Unmasked: Keeping calm key for goalies' success during playoff pandemonium

Intensity and physicality ramp up when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin. 

Forwards make sure they finish every hit on the forecheck.

Defensemen make sure there’s a price to pay to stand in front of their net. 

And goalies? For the guys playing behind it all, the key is trying not to get caught up in any of the chaos because they play a position where trying to do more usually is harmful.

“Trying harder gets you in trouble,” said Los Angeles Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper, who won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. “It's about balancing that extra energy of playoffs. I think it's good to have those butterflies and excitement going into those games, and it's just about channeling it the right way. 

“If you start flying around the net and getting out of the play, you get yourself in trouble. But if you use it and channel it to be more focused and be more in the moment, then it can become a huge advantage.”

Goaltending, as Dallas Stars goalie Casey DeSmith once said in this space, is “not an effort-based endeavor.” Just as “swing harder” is not typically great advice for a struggling golfer, or players talk about “gripping the stick too tight” when they are struggling to score, asking a goalie to try harder during a game is typically a recipe for more problems. 

Goalies need to stay relaxed in a position that is mostly reactive. 

“I would say tension is the enemy," DeSmith has said. 

Trying too hard inherently leads to tenser muscles, which slows reactions. But trying to stay relaxed when everyone around you is ramping up for the playoffs is sometimes easier said than done.

At least one NHL goalie, who preferred not to be identified, admitted that for the first few seasons of his career, he went into the playoffs thinking he needed to somehow do more to step up his game from the regular season. It wasn’t until working with a sports psychologist that he realized it was hurting, not helping, his performance. 

Andrei Vasilevskiy can see how that might happen, but the two-time Stanley Cup winner said early playoff success with the Tampa Bay Lightning made for an easier adjustment. 

“You can think, ‘It’s playoffs, I have to do this or do that,’ but I feel like my first playoff series, actually I did pretty decent because I didn't think about it,” Vasilevskiy said. “I feel like the main thing is, don't think too much. 

“There's already too much pressure, and if you add even more on yourself, it's not going to help you. I know stakes are higher, but at the same time if you change too much, it's going to hurt you. You played so many games during the regular season. You know what works and what doesn’t. So relax, breathe, and just play.”

Skaters can chase a hit, maybe even a fight, to get them into an intense playoff game, but goalies can’t manifest a shot no matter how badly they want to feel the puck or make a save.

Trying harder can also create the tendency to dig the skate edges in a little deeper and play in a lower, wider stance that limits lateral mobility. Some goalies tend to get more aggressive positionally when pressing. Each is problematic as offensive attacks in the NHL focus more on creating east-west plays that force a goalie to move laterally.

“Trying to do more can be a trap,” said Vegas Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill, who won the Cup in 2023. “You have to be dialed in and focused but I don't think it can be trying harder. When you try to do too much, that's when mistakes happen. 

“It's more letting the play come to you, but have a little bit more intensity, a little more compete because guys are going to be in the blue paint a lot more.”

That increase in traffic around the crease come playoff time further complicates things. As the speed and intensity increases, as the traffic picks up and things get more frenetic around the net, goalies have to battle harder for sight lines without losing the tactical and technical foundations they’ve worked all season to build. 

“For sure, the playoffs are harder for goalies,” said Utah Mammoth goalie Vitek Vanecek, who has played 10 playoff games with the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils but also had a front row seat as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky during the Florida Panthers' Stanley Cup win last season. “There's a lot of screen shots. You have to battle really hard in the playoffs to find the puck. It's not the same as in the season. In the playoffs, it's very different. For sure, it's faster, but when the goalie is more calm, like he is in the season, it's better.” 

In other words, as everything around the goalie ramps up, they have to play the same. It’s something Vanecek witnessed firsthand on and off the ice from Bobrovsky. 

“He never changed,” Vanecek said. “You have to be the same guy.”

It’s just easier said than done when everything around you feels more intense.