Malcolm Subban’s eyes darted — left to right, right to left, left to right — around the Zoom screen as he imitated Blackhawks goaltending coach Jimmy Waite’s advice.
Throughout the offseason, and especially during the first week of training camp, Waite and developmental goaltending coach Peter Aubry have taught Subban to move his eyes and head first when he sees a shot coming. That gives him more time to locate and track the puck while he, in the meantime, moves his body to the correct angle.
The technique is matter-of-factly called “eyes first,” and Subban claims the impacts of advice like that from Waite and Aubry have been “huge.”
“If you’re not tracking the puck, it’s hard to make good contact with it to keep the pucks in front of you or smother them,” Subban said. “When we’re doing the movement drills, we’re going eyes first.
“That translates to when you’re [facing] shots, if you have your eyes and head going first, it gives you the ability to track the puck well, which can in turn give you better rebound control. They correlate all together.”
Right now, Subban and Collin Delia seem neck-and-neck for the Hawks’ starting goalie job, with Kevin Lankinen also in peripheral contention and Matt Tomkins a taxi squad candidate.
Coach Jeremy Colliton has said no matter who starts the season opener next Wednesday in Tampa, the battle will likely continue well into the regular season. It’s difficult to assess in camp whether each goalie has the Corey Crawford-like mental fortitude needed to handle a long-term No. 1 role in the NHL.
“Crow...had a swagger to him, [but] it doesn’t just happen, it’s built over time,” Colliton said. “We want to fill our goaltenders with confidence that we believe in them and they’re going to have an opportunity. It’s going to be competition between them. And we’re going to let it play out.”
Delia said in November he was “frothing at the mouth” for the opportunity. His life circumstances have come together at the perfect time for it, and he also worked closely with goalie coaches to refine his game throughout the fall.
But Subban, too, trained hard to prepare, working with Penguins goalie coach Andy Chiodo — his longtime personal coach in the offseasons — and now Waite and Aubry.
“Jimmy’s been great,” Subban said. “He doesn’t want to change your style too much. Obviously, there’s stuff he implements that I’ve liked in terms of depth and how we play angles and overlap and so on.”
The 27-year-old Canadian does boast a clear advantage over Delia and Lankinen in terms of prior NHL experience, but he wasn’t particularly effective in his three-year stint as the Golden Knights’ backup.
That said, Subban’s track record is more complicated than first meets the eye.
His .812 save percentage against high-danger shots actually ranks a respectable 37th among 64 eligible goaltenders over the past three seasons combined, meaning he’s relatively good at making highlight-reel saves that rely more on reflexes and quick movement.
Conversely, his .951 save percentage against low-danger shots ranks 62nd of 64, meaning he’s been relatively awful against attempts from further away or sharper angles. Plus, 11.8% of the shots he’s faced have been rebounds, the 13th-highest rate among the 64 goalies, meaning he’s also spitting pucks out relatively often.
Those are two areas where crisper puck-tracking and squarer positioning to shots — another skill Waite heavily emphasizes — might substantially help Subban improve. And if he does, 2021 could quickly become his long-awaited breakout year.
“It’s not easy stuff as a goaltender, but you can always work on it, especially not having played in 10 or 11 months,” Subban said. “Those things will be huge getting back into things here.”
