in the body and you can kind of see the surprise a little bit as to why the net wasn't wide open," Dubnyk said. "I take more satisfaction in making those plays seem like nothing."
Holtby's favorite save is even more subtle.
"Any tough puck through traffic where you really had to fight and you got a lane of just [seeing] the blade and read that blade and knew where it was going," he said. "You don't even notice it on TV."
For most goalies, a simple save such as that beats making the highlight reels.