Courtesy: CSN – Washington
How often are young talents not exactly what they were projected to become, but their respective organizations sometimes rescind the blame away from themselves?
Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby has been thrown into the fire from Day One and the expectations were escalated to almost unimaginable heights for a player who had a few good series’ in the 2011-12 postseason and a brief regular stint in 2010-11.
Each year the 24-year-old has been with the club, his numbers have regressed as his role has become increasingly important within the organization. Some may say it’s more on Holtby and his development hasn’t exactly been what everyone had hoped.
But when is it time for the Capitals to look into the mirror and see how they’ve potentially destroyed what could have been one of the rising young goaltenders in the National Hockey League?
Here’s a few examples:
The core makeup of the Capitals hasn’t changed much since Holtby’s original call-up from Hershey in 2010-11. Washington has been a finesse team, who’s relied heavily on forward Alexander Ovechkin to sail the ship to the promised land while his mates ride his coattails in the hopes of capturing that elusive first Stanley Cup title in our nation’s capital.
There hasn’t been stability at the goalie position since current goalie coach Olaf Kolzig left the crease for Washington and the NHL completely. It’s been a revolving door of veteran has-beens like Jose Theodore, Cristobal Huet, Tomas Vokoun and Brent Johnson to name a few. There was Semyon Valarmov – a guy who was slung into the lineup much like Holtby – who played quite well for an inexperienced netminder and was subsequently shipped out of D.C. Look at how he’s performing with Patrick Roy in what has been a complete turnaround season for the Colorado Avalanche – his 31 wins are second in the NHL this season.
Plus, this team has struggled defensively in how many shots they allow per game – 27th in the NHL with 33.5 – and their play along the boards. And general manager George McPhee hasn’t done much to put the band-aid on that issue. Instead, the structure has been develop John Carlson and Karl Alzner, keep Mike Green around as a mainstay and hope for the best with the other young prospects.
While bringing in these veteran goaltenders seemed like the right thing to do for a “win now” mentality, they didn’t do anything to help the development of Holtby. If the Capitals wanted to best shape Holtby into the mold of an Olaf Kolzig, they would have allowed for him to garner more stars in spite of veteran presences like a Vokoun in order to allow him to go through the grind of a full season, while also learning with some on-the-job training.
He also can’t be blamed for the 2010-11 season as he was a fill-in for Varlamov, who was in his shoes earlier in his career. Washington has tried so hard to force a new Olaf Kolzig in D.C. that they have forgotten the most important factors in creating such a superstar: overall talent and development through tough experiences.
It hasn’t worked. None of it has.
Now Holtby does deserve some blame as well… especially for the 2013-14 season.
His ability to play the puck has been somewhat lacking at times and when he has been faced with adversity – in what is technically his second full season as a starting goaltender – he has crumbled. That’s why Philipp Grubauer was inserted into the lineup as often as he was by head coach Adam Oates.
Grubauer got the call-up from Hershey to replace Michal Neuvirth for his injury, but not many folks around the team anticipated he would supersede Holtby in the amount of playing time he received, especially once Neuvirth came back with a good bill of health.
It comes down to confidence and Braden Holtby has lacked that in 2013-14. When his competition became the pipes became a party of three, his game regressed. And now with a more established goaltender in town, for what could be more than a rental, in Jaroslav Halak, his game has taken a significant drop, especially over the past two contests.
How would you feel if the organization you started your career with brought in someone to replace you?
Courtesy: Jeff Kryglik TSC
A professional athlete can do one of two things:
1. Crumble under the added pressure and allow the outsiders and external stress dominate the mind
2. Rise up and take advantage of every opportunity the head coach provides
It looks like Holtby is falling into the trap of the first option and it’s partially due to the message the Capitals sent to him via the amount of starts garnered by Grubauer and by the acquisition of Halak via trade.
However, Holtby can’t be entirely excused for what the organization is doing either. It’s a business. They’re about winning games in D.C. If he isn’t getting the job done, he has to be replaced for a better candidate.
Professional athletes should always be confident but once that confidence turns into uncertainty that player will likely never be the same. A change of scenery may be necessary for No. 70 as his mentality may be on the decline in Washington. How often has it been said that sports are 90% mental?
Playing with a nervous demeanor means players start to guess as opposed to reacting. That’s the worst thing that can happen to any netminder.
