Seymon Varlamov (2015 edition)

[Tweaky]

Just wanted to get the discussion started. It may be a bit early to pile on him yet, but his play has been lacking so far this year. I do not want this to be a bashing thread, so I will try to post most of the negative stuff myself, and we can move on from there.

Stat line after 5 games:

GP|GS|Min|W|L|OTL|EGA|GA|GAA|SA|SV|SV%|SO
5|5|275|1|3|1|0|18|3.93|137|119|.869|0

He has had one great game, one fair game, and three bad ones.

His play has exhibited some tendencies both old and new that are troubling. His puck tracking is off, his rebound control is bad, his glove hand is weak, he is not sealing the 5-hole, he cannot handle the puck and his positioning is inconsistent. There may be other issues that more goaltender focused observers can identify.

His stats are scary. Someone said in a recent GDT that his play is not Vezina caliber this year. I feel it could be argued that his play has not been NHL caliber. A 0.869 Sv% is terrible.
Even with the small sample size, we can extrapolate how being various levels better would be:
.900 (IMO minimum for an NHL caliber goalie) = 4 fewer goals (actually .898),
.920 (mid way between his career average and last year) = 7 fewer goals
.927 (nearest whole number to his best year) = 8 fewer goals.
.934 (nearest whole number to Vezina winners avg last 5 years) = half as many goals.

To combat the overall negative tone to this, let me say I fully expect him to turn it around. I do not want Berra to be the starter. I do not want Picks called up to platoon. I do feel that Berra could take a bit more of the load until Varly is back on top of his game. But even that concerns me, due to trust issues.

And, yes, we can blame some of it on the defense. But the defense this year is NOT any worse than last year, or the year before. Same number of shots, same distribution...just more goals.

As I said, it is early, but this thread was going to come up eventually, so may as well get it started. Now I would like to get some suggestions on how he could do better.

I have said my piece, discuss.
(Hey, an excuse to quit bashing Duchene)

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[CB Joe]

He has been one of the worst players for the Avs this year but I fully expect him to turn it around.

 

[InjuredChoker]

not tracking the puck well. bad rebound control.

he will get better than this but if he doesn't have season like the past two, avs are going to lose a lot of games.

 

[StayAtHomeAv]

Varly is like the corner prostitute. He just doesn't know how to keep his freakin legs closed. These 5hole goals are unacceptable.

Dude really needs to get his head out of his ass. We are not going anywhere with a weak goalie.

 

[WhitePony]

I'm sure the team is seriously considering giving Berra more of this weeks starts at this point.

 

[dahrougem2]

I'm sure the team is seriously considering giving Berra more of this weeks starts at this point.

As they should, Berra played very well in his two games

 

[tigervixxxen]

Considering the have a b2b they definitely have to.

 

[Avs_19]

Not good enough thus far but still near the bottom of my list of concerns.

 

[AslanRH]

He's definitely regressed in his tracking and more importantly, rebounds, but he is still far better than most of what we've dealt with over the years.

I'm not nearly as worried about Varly helping the Avs win moving forward as I am about a couple of our other core pieces.

 

[Foppa2118]

I don't think this should be an excuse, and I like the direction they've taken to block more shots, but part of me wonders how much of an effect this had had on his poor games so far? He's always been very outspoken about wanting to see the puck as much as possible, and they've always cleared lanes in order for him to do so.

I wonder how much of this new approach has to do with him not tracking pucks well, and letting out bad rebounds because he's picking the puck up late.

 

[Ivan13]

I don't think this should be an excuse, and I like the direction they've taken to block more shots, but part of me wonders how much of an effect this had had on his poor games so far? He's always been very outspoken about wanting to see the puck as much as possible, and they've always cleared lanes in order for him to do so.

I wonder how much of this new approach has to do with him not tracking pucks well, and letting out bad rebounds because he's picking the puck up late.

Every goalie wants that.

 

[Foppa2118]

Every goalie wants that.

Not every goalie has wanted it so much that he got his D men to jump out of the shooting lanes when the shot was coming. Price is another guy who's done that.

 

[Ivan13]

Not every goalie has wanted it so much that he got his D men to stay out of the shooting lanes. Price is another guy who's done that.

Beating a goalie from the point without a screen is a tough task, I'd rather have a clear sight line to the puck all the time than guy flopping around the ice, of course having clear sight lines doesn't mean you play off of points (which the Avs sadly do), ideally you press them to prevent shots or make them as hard as possible.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

Not worried. Better goalies then Varly have had slow starts then finished off the year strong.

 

[McMetal]

Yes, he's stumbling, and the idea that our bedrock player is springing leaks is pretty frightening, but I think he's going to pick it back up. Maybe his groin's bothering him again and pulling him down. And at least Berra is playing pretty well when he's in. The only way anybody could argue that we need to move on from him at age 27 is to say that up until now, he's just been extremely lucky. That's just nonsense. The season's a bust for a whole lot of reasons that aren't his fault. He's in his prime as a tender and when we try to make a legitimate run again in a couple of years he'll be back to being a wall.

 

[McMetal]

I wonder how much of this new approach has to do with him not tracking pucks well, and letting out bad rebounds because he's picking the puck up late.

That's a really good point. That's the only thing that's really changed this year in our defensive strategy, and quite a few of his bad rebounds have been off of a screen. For a goalie who's used to a different kind of game, I can see how jarring that would be to your reflexes and your confidence.

 

[El_Loco_Avs]

That's a really good point. That's the only thing that's really changed this year in our defensive strategy, and quite a few of his bad rebounds have been off of a screen. For a goalie who's used to a different kind of game, I can see how jarring that would be to your reflexes and your confidence.

I'm not too worried about that part of his game.

I'm not sure, but both our guys have been beaten on clean shots this year a little too much for my liking.

 

[Flanagan]

Let's hope the 2016 edition of Varlamov continues the same way he's been finishing up 2015.

It doesn't get much better than this:

 

[McMetal]

He's playing amazing, and all the more so because we continue to play awful defensively in front of him. We seem to have switched from trying to block every shot to just letting them take point blank chances and relying on Varley to be golden. It's impressive the way he's playing, but he shouldn't need to be that impressive on a nightly basis.