Pavelec is in the zone

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This article was published 10/11/2014 (4226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Put away the magnifying glass.

That about sums up advice from Winnipeg Jets goalie coach Wade Flaherty on the matter of Ondrej Pavelec’s fine start to the 2014-15 season.

“Lots of people are talking about what he’s changed so much,” Flaherty said on the weekend, about the team’s recently sharp No. 1 netminder. “I can tell you, there’s not a lot that’s changed as far as his off-season performances. We just did it in different routines and having him have different mindsets, a different focus towards certain things.

“That’s what he’s really done. To say he’s in much better shape than before, last year, that’s not correct. He was in good shape last year. It’s not dramatic here. The mental side of the game is the key thing for a goaltender.”

The ongoing examination of Pavelec would do a proctologist proud.

The 27-year-old netminder, now into his sixth full-time NHL season, did not excel a year ago, when his numbers regressed. There was a crescendo of criticism, to the point where the argument raged that his contract should have been bought out.

The Jets didn’t waver on this point. Both GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and coach Paul Maurice said in April Pavelec was still their man.

Under Maurice’s insistence that the numbers were a team issue and required more structure and commitment to defence, their faith has so far been validated.

It is, of course, still the first quarter of the season but it’s worth pointing out it’s very difficult to improve statistics if things are a disaster out of the gate.

As of Saturday’s 37-save, 2-1 shootout win in Ottawa, Pavelec is 7-4-2 with a goals-against average of 1.98 and a save percentage of .928.

He is top 10 in the NHL in wins, top-10 among starters in GAA and save percentage and No. 1 in minutes played, 818.

Pavelec has deflected all questions about his style, improvement and overall play so far this fall.

“Just a little more patient,” he said this week.

We asked Flaherty what, exactly, that meant.

“In simple words, read the shot, don’t read the shooter,” Flaherty, the former NHL and AHL goalie said. “Have patience. Read the puck coming off the stick. Don’t read him shooting the puck. Just don’t go (move) because he shot it. Try to get a good, visual contact on that puck.

“It’s not different than a baseball player trying to see the ball on a pitch, pick up that ball coming in rather than starting his swing before the pitch is out of the hand.”

Certainly Pavelec is the beneficiary of his team’s better compete level and its diligence so far in reducing the opposition’s number of clean looks at the net and chances in the dangerous scoring areas.

None of that has been perfect, but the work from all angles, including Pavelec’s, has shown.

“He’s come in with much more focus this year,” Flaherty said, asked about Pavelec’s biggest improvement. “I’m unsure of the exact word — maybe determination is the best one.

‘He’s come in with much more focus this year, I’m unsure of the exact word — maybe determination is the best one’

— Jets goaltending coach Wade Flaherty, on Ondrej Pavelec’s play this season

“And we have added things in to his routine that helps him with that focus. These are mental (exercises). There are no real secrets here. It’s preparation, game-time and practice-time (routines) that set him up to be able to focus through the game, as every goalie does.

“He did do this before, but we have fine-tuned a number of these things with our strength coach, Craig (Dr. Craig Slaunwhite). There are some different things for warmup that he’s added with Pav. A lot of it is specific for him, to get him into his routines.”

Last spring’s vote of confidence in Pavelec by the organization seemed like folly to some, bold to others.

Flaherty liked it but said he paid no real attention to it. Nor did he listen to the off-season criticism.

“I didn’t, honestly, pay any attention to it and neither did Pavs,” Flaherty said. “He’s in another country and my off-season home is Vancouver, which is like being in another country. You know what, everybody, the radio and the papers, that’s their right to talk about the negative and to stir things up. So be it. Maybe that’s a motivational tool for him, I can’t say.”

Pavelec appeared fragile at the end of last season, declining most interviews.

“Was he really?” Flaherty countered. “I would say it was more frustration with the way the season had gone. We had lost Claude (Noel) and when you go back to the season, he had career numbers going 15, 20 games into the season.

“Then the wheels fell off. It ended up costing Claude his job, that the wheels fell off the team from a span in December to January. And in that span, Pavs’ numbers were not good. As a team we were not good. And it’s tough to recover.

“Just spitballing here, but maybe he was thinking, ‘There goes another season.’ “

Neither the Jets nor Pavelec nor Flaherty are real eager to dissect the re-focus, but it is, well, a focus.

“Pav put in effort through the summer and with his determination… I’m extremely proud of what he’s done,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll just keep things going with this mindset. I’m sure there are going to be some bumps in the road, because you can’t do that kind of thing (the last week of games) every night. You have to be able to just hit your reset button.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca