Zeros

Ahhhh, shutouts.

Is there a greater achievement for a goaltender than getting a shutout in a men's league game, in a game generally devoid of any sort of defensive play?  (Well, truth be told, both of the teams that I play on are, for the most part, very solid defensively.)  Shutouts are generally few and far between, because, as it was once said, "Hockey is a slippery game, it's played on ice..."  the puck can take funny bounces, there are usually big hulking goons standing in front of me, attempting to obstruct my view, pucks deflect off of players, both friend and foe...  In fact, most goals don't go in clean, they go off something, or someone, because most goalies, if they can see it, they will stop it, myself included (most of the time).

I would have to say that this year I have been very fortunate, in twenty one games we have managed to shutout three teams.  A shutout is commonly thought of as a goaltending achievement, but it's not, it's a team achievement, no goalie could possibly ever shut another team down on his own.  You need your defense to be there to handle the occasional bad rebound, you need your forwards to back check...  In order to shut a team out, everything has to go just the right way, all the bounces, most of the calls, and you have to get away with some shit, or rather, you have to get lucky a few times.  (My father always used to tell me as a kid, "Goaltending is 90% skill, and 10% luck," but I tend to think that it might be more like 75/25)

For me, there has been a common thread linking all of the shutouts that I have been a part of this season.  In each of them I have played "big."  Now I don't mean that I was playing like an all-star, but rather "big" in the physical sense.  Also, I feel like on each of these particular nights, I have really been challenging shooters, which is easy to do when my defense is forcing them to take low percentage shots from the outside.  But again, when I play "big," when I challenge shooters and play the way I'm supposed to, the game slows down for me, it becomes easier.  I don't have to scramble, I don't have to put myself out of position to make saves...  I'm where I am supposed to be, and when I am playing like that it means that I am not leaving my opposition a lot to shoot at.  It's a good feeling...

Up until maybe a week ago, I was scuffling, three weeks of trying to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong, and as a goalie, that is a tough place to be in your head...  Self doubt and goaltending don't mix well.  So having last night go well, and feeling like I had a very solid chance for a shutout last wednesday night, I feel like I may have found a good grove again to be in.  The additional bonus of a shutout, aside from good mental heath for me, is that it says, very clearly, that the defense played collectively outstanding.  It picks everyone up and there is generally a carryover effect.  Hopefully it sticks with us a few games.

Anyway, here are the current stats  12-6-3, 2.43 GAA, 3 SO