Hockey is a chaotic sport, and perhaps that’s what makes it so entertaining to watch. Every time you go to the rink, you just never know what kind of a game you’re going to see. Thursday’s 7-4 Kraken defeat at the hands of the upstart Anaheim Ducks, though disappointing in terms of the result, truly had everything you could possibly want in a hockey game. It was high scoring, high flying, high intensity, and high drama.
The disheartening result is damaging for Seattle and huge for Anaheim, which has now vaulted into second place in the Pacific Division with its sixth win in as many games. The third straight Kraken loss simply means the challenge of getting back in the race is even tougher now.
For the Kraken, the intensity didn’t switch on until the second period, and they were back to chasing the game from the jump. To their credit, they never quit and continued to battle back, even as one-goal deficits turned into two-goal deficits. Every time that happened, they picked themselves up and got back to within striking distance of a tying goal, but that equalizer proved elusive.
Every inch Seattle took it gave right back to Anaheim.
Slow start proves costly for Kraken against Ducks
Of their several defensive breakdowns in the first period, only one was costly, as Grubauer stood tall to turn away the other 13 shots he faced.
That most glaring miscue came fewer than five minutes into the game. In transition, Carson Soucy—playing left defense—found himself just a few feet away from partner Vince Dunn on the right side of the ice. That meant Max Comtois was gliding in all alone on the weak side. From the dot, he wound and fired a shot that Grubauer stopped, but as the puck bounced around in front of the net, 18-year-old Mason McTavish found it and buried his second career NHL goal.
There was no pushback offensively, and Seattle got just four pucks on the usually impermeable John Gibson. As the Kraken went to the dressing room, it was clear they would need to bring a lot more heat to break through.
Said Jordan Eberle, “We’re finding ways to lose. Tonight was a little different. I thought we started really slow, they really took it to us and [Philipp Grubauer] really kept us in it. We were lucky to be down one after one there.”
A very strange, high-flying period of hockey
The Kraken did break through in the second, but so too did the Ducks in a bizarre period of hockey.
It started with Jeremy Lauzon laying a high hit on Isac Lundestrom, which the Ducks did not like. Comtois went right after Lauzon, and the two tussled, both landing themselves in the penalty box. Oddly, Lauzon got an extra minor penalty on the play for his initial hit, while Comtois—who started the brouhaha—only got the one for roughing. That dustup set the tone for the strange frame.
Troy Terry used Mark Giordano as a screen to score his 10th (!!!) goal and 17th point of the season, giving Anaheim its first two-goal lead at 3:10. Terry looked dangerous every time he touched the puck, which is no surprise with the incredible hot streak he’s been on to start the season. The 24-year-old is just oozing confidence right now, and he showed it Thursday.
Jaden Schwartz answered 35 seconds later when he took a pass from Jordan Eberle off the rush and rifled it off the crossbar and in to bring the Kraken back within one.
Just when you thought the Kraken were starting to cook, Josh Mahura, off an offensive zone face-off win, blasted it through traffic. It beat Grubauer on a shot he never saw, and just like that it was again a two-goal deficit for Seattle.
The earlier issue with Lauzon was apparently not settled in the eyes of the Ducks, as Josh Manson challenged him, and the two dropped the gloves and threw a bunch of right jabs and crosses at one another, before Lauzon ultimately took Manson down to the ice.
The fight appeared to re-energize the Kraken, as Jared McCann, playing his first game since a bout with COVID, went hard to the net and a Ryan Donato pass bounced off him and through Gibson. In case you’ve lost count, the score at that point was 3-2.
The second period scoring was not quite done, though, as Kevin Shattenkirk re-established Anaheim’s two-goal lead at 15:46 on the one goal of the night that Grubauer would have wanted back. From the right dot, Shattenkirk snapped a shot that just squeezed through Grubauer’s armpit, and as soon as he realized it had gotten through, he looked skyward in disgust.
That brought the game to 4-2 to close out the second, and surely this thing was over, right?
Not so fast. The third period was every bit as wild as the second. Oh, and before we go there, just to add one bizarre cherry on top of a bizarre period, Gibson got in the grill of Brandon Tanev behind the play and held onto his stick for a good ten seconds. The referees stood and waited for them to sort it out, even though Gibson was visibly preventing Tanev from skating away.
