Confirmed with Link: Jets sign Hellebuyck to 1 year $2.25M contract

[Whileee]

Most big blocking goaltenders go through some growing pains in the NHL before (if) they solidify themselves as good NHL goaltenders. The shooters are simply too good for the goalies to be able to play a pure blocking style. It appears that Hellebuyck is changing his style slightly to be a bit more aggressive, and has changed his glove positioning slightly. He still looks similar to what he did in previous seasons (not last season, where he started losing his playing style as the season progressed), but he's playing it in a way he has to to stop NHL players.

An obvious improvement with Hellebuyck this season is his glove hand. He's much more confident and sure with it. He used to sort of block shots with it, now he catches with confidence. He's also much better with rebound control. Very encouraging.

 

[Bob E]

An obvious improvement with Hellebuyck this season is his glove hand. He's much more confident and sure with it. He used to sort of block shots with it, now he catches with confidence. He's also much better with rebound control. Very encouraging.

Agreed. So far he’s done very well.

I hope Mason plays at a similar level. This team will be hard to beat.

 

[10Ducky10]

I wanted Halak too but Mason is fine.

 

[Limeyjim]

Mason is fine.[/QUOTE]

Mason will begin blaming his defense when he let's in bad goals, costing his team with loses. He has a way of looking toward the ceiling when he lets in a particularly bad goal, but never takes credit for it.
The Flyers are playing with more confidence, and the defense is playing much better in front of Elliott.
Mason will be cancer in the room, trust me.

 

[Evil Little]

Mason will begin blaming his defense when he let's in bad goals, costing his team with loses. He has a way of looking toward the ceiling when he lets in a particularly bad goal, but never takes credit for it.
The Flyers are playing with more confidence, and the defense is playing much better in front of Elliott.
Mason will be cancer in the room, trust me.

Aren't there enough stories out there without tardises such as yourself making shit up?

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

Flyers fan here. Elliot is exact opposite of calm, composed tender who would instill a confidence in his play. I would trade Mason for him straight up.

 

[Evil Little]

Flyers fan here. Elliot is exact opposite of calm, composed tender who would instill a confidence in his play. I would trade Mason for him straight up.

I don't understand.

1) Elliott is the opposite of calm and you would trade him for Mason straight-up?

or

2) Elliott is the opposite of Mason--calm--and you would trade Mason for him if you could?

 

[Romang67]

View attachment 80691

Strong username to post correlation.

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

I don't understand.

1) Elliott is the opposite of calm and you would trade him for Mason straight-up?

or

2) Elliott is the opposite of Mason--calm--and you would trade Mason for him if you could?

1)

Other than penchant for giving up weak goals Mason is legit starter once he gets going..

 

[AWSAA]

They can't afford to have Mason backup next year if Helle is getting paid starter money.

 

[Unholy goalie]

Here's my take on the "new Helle".

I don't think he's ready to take over as #1 just yet, and I'd prefer him to keep snagging wins as a backup while he cements some technical and physical changes, but if Mason can't climb back to his average I don't mind Helle taking on more games.

I think Helle has improved, for reasons that aren't necessarily congruent with his own self-assessment, but the proof is in the pudding. THIS save against Vancouver nearly had me jump out of my seat with joy, because I finally saw an important technical change

We can see Boeser tee up a shot from atop the hashmarks: Helle's nightmare zone that I've commented on extensively regarding his glove. But here he does something different! As he drops to make the save he uses a hybrid set position, specifically keeping his left pad up, forcing his glove hand to stay up! In one of my other posts I mentioned that if Helle wanted to keep his lower glove position he would need to maintain more active hands, or adopt this more hybrid style. I used Lundqvist as the only example of a goaltender that I've seen who has been really successful at this. And the similarity between Helle's save above and Lundqvist's type of save below is a very exciting improvement.

Even though the above save by Helle led to a rebound and PP goal, I was really excited as this is a positive sign of meaningful improvement. Connor himself, and the media, have started to talk about how he doesn't "go down" as much, but in truth I think that his adoption of this more hybrid style will indirectly improve his glove hand by forcing it to remain up as his body goes down (thus avoiding the major weakness in his glove position over the last two seasons).

Now.. Helle hasn't quite mastered this yet, and he has let in some stereotypical goals as last year. There are still examples of his previous play, such as on this breakaway against Minny:

Here Ferraro has a golden opportunity to score, and he's chosen to make a shot around the hash-marks which is Helle's achilles heel. I would prefer that Helle keep his glove slightly higher, though I like how it is more forward from his body. His glove, as it is, is not covering as much net from the puck as he thinks it is as we can see in the next frame:

At the moment of release we can see (in red) how Ferraro could have shelved this puck, forcing Helle to bring his arm upwards in a very difficult manor. A hybrid style save as the one he made above on Boeser could have helped and given him a chance, but I don't like this look. The green shows almost the entire top half open, though not necessarily all accessible from the puck's point of view. Thankfully Ferraro filled his gloves with cement and shot the puck into Helle's abdomen (in blue).

In the same game, we see Stewart with a great opportunity from the same dangerous spot:

Helle is playing a bit low here.. probably because he is anticipating a possible lateral move in case of a pass. Stewart was definitely selling the pass on this play. Nonetheless, his glove is still a bit low here for comfort. Had Stewart passed, Helle's glove would have sat on top of his pad as he would have needed to move laterally in butterfly position. The whole top half of the net would have been open. Stewart still has a good shot at the top corner, glove side, but Helle's positioning in this case takes much of that away since his torso is pretty square to the puck. This would be a way to positionally compensate for a lower glove as he would be relying on his shoulders to make the save in the event of a top corner shot. I don't like this look though, because I think Helle is this far over because he anticipates a pass, not because he's consciously using his frame to take away the glove side. Thankfully Stewart didn't test this theory out and opted for a 5-hole shot.

I think that Helle should keep rolling with the new hybrid style glove-side saves, and could benefit by consistently raising his glove up a bit more. Good things happen when he keeps his glove up, like in the game against Carolina:

This save got a huge cheer after Slavin undressed Tanev for a slap shot in Helle's no-no-zone. What is great here is that although he drops into a full butterfly, his glove position (in green) stays level and then moves up, despite his body moving down into butterfly (Blue line is just relative position of the post for comparison). Helle adds a little windmill action on the end of this for added flair, and the crowd eats it up. Even without the showmanship, this was a good example of proper glove technique in exactly the situation Helle struggled with last year.

But wait! There's more!

One other important part of all of this is the concept of "active hands". Helle is still keeping his glove low at times, but he is moving it forward and is also extending it purposefully in various directions to make saves. A good example of this is in the game against Minny:

Here Helle is battling a nasty screen. Instead of dropping into butterfly and waiting for the puck to get to him (hopefully somewhere on his body), he gets his glove out and actively catches the puck well in front of his body. The importance of this cannot be understated. Getting after the puck instead of waiting for it to hit you or reach your body will always give a better chance of a successful save. This is a very welcome change to Helle's game as he was more of a "set it and forget it" type of goalie in the past, thinking that he could just quickly square up and then the puck would hit him.

Although Helle is still demonstrating some previous technical flaws, his improvement this year has been largely due to the inclusion of hybrid style glove saves, sometimes higher glove position, and more active hands. This is why IMO Helle should continue to develop in a backup role where he can spend more time repping the things above that are giving him more success. Let him build up his muscle memory and technical responses in practice situations so that he can succeed in games intermittently. If he has a bad game, no worry, he can always use his time away from starts to work on something or continue solidifying technical improvements through increased reps. We should not succumb to the temptation to ride the hot hand because, as he is exposed to more of those dangerous shots in high pressure situations, he will regress back to older technique. Helle's potential could finally be realised this season, leading to a breakout year as a starter next season, as long as we don't burn him out thinking that he's ready to take the reins from Mason.

