Goaltending and Environment: Kevin Woodley of InGoal Magazine on the Instigator Podcast

[Archie Lee]

I hope the link below works.  It is to a recent Instigators podcast (Sabre fan podcast).  The guest is Kevin Woodley of InGoal magazine and NHL.com.  He breaks down the goalie situation in Buffalo.  Woodley gets his advanced stats from Clear Sight Analytics.  I believe the host is Chris Ostrander, who I think does a fine job.

https://t.co/Rc1b9zrLa7

I highly recommend listening to anyone interested in understanding the impact of environment on goaltenders.

To summarize, Woodley explains why the environment in Buffalo has been terrible for goalies.  Last season the Sabres finished in the bottom 1/3 in pretty much all defensive areas that impact scoring chances. Further, they were 30th in the NHL in the critical area of preventing cross-ice scoring chances. Woodley references what he believes is the cumulative impact on a goaltender that comes from playing in that environment. A goalie who is being leaned on to start at a 65 game pace (UPL last year), playing in such an environment is likely to have it negatively impact his performance. A goalie can't trust what is happening in front of him and starts to cheat on cross-ice passes, which leads to disaster. Woodley has some good anecdotes on Lehner and Comrie that illustrate how the environment has been an issue in Buffalo for many years. He also explains why it has little to do with how talented your defensemen are, and everything to do with system and structure, starting with the forwards.

As well, Woodley provides interesting stuff on Dustin Wolf's game and how Levi might (or might not) benefit from implementing some changes that Wolf made. And there is a brief discussion on how the Sabres might manage Ratzaff and Leinonen this season; playing in the ECHL can be a very chaotic environment for young goalies who are often sent there without the necessary coaching support (and he is clear that he thinks highly of Sabre development coach Seamus Kotyk and that he is certain Kotyk has a plan to address this). 

Again, a good listen for the dog days of the off-season. 

[PromoTheRobot]

Thanks for posting. I was going to as well. Really drove home the point that what goes on in front of the goalie matters as much as the goalie. The Eric Comrie story was telling. Let's hope the Sabres defensive moves fix this issue.

Edited 2 hours ago by PromoTheRobot

[PerreaultForever]

So the short blunt version would be - D has sucked for years in Buffalo.

[PromoTheRobot]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

So the short blunt version would be - D has sucked for years in Buffalo.

Every "dud" Sabres goalie magically gets better when they leave. There's a reason. Also D includes the forwards.

[Big Guava]

4 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Every "dud" Sabres goalie magically gets better when they leave. There's a reason. Also D includes the forwards.

I mean except during the early tank years where the goalies almost cost us from playing so well.

[PromoTheRobot]

24 minutes ago, Big Guava said:

I mean except during the early tank years where the goalies almost cost us from playing so well.

Turns out beating Arizona would have been the better move.

Edited 1 hour ago by PromoTheRobot

[JohnC]

I wasn't able to read the link. But from the comments that have been made the underlying issue/question is whether our blueline unit is better with the additions made this offseason. Will the additions of Kesserling and Simmons upgrade the unit? If Kesserling becomes I suitable partner for Power, I think it will be an upgrade to that Power pairing. Will keeping Byram instead of trading him add to the unit? I would say yes. And will Samuelsson get healthy, regain his confidence and stabilize his game? As a third pairing player I think that would be a better situation for him. Will a Byrum/Dahling coupling turn out to be an upper echelon #1 pairing? With Dahlin it should be. On paper, the hope is that we will have three pairings where the players are slotted where they should be and not above what they are capable of.