"Playing goalie is such a different position than in most sports because you can't really go out and make things happen - it's completely reactionary," Mason said. "You have to adapt to what's coming at you. [Saros] seems to be able to identify what's happening and to react at a tremendous rate of speed.
"He's just got an incredible ability to recognize where he is in the net and where he has to go to make plays, especially when the puck is going across the ice. He's never out of position."
Saros's skating speed from post to post, as Carlson found out last Saturday, also serves the Finnish youngster well.
"Being a smaller guy, he has to get in position sooner than a big guy," Mason said. "He finds ways to get the center of his body mass in the shooting lanes, and I think that's why he's so efficient. He gets over and he gets his body right in the middle of the angle of where the puck is coming. He's almost perfected that, really, to be playing as well as he is in the NHL."
It's worth keeping in mind, of course, that Saros's 16-career NHL games represent a small body of work. He'll have to prove he can buck the odds in years to come as well as he has as a rookie.
"I'm sure he'll go through some ups and downs - it just happens," Mason said. "NHL shooters will get a book on you, and they'll adapt and try different approaches.
"But he's honestly one of the best goalies I've ever seen. If I was trying to be a goalie again now, I would try to emulate what Juuse Saros does because of his style of play."