In each of his three partial seasons with the Blackhawks so far, young goalie Arvid Soderblom has endured one particularly disastrous start.
He allowed six goals in a February 2022 loss to the Blue Jackets, seven goals in a December 2022 loss to the Rangers and another seven goals just over a week ago in a blowout loss to the Coyotes.
Soderblom’s start Sunday against the Devils represented his first chance to demonstrate his ability to bounce back from those calamities, considering he was immediately sent down to the AHL after each of the first two (and endured a rough two-month stretch after last year’s Rangers loss before finally regaining form in the spring).
As it turned out, he responded fairly well. Although the Hawks lost, he saved 36 of 39 shots, good for a .923 save percentage on the night — an enormous difference from his .682 mark (15 saves on 22 shots) in Arizona.
“He’s typically a calm goalie in there and [he] comes up with a big save when we need it,” coach Luke Richardson said. “He was good for us again tonight. We haven’t given him a lot of goal support in the time I’ve been here, so we have to make sure we do that a little better.”
The Hawks had confidence all along, of course, that Soderblom could bounce back without issue. His inherent calmness has always been one of the traits fueling the team’s excitement about his long-term potential, as exemplified by how frequently goalie coach Jimmy Waite compares him to Corey Crawford.
At some point, however, Soderblom’s statistics will need to begin supporting that optimism. So far, they don’t.
The 24-year-old Swede touts a career stat line consisting of a 3-16-2 record, .887 save percentage and minus-8.5 GSAA. Removing those three disastrous starts raises his save percentage all the way up to .904, suggesting just a bit more consistency could make a big difference. But even .904 wouldn’t quite meet the Hawks’ long-term hopes.
Of the 25 goalies in NHL history who have earned three (or fewer) wins over their first 23 career appearances, most have predictably not enjoyed successful or lengthy careers. There are a few — notably Olaf Kolzig, Tommy Salo, Kevin Weekes and Curtis McElhinney — who turned out alright, though.
Plus, Soderblom’s record is hardly his fault alone. The team in front of him has done few favors. That disadvantage won’t change over the rest of this season, but the Hawks nonetheless plan to give Soderblom a long leash to try to finally establish a rhythm.
For now, he and Waite have identified one particular area where he can improve: being more aggressive positionally when facing shots from up high through traffic.
“Sometimes I tend to fade backwards a little bit [in those situations],” Soderblom said recently. “We’re working on having my feet set at the top of the crease and just staying there. [I need to] use my big body and be there for tips and rebounds.
“For a lot of goalies, when you don’t see the puck, you tend to fade back — to go to the middle of the net somehow. But we’ve been looking at some video, and I think it’s better to be set on top. You cover more net up there.”
The Coyotes’ sixth goal against him exploited that weakness. Travis Boyd passed from behind the net to defenseman Sean Durzi near the point, but Soderblom didn’t push out from the goal line and Durzi’s shot beat him over the glove.
On Sunday, Soderblom looked better in that regard. When Dougie Hamilton teed up a shot from the right point through traffic early in the second period, for example, he was out at the top of his crease and made the save easily.
That positive response, at least, was encouraging to see.