I'll get to Mason more fully another time, but we should use him as a starter and help him understand that he doesn't need to cover for the defence. If we try to make up for Mason's woes by using Helle more, we're going to run this team out of the playoffs for sure.

 

[Romang67]

Above is an obscenely good post. If you scrolled by it because it was too long, scroll up and read it.

 

[Aavco Cup]

Above is an obscenely good post. If you scrolled by it because it was too long, scroll up and read it.

I feel like I just read goaltending for dummies and I'll admit I'm very unknowlegeable (a dummy) when it comes to this subject.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Here's my take on the "new Helle".

I don't think he's ready to take over as #1 just yet, and I'd prefer him to keep snagging wins as a backup while he cements some technical and physical changes, but if Mason can't climb back to his average I don't mind Helle taking on more games.

Post of the year!

 

[Evil Little]

Good shit Unholy.

Did you notice any hint of the hybrid last year? I ask because I have a sneaking suspicion any improvements will be credited to his Francilia, even though I think it would be considered quite inappropriate to adjust his game mechanics away from Flaherty.

 

[Unholy goalie]

Aw shucks, thanks guys!

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

https://thefirstintermission.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/the-real-top-10-nhl-goaltenders/

Check out the name on number 9.

 

[grieves]

Here's my take on the "new Helle".

Wow, that was awesome to read and to get a glimpse of what kind of things a goalie needs to take into consideration.

How can Flaherty still keep his job after this development? This has to be a slap in the face professionally and a wake-up call for the team?

Very interested to see what you have to say about Mason. In my opinion, he has not been as bad as the numbers suggest and I am not yet worried about him. I don't know if I should be, but I'm not feeling it yet. Give the man more starts so he can start improving those numbers.

 

[Whileee]

https://thefirstintermission.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/the-real-top-10-nhl-goaltenders/

Check out the name on number 9.

Must be bogus methodology. No way Chevy would have signed Mason if it was a smart decision.

 

[jets2020champs]

Here's my take on the "new Helle".

I don't think he's ready to take over as #1 just yet, and I'd prefer him to keep snagging wins as a backup while he cements some technical and physical changes, but if Mason can't climb back to his average I don't mind Helle taking on more games.

I think Helle has improved, for reasons that aren't necessarily congruent with his own self-assessment, but the proof is in the pudding. THIS save against Vancouver nearly had me jump out of my seat with joy, because I finally saw an important technical change

We can see Boeser tee up a shot from atop the hashmarks: Helle's nightmare zone that I've commented on extensively regarding his glove. But here he does something different! As he drops to make the save he uses a hybrid set position, specifically keeping his left pad up, forcing his glove hand to stay up! In one of my other posts I mentioned that if Helle wanted to keep his lower glove position he would need to maintain more active hands, or adopt this more hybrid style. I used Lundqvist as the only example of a goaltender that I've seen who has been really successful at this. And the similarity between Helle's save above and Lundqvist's type of save below is a very exciting improvement.

Even though the above save by Helle led to a rebound and PP goal, I was really excited as this is a positive sign of meaningful improvement. Connor himself, and the media, have started to talk about how he doesn't "go down" as much, but in truth I think that his adoption of this more hybrid style will indirectly improve his glove hand by forcing it to remain up as his body goes down (thus avoiding the major weakness in his glove position over the last two seasons).

Now.. Helle hasn't quite mastered this yet, and he has let in some stereotypical goals as last year. There are still examples of his previous play, such as on this breakaway against Minny:

Here Ferraro has a golden opportunity to score, and he's chosen to make a shot around the hash-marks which is Helle's achilles heel. I would prefer that Helle keep his glove slightly higher, though I like how it is more forward from his body. His glove, as it is, is not covering as much net from the puck as he thinks it is as we can see in the next frame:

At the moment of release we can see (in red) how Ferraro could have shelved this puck, forcing Helle to bring his arm upwards in a very difficult manor. A hybrid style save as the one he made above on Boeser could have helped and given him a chance, but I don't like this look. The green shows almost the entire top half open, though not necessarily all accessible from the puck's point of view. Thankfully Ferraro filled his gloves with cement and shot the puck into Helle's abdomen (in blue).

In the same game, we see Stewart with a great opportunity from the same dangerous spot:

Helle is playing a bit low here.. probably because he is anticipating a possible lateral move in case of a pass. Stewart was definitely selling the pass on this play. Nonetheless, his glove is still a bit low here for comfort. Had Stewart passed, Helle's glove would have sat on top of his pad as he would have needed to move laterally in butterfly position. The whole top half of the net would have been open. Stewart still has a good shot at the top corner, glove side, but Helle's positioning in this case takes much of that away since his torso is pretty square to the puck. This would be a way to positionally compensate for a lower glove as he would be relying on his shoulders to make the save in the event of a top corner shot. I don't like this look though, because I think Helle is this far over because he anticipates a pass, not because he's consciously using his frame to take away the glove side. Thankfully Stewart didn't test this theory out and opted for a 5-hole shot.

I think that Helle should keep rolling with the new hybrid style glove-side saves, and could benefit by consistently raising his glove up a bit more. Good things happen when he keeps his glove up, like in the game against Carolina:

This save got a huge cheer after Slavin undressed Tanev for a slap shot in Helle's no-no-zone. What is great here is that although he drops into a full butterfly, his glove position (in green) stays level and then moves up, despite his body moving down into butterfly (Blue line is just relative position of the post for comparison). Helle adds a little windmill action on the end of this for added flair, and the crowd eats it up. Even without the showmanship, this was a good example of proper glove technique in exactly the situation Helle struggled with last year.

But wait! There's more!

One other important part of all of this is the concept of "active hands". Helle is still keeping his glove low at times, but he is moving it forward and is also extending it purposefully in various directions to make saves. A good example of this is in the game against Minny:

Here Helle is battling a nasty screen. Instead of dropping into butterfly and waiting for the puck to get to him (hopefully somewhere on his body), he gets his glove out and actively catches the puck well in front of his body. The importance of this cannot be understated. Getting after the puck instead of waiting for it to hit you or reach your body will always give a better chance of a successful save. This is a very welcome change to Helle's game as he was more of a "set it and forget it" type of goalie in the past, thinking that he could just quickly square up and then the puck would hit him.

Although Helle is still demonstrating some previous technical flaws, his improvement this year has been largely due to the inclusion of hybrid style glove saves, sometimes higher glove position, and more active hands. This is why IMO Helle should continue to develop in a backup role where he can spend more time repping the things above that are giving him more success. Let him build up his muscle memory and technical responses in practice situations so that he can succeed in games intermittently. If he has a bad game, no worry, he can always use his time away from starts to work on something or continue solidifying technical improvements through increased reps. We should not succumb to the temptation to ride the hot hand because, as he is exposed to more of those dangerous shots in high pressure situations, he will regress back to older technique. Helle's potential could finally be realised this season, leading to a breakout year as a starter next season, as long as we don't burn him out thinking that he's ready to take the reins from Mason.

I'll get to Mason more fully another time, but we should use him as a starter and help him understand that he doesn't need to cover for the defence. If we try to make up for Mason's woes by using Helle more, we're going to run this team out of the playoffs for sure.

There’s one thing that I absolutely disagree with this post.

You should get to Mason more fully now and not another time. Non of these Korean drama, leaving you hanging until next time stuff.

Great post btw!!!! Thanks.

 

[Neuf]

Good for Bucky to get serious and find a goalie coach that can help. This reflects poorly on Flaherty.

 

[Evil Little]

I have a sneaking suspicion any improvements will be credited to his Francilia, even though I think it would be considered quite inappropriate to adjust his game mechanics away from Flaherty.

