The Washington Capitals are still clinging on to playoff positioning for dear life, one point behind the New York Rangers for third in the Metropolitan and tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Eastern Conference's two wild card spots.
However, the Caps have picked up points in nine of their last ten games (6-1-3), with Braden Holtby's work in goal proving huge time and time again for a Washington team that's finding its groove.
“It looks so effortless at times. Square to the puck, making plays, smothering rebounds and cleaning up his own mess,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said of Holtby, via Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports. “I thought he was playing better than people were giving him credit for earlier in the season. Maybe his numbers didn’t say that. But you could see his ability to make big saves was there.”
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The key for Holtby has been the addition of goalie guru Mitch Korn who has helped Holtby get back to basics after a less-than-productive partnership with former coach Olaf Kolzig.
It’s obviously been well documented the changes that we tried,” Holtby said of working with Kolzig to CSN Washington last April. “Nothing against what the philosophy was, it just didn’t coincide with my personality and my natural instincts. The changes led to a lot of second guessing myself and over-thinking things. The moment you start doing that you start to struggle, and when you struggle your confidence goes down a bit.”
Through 32 games this season, Holtby has a .920 save percentage and a 2.27 GAA - both improvements over what was an inconsistent sophomore campaign. While Holtby is making saves that he wasn't able to last year, he's still focusing on those shots that have gotten by him.
"It’s always a give and take. It’s frustrating because I know I can make some of those saves. But I might make three more when I give up that one,” he said. “There’s definitely some improvements that I made. I don’t get as spread out, to make sure pucks don’t get through me. It’s been a process, but it’s definitely coming.”
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