It was all very strange.
Eberle stays hot, but Kraken come up short
Eberle continued his hot streak 3:57 into the final frame. On a two-on-one rush, Alex Wennberg sauced a perfect pass onto Eberle’s tape. As Gibson sprawled to cover the yawning cage, a confident Eberle buried it, putting Seattle back in business. That’s the sixth goal in four games for Eberle and his eighth in Seattle’s last eight.
Six minutes later, Hampus Lindholm pinballed one through traffic, making it 5-3. NOW it was over, right? Still no.
Exactly one minute elapsed before McCann took a pass from Donato while streaking into the offensive zone. He made a hard and deft cut to the middle, and in one fell swoop let go a howitzer that pinged off the right post and in to cut the deficit to one yet again.
The Kraken continued to push, and the line of Eberle, Schwartz, and Wennberg just missed on several prime scoring chances in the closing minutes. But an ill-timed goalie pull, just as that line was changing, gave Sam Carrick an easy empty netter and put the nail in the coffin.
Just to rub a little salt in the wound, Terry added another empty netter for his 11th (!!!) of the season and brought the final score to 7-4.
Frustrating loss against a good team
This latest loss was frustrating for players and fans alike on a lot of levels. The start was not good, but Grubauer bailed the team out in the first period and gave Seattle a chance going into the second.
Then as the game went on, the Kraken would gain ground but give it right back like they were engaged in trench warfare. That simply can’t continue to happen. For all the resiliency that this team has demonstrated, it rarely seems to get over the hump when it’s trying to mount a comeback. Giving back goals after working so hard to score just kills Seattle’s momentum, and it’s the latest troubling trend for this group.
As the standings climb gets more and more daunting, nights like Thursday are a stark reminder that the Pacific Division is better than it has been in recent years. The Ducks used to be viewed as easy points, but not anymore. Their long-standing youth movement is finally bearing fruit. They have evolved into a talented, fast, and exciting hockey club, with more young, impactful players still on the way.
The Kraken truly can’t afford to take more time to figure out ways to win instead of ways to lose. The climb back into the playoff race is getting steeper by the day.
Seattle will face the Minnesota Wild Saturday in the second game of this six-game homestand.
Seattle Kraken versus Anaheim Ducks 7 p.m. Pacific time Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington TV: ROOT Sports Radio: AM 950 KJR
As the saying goes, you have to make hay when the sun is shining. Of course, this is November in Seattle, and the sun almost never shines this time of year, but as it pertains to the Kraken, they are in last place and are now entering an uber-important six-game homestand. Sunshine or not, it’s time to make some hay.
The sun does shine in Anaheim this time of year, and it has been particularly bright there in the early stages of this season. A young team, the Ducks are on fire and represent a herculean task for the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
Lineup questions
Coach Dave Hakstol was mostly coy in his morning press availability on Thursday (as he always is) about his lineup plans and indicated there will be a few “game-time decisions” for him and his staff. He did confirm that Jared McCann will play in his first game since entering COVID protocol two weeks ago.
McCann, who has seven points in eight games (3-4=7), is a key piece of the offensive attack for Seattle, and his absence was noticeable. He shared on Wednesday that he was hit hard by COVID, losing his senses of taste and smell, and lacked energy. Wednesday was also his first time back on the ice, so we shall see if he can perform to the best of his abilities Thursday.
In pre-season, McCann centered a dynamic line with Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz that dominated at times. The trio was broken up early in the regular season, though, as Hakstol tried to squeeze goals out of his snake bitten group.
Toward the end of McCann’s absence, Alex Wennberg got slotted between Eberle and Schwartz, at which point Eberle got hot and scored five goals in three games. Interestingly, McCann was back in that spot at practice Wednesday and spoke as if he expects to play with Schwartz and Eberle.
What remains unclear is whether Yanni Gourde will be available Thursday. It is believed he was injured when he blocked a shot with his knee in the first period against Vegas on Tuesday. He did return after that and scored a goal but missed most of the third. He did not participate in practice Wednesday but was on the ice at Thursday’s optional morning skate. UPDATE: Looks like Gourde is in, as is Ryan Donato.
Goalie talk
The goaltending has gotten a lot of attention from the fledgling Kraken fanbase of late. Chris Driedger made his first start Tuesday in a 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights after Philipp Grubauer had a tough night in Arizona on Saturday. Neither netminder has particularly impressive stats, but we believe there’s improvement on the horizon for both.
Hakstol stressed Thursday that he doesn’t really care about their save percentages, but he does care about getting timely saves, which can have such a huge impact on the momentum of a game. At key points—like right after a Kraken goal, for example, or in the opening or closing minutes of a period—does Grubauer come up with the big save? Seattle hasn’t gotten that recently, so that will be something to look for as Grubauer returns to the crease against Anaheim.
Anaheim Ducks
These aren’t the same Ducks that had become so pleasant to play against in recent seasons. The youth movement that was put in motion several years ago—centered around players like Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, Maxime Comtois, Sam Steel, and others—is starting to pay off, as Anaheim has gotten off to a great start to its season and sits in third place in the Pacific at 7-4-3.
Of course, the man who started that movement, general manager Bob Murray, has just resigned with allegations swirling about his treatment of those inside the organization and an investigation into his conduct underway. Murray’s fingerprints will remain on this roster for years to come, and while what he did behind the scenes is very much in question, the on-ice product appears to be dramatically improving.
Driving that improvement has been the emergence of Terry, who has been unstoppable in his 13 games played this season. The 24-year-old right winger is third in the league in goals with nine and has added seven assists. He scored the game-winning goal for the second straight game Tuesday in Vancouver, which led the Ducks to their fifth consecutive win.
There’s also been a feeling over the past few years that the rebuild in Anaheim has been wasting an exceptional talent in netminder John Gibson, who is now 28 years old. If this team does prove to be the real deal as the season wears on, Gibson will be a huge piece of the success. Gibson gets the nod Thursday. A shoo-in for Team USA in the upcoming Olympics, he is again proving tough to beat with a 2.34 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
Projected lineup
We’re basing this on lines from practice on Wednesday and guessing that Gourde will not play. Of course, this could change dramatically if he does go. UPDATE: With Gourde apparently… Gourde to go, the lines looked very different than they have before in warmups. This is reflected in the projection below.
Seattle Kraken at Vegas Golden Knights 7 p.m. Pacific time T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada Watch: ESPN+, Hulu (Streaming only) Radio: AM 950 KJR
Back to where it all began, the Seattle Kraken are in Vegas on Tuesday to take on the Golden Knights for the second time in their existence and the first time since opening their inaugural season on the Strip. Circumstances are a bit different this time around, as we know a lot more about both teams, but this is still a tough building and a tough opponent, and it is again an important game for Seattle.
The Kraken are coming off a painful loss to the worst team in the league, the previously winless Arizona Coyotes, on Saturday. It was a game in which Seattle scored two goals and chased the opposing netminder in the very first minute of the game. In the second and third periods the Kraken allowed three unanswered goals to give Arizona a lead, then fought back to find the tying goal with 1:18 left. But just seconds later, a bad Adam Larsson turnover in the corner led to the game-winning goal by Lawson Crouse.
It was a night that Seattle fans hope to forget, but it will live on in infamy as the night those same fans completely lost it on Twitter for the first time (seriously, our mentions were… something).
Dave Hakstol acknowledged that it was a difficult game for the team, but hopes they can learn from it. “You gotta grow as a team out of some of the tough experiences,” he said Monday. “And that was a tough experience the other night. It was disappointing for all of us, but it gives you the opportunity also to learn something about yourselves and to be able to grow together.”
Tuesday, the Kraken look to right the ship against a banged up Vegas team.
Out goes Donato, in comes Johansson
Adding injury to insult on Saturday, Ryan Donato went head-first into the endboards on a very awkward play in the first period. He was slow to get up, but did eventually rise and looked ok in the immediate aftermath. He soon went down the tunnel, though, and did not return. Donato did not practice on Monday, but was back wearing a red non-contact jersey at morning skate on Tuesday.
