Semyon Varlamov was brilliant for the New York Islanders in their 2-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday night. Here's why.
COLUMBUS, NY -- Semyon Varlamov was brilliant for the New York Islanders in their 2-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday night.
Yes, goals were needed for the "W," with Kyle Palmieri and Matt Martin providing the scoring, but without Varlamov's strong play, the Islanders do not leave Columbus with a point, let alone two.
In the sixty-minute affair, the 35-year-old stopped 24 shots, including 10 high-danger ones, with Naturalstatrick.com giving the Blue Jackets a 3.39 Expected Goals Against.
Varlamov, per usual, didn't take the credit, thanking his teammates for their strong play in front of him as they blocked 19 shots.
"I thought we had a really good start today or everybody was focused, you know, score the first goal, and we had a great first period," Varlamov said postgame. "And then we expect that they're going to bounce back in the second, and then they played well in the second.
"They had more scoring shots, I would say, and then in the third, we scored, and we just tried to defend the net the last five minutes, and we did it."
Despite not getting a win in his first start of the season, a 39-stop performance in a 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, Varlamov should have been proud of his performance.
But there's nothing like getting a win.
"Feels amazing. Of course, we won. I got a shutout. It feels really, really good," Varlamov said. "I'm very happy about the way the team played and the way I play today."
With Varlamov's shutout, the Islanders became the first team this season to have two goalies earn clean sheets:
"He's been sharp right from the get started training camp," Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said. "He's a very, very good goalie. We really have a ton of confidence when he's in the net.
"We have a ton of confidence when they're both in the net."
What led to Varlamov's strong night?
The biggest standout for Varlamov was his technical play. Not only was he square to most of the shots that came his way, but he was aggressive.
And that aggressiveness paid off in more ways than one.
Being at the top of his crease, Varlamov was able to find the shooter more, which gave him the ability to track the shots rather than have to fight through screens like we've seen Ilya Sorokin have to do throughout most of his starts this season.
That aggressiveness really paid dividends on his in-tight saves as the Blue Jackets tried to feed the back post or the low slot rather often.
If a goalie pushes off toward the back post and remains deep in his crease, that ensuing shot, deflection, or redirection has a strong chance of finding twine.
But if the goalie pushes off toward the back post but stays towards the upper half of the crease, that gives the goaltender a higher save percentage, taking most, if not all, of the space away.
Varlamov shared with The Hockey News after the game that he's always scanning to see where the players are along the ice, and when he sees someone out of the corner of his eye, it allows him to anticipate the pass and get over to make the save.
He stated that it's incredibly important to know if that pass is an option because although Varlamov has the ability to make that flexible pad save, it's certainly a stretch he rather not be making if he doesn't have to.
Varlamov did get support from his teammates, who blocked shots, as stated above.
We always talk about the importance of taking the goaltender's eyes away, as if he can't see it, then he can't save it. However, screening goalies also makes it difficult for them to track passing.
Varlamov being able to see the puck at the point allowed him to make the incredible saves he made throughout the game because he could read and react rather than have to "guess."
It seemed on every shot, Varlamov was attacking the shot rather than waiting for the pucks to come to him, which allowed for impeccable rebound control, something that wasn't as sharp in his first start of the season.
When the rebounds did come, seven according to Natural Statrick, Varlamov tracked the puck off his pads, getting himself into the proper position to make that secondary and/or tertiary save.
On breakaway chances, Varlamov was aggressive, forcing the Blue Jackets to deke, which he reacted to accordingly.
It was just an impressive performance from No. 40.
Through two games this season, Varlamov owns a 1.51 GAA with a .961 SV% and a shutout.
Varlamov isn't going to play a lot, in comparison to Sorokin, but that doesn't mean his play in between the pipes isn't vital to the Islanders' success.
Games like Saturday, or even performances like the Saturday before, will allow the Islanders to garner points as the season rolls on.
Varlamov signed a four-year extension worth $11 million on July 1st.