Jan 6, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Steve Mason (35) against the Ottawa Senators during the first period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
The Philadelphia Flyers’ Steve Mason will be returning to the ice this year after having completed, statistically, one of the best individual seasons for a goalie in team history. Mason’s .928 save percentage in all situations placed him just behind the immortal Bernie Parent in Flyers’ team history. In addition to that, he led the NHL with a .943 save percentage at even-strength. The guy was absolutely unreal but due to nagging injuries, he was limited to only 51 games. Injuries some believed to be the result of him being overworked but we’ll get into that later.
Watching Mason last year was one of the few reasons to tune into a Flyers game due in part to the statistics I mentioned above. Many of the people who doubted he could be the team’s answer in goal suddenly were believers. It was hard not to support #TeamMason, I mean look at this.
Mase was doing that all year, maximizing his superior athleticism to come up with spectacular save after spectacular save. His performance did not go unnoticed by Flyers twitter. Doing a quick search of Steve Mason and God turns up quite a lot of results.
The Bad, Not Good Times
In the midst of all this positivity, there remains for me a meager amount of doubt about whether or not Steve Mason can consistently play at a high level not just game-to-game but season-to-season. Many seem to have forgotten about the bad days, the dark days Mase had after winning the Calder trophy in Columbus.
Mason’s Sv% By Year
As you can see it got ugly, quick, and Mason never recovered the form he had in his sensational rookie season. It gets even worse when you look at War-On-Ice’s Goalie Goals Above Replacement metric.
Steve Mason was not always the Ma$ed God. via
Steve Mason held three (THREE!) of the top ten worst statistical seasons for a goaltender since 2005/06. No one else can claim that. A dubious honor to be sure and one I am positive Mason isn’t proud of. The Blue Jackets after the 2012/13 campaign mercilessly traded Steve Mason to the Philadelphia Flyers for Michael Leighton (!) and a 3rd round draft choice and so began the reclamation project on the once promising goaltender.
The Renaissance
Once suited up for the Flyers, Mase showed flashes of brilliance but remained inconsistent until the latter half of the 2013/14 season when he had a .930 save percentage in the final 3 months of the season. There was hope the Flyers had struck gold with the young netminder and as we all witnessed last year, it appears that they have.
Hockey is a game all about confidence, especially from the goaltending position.
It was abundantly clear that the only reason the Flyers were a .500 team in 2014 was for three reasons, Jakub Voracek, Claude Giroux, and Steve Mason. I think many of the fans, including myself, had a pretty good appreciation of just how incredible Mason had been playing all year but the chart in the tweet below really hammered home just how spectacular Mason had been.
Also, holy Steve Mason. And unholy Ben Scrivens. http://t.co/TDQiXilM22 pic.twitter.com/vN3oWiFGEZ
— Nick Mercadante (@NMercad) August 14, 2015
What you’re seeing in that tweet is a chart for the statistic known as Goals Saved Above Average. I’ll allow Nick Mercadante, writer at SB Nation’s Rangers blog Blueshirt Banter, to explain what the stat measures and what it can tell us.
"The stat represents the number of goals a goalie saves for his team above (or below) league average. It’s really simple. Basically, take the league average sv% and apply it to the total shots faced by the particular goaltender. Out of that, you get a number of goals that the average goaltender would have given up had he faced the same number of shots as the goaltender in question.This resulting number can be compared to the number of goals the goaltender in question actually gave up. A plus/minus is the result. If a goalie is in the positive, he is saving more than a league average goaltender might in the same situation. If the goalie is in the minus…well you get the idea. – Nick Mercadante from his great piece entitled Goalies are Voodoo…But Improving Comparative Analysis Tools Can Help"
So, looking at that chart we see that Mason was saving, over a rate of 60 minutes, close to a goal more a game than the average goaltender. What makes this performance even more incredible is he did this in spite of the fact that he had Andrew MacDonald and Nicklas Grossmann seeing significant ice time in front of him. On one hand, you have MacDonald who couldn’t deny a zone entry to a cardboard cutout and a guy in Grossmann who’s best skill was stopping pucks with his face.
When I got here, I had zero confidence. It was well-documented. I was beat down in Columbus. I didn’t enjoy the game.
Mason to his credit didn’t pat himself on the back for his remarkable turnaround. He was extremely complimentary of former Flyers’ goalie coach Jeff Reese and attributed much of his success to his teaching and coaching.
Jeff was, as many of you will recall, let go unexpectedly during the latter part of the season. The reason for this divorce was revealed by former Flyers beat writer Frank Seravelli to be about the treatment of Mason. Specifically, Reese was unhappy with how Mason was being used coming off his injuries and felt the cause of those injuries was from being over worked. Neither Mason or Reese would comment on the record that this was true but Mason let it be known he was going to miss his goalie coach immensely.
"“Hockey is a game all about confidence, especially from the goaltending position,” Mason said. “When I got here, I had zero confidence. It was well-documented. I was beat down in Columbus. I didn’t enjoy the game.“He instilled the belief in this organization that I could find my game back. From an on-ice and off-ice perspective, he was nothing but good things for me. He was very receptive to my input. He was someone that was easy to work with. He was someone I felt I could confide my feelings to. He is somebody that I owe my career to. If it wasn’t for ‘Reeser,’ I wouldn’t be where I am right now.” – Steve Mason in an interview with Frank Seravelli"
An Uncertain But Promising Future
The season Mason put together last year placed him in elite company that included established names like Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick and Carey Price. It’s been a fun journey seeing Mason prove many of us wrong who had written him off before he played one game for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Steve Mason has been reborn in Philadelphia. via
There is however that lingering doubt that I spoke of in the beginning of this piece. That doubt is composed of fear associated with his injuries much more than any questions about his talent. I’m hoping now that Craig Berube is gone, new head coach Dave Hakstol will be much more mindful about the workload Mason receives. The Flyers signing of Michal Neuvirth sure makes it appear that Hextall and the front office heard the criticism from the local beats, fans, and bloggers.
Questions remain though…
What if Mason regresses in the absence of the coach who helped turn his career around?
Was last year just an aberration, a congruence of all the variables working in his favor?
Or is Steve Mason just a really great goaltender who will remain this great for years to come?
I’m hoping for the sake of this fanbase and myself, it’s the latter.
Data mined and charts displayed courtesy of War-On-Ice.
Next: Three Biggest Question Marks Entering Season