Hakstol confirmed in his press availability after morning skate that Marcus Johansson will return against Vegas, so he will slot into Donato’s spot. Though the Kraken kept saying Johansson was still day to day, it’s not a huge surprise that he’s ready to go. He had been practicing in full, and nobody had been recalled from the AHL to replace Donato in the lineup.
Ironically, Johansson’s only game came at T-Mobile Arena on opening night, after which he somewhat mysteriously popped up on injured reserve and hasn’t played since. He had a big role in preseason and registered 16:13 of ice time with one shot on goal in that first game.
Chris Driedger starting Tuesday
On the previously discussed topic of our Twitter mentions, we hear your goaltending concerns loud and clear. You’re right that Philipp Grubauer has not been at his best so far and statistically has fallen toward the bottom of the league, but there is always context to consider with goalies.
First, Grubauer has been getting very heavily used. Some of that is the decision of the coach—after all, he did give the first five starts of the season to Grubauer—but some of that is simply terrible timing for Driedger to get injured. We all expected more of a 1A/1B platoon scenario, but that just hasn’t worked out. That can still come to fruition, though, and Driedger can start commanding more time with a quality start in Vegas.
Second, goaltending is a mentally taxing position that ebbs and flows during the course of an 82-game season, so give Grubauer time. He will get hot at some point, and you’ll go back to worshipping him as quickly as you might have stopped.
All that said, those that are clamoring for a Driedger start get their wish on Tuesday, as Hakstol confirmed he will go against Vegas. We did not anticipate that it would take until the twelfth game of the season before seeing him officially get the nod from the beginning of a game, but it’s better late than never.
Last season in Florida, Driedger was 14-6-3 with a 2.07 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas currently has the following players listed on injured reserve: Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Nolan Patrick, Zach Whitecloud, and… Jack Eichel. William Karlsson is also out with a broken foot, though he for some reason is not officially listed on IR, and Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs were traded in the Eichel deal.
That’s a lot of quality, regular players missing for the Golden Knights, who have been dressing guys like Michael Amadio and Jonas Rondbjerg to fill in. Paul Cotter is also expected to make his NHL debut Tuesday.
The Golden Knights beat Seattle on opening night, then lost four straight before rebounding—despite the injuries stacking up—for five wins in their last seven games. They did lose 5-2 in Detroit on Sunday, but have climbed back to .500 after a horrible start.
It’s an opportunistic team that showed how quickly it can strike the last time these teams played each other. That night, Seattle was playing an aggressive style that left things pretty wide open through the neutral zone. But the Kraken have adjusted their approach dramatically since then, so perhaps the goals won’t come quite as easily for the Golden Knights this time around.
Oh, and speaking of Eichel, holy cats, the Golden Knights traded for Eichel!
The disc replacement surgery that caused his rift with Buffalo has been scheduled for Nov. 12, then if all goes according to plan, the recovery should be about three months. So we won’t actually see him until at least February. When the superstar center does return, the Golden Knights are going to have to make some very tough calls to get themselves under the salary cap… but then they’ll have Eichel.
Seattle Kraken at Arizona Coyotes 7 p.m. Pacific time Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona TV: ROOT Sports Radio: 950 AM KJR
There are winnable games, and then there are games against the Arizona Coyotes, who still have a zero in the ‘W’ column after 10 games. At 0-9-1, it’s easy to look past a matchup like this, but the Kraken will need to bear down and make certain they come away with two points in the standings Saturday.
Philipp Grubauer is getting the nod in goal once again. We dig into this decision a bit more below.
Power play remedy?
Morgan Geekie was shifted to the left halfwall on the power play in Thursday’s 5-2 Kraken win over the Buffalo Sabres. Seattle still didn’t score on the man advantage that night and are now 30th in the league in this category, clicking at a miserable 8.33 percent. But Geekie’s first-period goal came just seconds after a Sabres penalty had ended, when Seattle was still clearly in power play mode.
The reason it’s notable that Geekie was on the left side is that he was already opened up and ready to fire when an Alex Wennberg pass through the seam found him in the left circle. Previously, when he was on the right side, he had to circle around the puck before he could shoot. We like this setup a lot more, as it puts one of the Kraken’s biggest cannons in a position to get the puck away with less time for the goalie to come across.
