Marcus Hogberg wasn't very busy against San Jose but he played a big part in that.
ELMONT, NY -- If you looked at the stat sheet following the New York Islanders' 4-1 win against the San Jose Sharks, you could see that Marcus Hogberg did not have a busy night in goal.
He faced a total of 19 shots in the game, seeing four shots in the first, seven shots in the second, and eight shots in the third to notch his second win as an Islander and first in front of the Blue & Orange faithful.
Nothing special, right?
Right.
But, it was one of those games that was a microcosm of the game the Swedish netminder has brought to Long Island.
Yes, the Sharks did not do a good job at taking his eyes away or getting pucks to the net and creating chaos.
But Hogberg deserves credit for only facing 19 shots.
Why?
Hogberg was positionally sound from the start. Of the four shots he faced in the first, a few were shots through screens, and he calmly sent the puck right to the corner.
And because of his positioning and puck tracking early on, he set the tone for how his night was going to go.
I'll never forget a lesson my goalie coach, Chris Testa, taught me back in 2014. It was a night after Chad Johnson notched a win where he faced very few shots.
Testa, at around 6 AM on the ice sheet at Northwell before school, asked a 15-year-old Stefen what I thought about his performance.
I said what many Islanders fans were saying following Hogberg's Saturday night performance?
"It was an easy night. He didn't have to make any big saves."
Testa looked at me and said, "Sure, but what did Johnson do to play a part in that?"
The moral of the story is that while a dominant defense plays a vital role in success at the NHL level, a goaltender's ability to play his position effectively limits the number of secondary and tertiary chances a team and a goalie have to deal with.
Why did Johnson not have to make any crazy saves that night?
Because he didn't put himself in a position where he had to. He didn't leave any rebounds right out in front. He wasn't off his angle on any initial shots. He fought through screens to find the puck, which led to controlling his rebounds.
Ditto that for Hogberg's performance against San Jose.
The one goal he allowed was deflected off Alexander Romanov's stick; otherwise, he would have walked off the ice with a shutout.
Hogberg has now played that kind of simple, calm game through six appearances.
Has he controlled every rebound...no. Has he had to make some ridiculous saves to bail out his defense? Yes.
However, he has often been able to play simply, which has clearly simplified things for his team.
Through six appearances -- three starts -- Hogberg owns a 1.32 GAA with a .952 SV%, now having stopped 119 of 125 shots he's faced.
"I love the way he's playing," Islanders head coach and Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy said. "He's sound. He's very well-positioned. Everything seems so easy for him. I'm very impressed with the way he's been playing."
Roy said the reason he gave Hogberg the start on Saturday was that he deserved it.
"He's great. He's just so solid. That's a big boy, a big boy back there," Islanders captain Anders Lee said. "He's calm in the net. And I think that's contagious, that kind of poise. So, it was another phenomenal game for him."
We'll see what Roy elects to do on Monday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. While it wouldn't be a shock to see Ilya Sorokin get back between the pipes, Hogberg has made his coach's decision a tad more difficult after another strong showing.
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