Aaaaaaand:

How can Flaherty still keep his job after this development? This has to be a slap in the face professionally and a wake-up call for the team?

Good for Bucky to get serious and find a goalie coach that can help. This reflects poorly on Flaherty.

We've wasted no time, I see.

What makes you two think Hellebuyck's changes were instituted by his self-professed “sports performance coach” (in Friedman's words, a personal trainer who also deals with nutrition and mental health) as opposed to his goaltending coach?

I know it's fashionable to shit on Flaherty, but my assumption is that he's the only one making changes this significant to Hellebuyck's game.

https://thefirstintermission.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/the-real-top-10-nhl-goaltenders/


Check out the name on number 9.

Hey, I loved the Mason signing, I just didn't know which way you were going considering we'd just had another Flyer fan drive by to spout nonsense about him being a cancer in the room.

 

[grieves]

Aaaaaaand:





We've wasted no time, I see.

What makes you two think Hellebuyck's changes were instituted by his self-professed “sports performance coach” (in Friedman's words, a personal trainer who also deals with nutrition and mental health) as opposed to his goaltending coach?

I know it's fashionable to **** on Flaherty, but my assumption is that he's the only one making changes this significant to Hellebuyck's game.



Hey, I loved the Mason signing, I just didn't know which way you were going considering we'd just had another Flyer fan drive by to spout nonsense about him being a cancer in the room.

I have no clue in this area, nor about Flaherty. I thought this was common knowledge as I've read it so many times. I absolutely take it back if I'm talking out of my behind.

 

[Eyeseeing]

Aaaaaaand:





We've wasted no time, I see.

What makes you two think Hellebuyck's changes were instituted by his self-professed “sports performance coach” (in Friedman's words, a personal trainer who also deals with nutrition and mental health) as opposed to his goaltending coach?

I know it's fashionable to **** on Flaherty, but my assumption is that he's the only one making changes this significant to Hellebuyck's game.



.

So you are both assuming then..
I only hope whoever or whatever it is.... continues.
I don’t want to get too high or too low.
I think Hutch rocked a .935 unti the All Star break that playoff year.
This board myself included jump to conclusions way too fast in some cases... not all

 

[Unholy goalie]

Good **** Unholy.

Did you notice any hint of the hybrid last year? I ask because I have a sneaking suspicion any improvements will be credited to his Francilia, even though I think it would be considered quite inappropriate to adjust his game mechanics away from Flaherty.

I didn't notice it. In fact, part of what bothered me last year is that Helle consistently dropped into butterfly without changing anything else, expecting the puck to hit him. This was frustrating because he thought, erroneously, that his glove was taking away net from the point of view of the puck so the low position should work. This is technically true while standing, but not at all true when dropping to butterfly and keeping the glove tight to the pad.

He was getting away with it up until the NHL because he was pretty good at squaring up his big frame to the puck so his shoulders would do the work his hands should.

As far as Francilia is concerned, it was definitely a good move for him although he may not be totally aware why. In his Net360 spot, it was mentioned that the conditioning and mechanics that he worked on allowed him to be more in control of his movements so that he didn't have to just drop his body like a sack of wet potatoes every time he wanted to make a save. I think Helle expected this to really help him move laterally so he could get back to squaring up without having to think about the glove, but in reality it has given him the strength to try out this more hybrid approach. His arms, shoulders, and core are also stronger which allow him to be more active with his hands.

His time with Francilia was really about conditioning, so I don't think it was stepping on Flaherty's toes. I'm happy though that it has helped Helle find ways around previous coaching and technique.

Good for Bucky to get serious and find a goalie coach that can help. This reflects poorly on Flaherty.

Depends I suppose on how much Flaherty has helped Connor since his return from summer. My guess is not much, and Flats has certainly proven before this that he shouldn't have a job here, so imo any success Helle finds will likely be largely in spite of what Flaherty is trying to contribute. I've already soured on Flaherty so I might not be too fair about it at this point..