Keep a close eye on Seattle’s power play Saturday to see if it can finally break through and start improving on those dismal numbers.
By the way, Geekie brought the house down after practice on Friday. You must watch this if you haven’t already.
During preseason, we saw Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz, and Jared McCann (the J’s) form impressive chemistry. As the team struggled to score in the early parts of the season, coach Dave Hakstol started mixing things up to try to find a new formula, then McCann went into Covid protocol.
On Thursday, Schwartz and Eberle were put back together halfway through the game, with Wennberg in the middle. Collectively, the group took off offensively, as Eberle potted the first hat trick in team history and Schwartz added an empty netter and assisted on two of Eberle’s goals.
It goes without saying that the trio will be back together on Saturday.
What’s the deal with Seattle’s goalie usage?
Hakstol confirmed that Grubauer will start again on Saturday for Seattle, which will bring him to 10 starts in 12 games for the team. There is some context to consider here, because Chris Driedger was out with a knee injury from Oct. 18 until earlier this week, and they’re being careful with him. Nonetheless, Hakstol has really been deploying Grubauer as a true No. 1 netminder, rather than rotating him with Driedger or—in Driedger’s absence—Daccord.
We did not expect this to be the case entering the season, especially with a guy like Driedger on the roster. After all, he stole the net away from Sergei Bobrovsky for good chunks of last season with Florida, and Bobrovsky makes $10 million a year.
We asked Hakstol this week if we might see more of a shift toward a platoon as the season progresses. “That’s not a prediction that I want to make as we go forward,” he said. “Too many things change in the short term from injuries to performance to the different segments of the schedule.
“The rhythm that we’ve had Phil in has been comfortable. We’ve had good practice time over the last two weeks here. We’ve had a pretty good rhythm in terms of rest and days off, and the games for—whether it’s Chris or in the case of the last couple weeks Joey to step in and play—will be very important. In terms of the numbers of [starts], I don’t have a prediction for you on that right now.”
So, that doesn’t sound like a shift toward more consistent rotation is coming any time soon.
It’s not how we expected things to shake out, but leaning on one guy is still very normal in the NHL. A look at netminder usage around the league confirms this.
Only the New Jersey Devils are excluded from the above graphic because none of their goalies have started more than 50 percent of their games.
Arizona Coyotes
After the Coyotes missed last season’s playoffs for the seventh time in eight tries, Rick Tocchet was replaced in the offseason by Andre Tourigny. Tourigny, a former NHL assistant coach, head coach of the Ottawa 67’s, and head coach of Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, certainly did not foresee the first 10 games of his tenure going this badly.
It’s also not a huge surprise, though. Arizona demonstrated that it was ready for an even deeper tank mode than before when it traded Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland to Vancouver for the No. 9 overall pick in this past draft, plus Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel.
Seriously, the Coyotes have been terrible. They rank last in the NHL in goals for with 14 and are in a league of their own there, seven goals behind the next-worst club in Dallas. Clayton Keller leads the team in goals with a whopping three, while Phil Kessel, Arizona’s other top scorer, has just one on the season.
Defensively, they aren’t much better, ranking second-to-last in goals allowed with 44. That’s three better than the 32nd-ranked team, Chicago, who fired coach Jeremy Colliton on Saturday.
A bad offense plus a bad defense do not make a winning team.
The one concern for the Kraken against the Coyotes is that they have had a hard time finishing on their many, MANY chances this season, and Karel Vejmelka—the starting goalie for Arizona—has been better than his 0-7-1 record would indicate.
Believe it or not, Vejmelka has so far turned in a very respectable .920 save percentage and 2.60 goals against average. He has only given up more than three goals one time this season, and that came against the first-place Edmonton Oilers on a two-goal night for Connor McDavid. The most crooked numbers, which have skewed Arizona’s team stats, have come on nights when Carter Hutton or Ivan Prosvetov have started.
Making things tougher for the lowly Coyotes is that they are on the second of back-to-backs after losing 3-1 Friday in Anaheim.
Projected lineup
Marcus Johansson, Colin Blackwell, and Mason Appleton remain on injured reserve, though Johansson and Blackwell both skated with the team at practice for the first time on Friday.
Our good friend Brian Liesse took some incredible photos of the Seattle Kraken’s 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. We wanted to showcase a few of them.
Pre-game at Climate Pledge Arena (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Jordan Eberle’s name on LED board (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Fans at Climate Pledge Arena (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Fans at Climate Pledge Arena (Photo/Brian Liesse)
Fans celebrate a goal at Climate Pledge Arena
Philipp Grubauer
Mark Giordano
Jordan Eberle celebrates a goal
Max McCormick
Brandon Tanev
Calle Jarnkrok battles with Vinnie Hinostroza
Brandon Tanev with fresh stitches
Yanni Gourde tries a wraparound
Joonas Donskoi goes down
Yanni Gourde
Jamie Oleksiak
Kraken goal celebration
Kraken goal celebration
Kraken goal celebration
Jaden Schwartz
Kraken crowd
All photos taken by Brian Liesse. They may not be re-used without consent of Sound Of Hockey.
The Kraken were playing a preseason game against the Calgary Flames in Kent, Wash., and Chris Driedger was in net for Seattle. Partway through the third period, he made a butterfly save and got a whistle. We watched him do a little twirl to the corner and return to his crease. There, he banged his stick on the posts a couple times, then reached over his right shoulder with that stick and touched the back bar of the net.
Many goalies skate to the corner and bang their posts, but that over-the-shoulder move is unique. We couldn’t help wondering why he was doing that, and how that routine started for Driedger. So we asked. And we learned a lot more about his psyche along the way.
Goaltending is a fickle beast
The goaltending position in hockey is a fickle beast. You can come into a game feeling on top of the world, thinking you’re ready to stop everything thrown at you, and within minutes of the opening face-off, you can fall so deep into the abyss of your own thoughts that you don’t believe you’ll ever stop another shot.
This is why some goalies who are talented and physically gifted do not make it to high levels. You can have the lightning-quick reflexes and ballet-like flexibility that is required of professional goalies. But if you don’t have the mental fortitude to quickly shake off a bad goal or a bad night, you will not come close to reaching those levels.
It’s that mental fortitude that separates the good from the great.
We recently chatted with Kraken netminder Joey Daccord on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, and he was forthcoming with what happens in his mind before and during games. You can hear this topic discussed at length starting around the 27-minute mark of the episode below.
Daccord and Driedger have spent the last few summers training together in the Boston area, where Daccord’s dad, Brian—a goaltending guru who also works for the Arizona Coyotes—owns and operates the “Stop It Goaltending” school.
If you notice any similarities between what Driedger and Daccord do to keep themselves in the moment, it is not a coincidence. This is something they discuss at length as part of their offseason training because the mind is just as important to a netminder as the body.`
Inside the mind of Chris Driedger
Driedger does not aim to stay focused on what is happening in the game. Instead, he tries to keep his mind completely clear throughout. No thoughts, no distractions.
But he also knows that keeping the brain from wandering over the course of a long hockey game is easier said than done, so he employs several tactics to allow him to get back to “flowing,” as he calls it. We’ve all seen goalies skate to the corners during stoppages in play, and while it looks to the casual fan like they might just be bored, Driedger says there’s a mental benefit to doing that.
Kraken goalie Chris Driedger tries to stop Jack Rathbone of the Vancouver Canucks (Photo/Brian Liesse)
“It’s just a routine that you don’t have to think about and gives you a mental break. You don’t have to focus at all. You get a little cool air in your face, which feels phenomenal because obviously you’re pretty hot in your gear.”
When Driedger returns from his jaunt, he goes through his post-hitting routine, which is so common amongst his goalie brethren. But he adds that unique flourish by touching the back bar of the net with the toe of his stick blade. So where does that come from?
Local fans may recognize that move from the repertoire of a former Seattle Thunderbird.
“I think I actually copied another goalie from Winnipeg when I was probably 12 years old,” Driedger explains. “Calvin Pickard is from Winnipeg, and I think I saw him doing it, and he was the man growing up. I’m two years younger than him, and he was playing AAA or whatever… That was his routine, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool, let me try it.’”
Routines, not superstitions
Driedger uses a comparable mantra to Daccord when it comes to his pre-game preparation.
Daccord tries to think of the things he does as “routines,” rather than “superstitions.” As he mentioned on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, when you have superstitions and something happens on gameday that doesn’t allow you to complete one of your regular steps, that can have a huge impact on your performance because it throws you off mentally. That’s why Daccord thinks of them as routines, because not doing something on a given night or doing something slightly out of order really means nothing in the scheme of things.
Driedger has a good explanation for why this shift in thinking is important. “If you don’t do a routine, it’s not like a night ruiner. One game in Florida two seasons ago, we had Luongo’s retirement ceremony. The communication was kind of weird, so we got to the rink, and they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, by the way, you guys need to be dressed [and ready for] warm-ups in 30 minutes.’”
Chris Driedger makes a save on a teammate at Kraken practice (Photo/Brian Liesse)
An event like that could push a goalie over the edge. They’ll typically get to the arena hours in advance and have plenty of time to go through their rituals, get dressed at a leisurely pace, and prepare their minds for battle. That night, Driedger did not have that luxury, but it still wasn’t enough to destroy his mental state for the game.
“If you have superstitions, rather than routines, and you don’t do them, you let it [get to you]. ‘Oh, no, I didn’t juggle before the game, are my hands going to be good?’ That’s a negative thought and it’s not going to help you.”
Of course, Driedger tries to complete all his regular routines before each game, but sometimes things are out of his control. Knowing that and knowing that the world will not end if he skips a step or two helps him be ready even on nights when things go haywire.
The slippery slope of the slump and how to avoid it
Slumps for a goalie can come from nowhere. One bad goal leads to a bad game, and a bad game can lead to a bad week. Then suddenly you’re viewed as “struggling,” and nothing you do seems to work to get yourself back on track.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a slippery slope when you start over-thinking,” Driedger says. “At its core, it just comes down to your confidence in yourself. And if you let in a goal, whether it’s a good goal or a bad goal… obviously bad goals are harder to cope with mentally. I tell myself when I let in a bad goal, ‘That’s a bad goal, but I don’t let those in very often.’”
For Driedger, knowing that bad goals are a rare event helps him shake them off quickly. But even he acknowledges that it’s easy to let doubt creep in when pucks get through that he knows he should have stopped.
“If you go the other way and you say, ‘Oh, shoot, that’s a bad goal, maybe I’m not ready for this,’ or ‘Maybe this isn’t my night, maybe I’m not feeling good.’ That’s negative self-talk that just snowballs throughout the night, and then all of a sudden—we talked about having a clear mind—your mind’s not clear if you’re doubting yourself.”
Bad goals go in sometimes, even when a goalie is playing with confidence. But if he can put it out of mind quickly and move on, knowing it doesn’t happen often, Driedger believes he can nip it in the bud before it grows into a real problem his mind.
Training the mind
Much like the body, the goaltender’s mind needs many years of training to prepare it for the top echelons of hockey. There are different methods to get the mind into tip-top shape, and with every goalie being different, not every method works for every individual.
For Driedger, he credits a sports psychologist that he visited when he was playing in the WHL for the Calgary Hitmen for putting him on the right track. He first reached out to the psychologist because he had started the season poorly and wanted to improve the mental side of his game. Scheduling challenges allowed months to go by, and by the time he finally met the psychologist, things had turned around on their own.
At that point, Driedger had started playing outstanding hockey, so he wondered if he needed to have the meeting at all. He decided to go through with the appointment, but it did not have the intended effect.
“I started using [the psychologist], and now I’m thinking [during the game] about these mental strategies that he was telling me. And my game drops because I’m thinking about them rather than just flowing with it,” Driedger recalls. “But long term, it was invaluable to work with this guy. He was incredible, but just in the short term—it takes a little bit of time to make the processes feel natural, and then you go through some growing pains.”
Of course, that wasn’t the end of the story for Driedger. It’s a never-ending process to strengthen his mind as he continues to strive to be the best goalie he can be. “That’s got to be eight or nine or 10 years ago now. So it’s good to get those things out of the way early, and you can kind of do more refinement as you get older and further along into your career.”
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
