Changed from St. Louis to Detroit in the summer with a new three-year contract Ville Husso27, had a dream start to his season at the new club.
The first seven matches included two clean sheets and only 13 goals conceded. The Helsinki native was undoubtedly one of the best goaltenders in the NHL in the first month.
At the end of November, the sled started to turn. Second goalkeeper Alex Nedeljkovic didn’t play well, and Husso had to play a lot. The sharpness of the game started to disappear.
Since the end of November, Husso has allowed at least three hits 13 times in 19 games. 11 times the save percentage has fallen below 90.
If you look purely at the statistics, Husso has come down at a breakneck speed: for example, in save percentage, Husso was the eighth best in the entire league for the first 13 games. For the last 15 matches, the ranking is 55th in the list of 60 goalkeepers.
What happened?
– In this case, you shouldn’t stare at the statistics too much, Urheilu’s expert, former NHL goalkeeper Karri Rämö says.
Rämö reminds that hockey is a team game.
– When you look at how Detroit defends and how they, for example, play an underpowered game, Husso will have a hard time there.
We highlighted three themes related to Husson’s side slide.
The first time – “Snow comes to the house”
Ville Husso is in a tough spot in Detroit. The young club has taken a step forward after the dark years, but at the same time the new coming of the whole organization is badly in progress.
Due to weak background support, the HIFK student has had to bear an even greater responsibility than expected in the goal of the Red Wings. At the current pace, Husso would play as many as 58 matches in the regular season. The number is not impossible, but for an inexperienced and weak defensive player playing behind the team, the number is high.
In January, Husso has already started in eight matches.
The Detroit Pilot Derek Lalonde admitted about a week ago to the local media that he himself was driving Husso to exhaustion.
– Ville has gone through a difficult phase and I think one of the reasons for that is too much game load. Then he got sick earlier on top of everything. Maybe we made him sick. He hasn’t been the first keeper before or played a lot, so we are moving in new waters with him in that respect, Lalonde stated.
An illness rang in Rämö’s ear.
– Of course, there is an interest in how things are carried forward, if there has been a game even in pain.
Rämö, who has represented Tampa and Calgary in his NHL career, believes he knows what the relatively inexperienced goalkeeper is going through.
– It can be difficult to see the overall picture of the game. When the snow comes into the house, a lot of things go through and it’s easy to start wondering if I’m a good goalkeeper or not when we don’t win games. The fact is, at Detroit’s level of play right now, there isn’t much of a chance to beat them much.
– On the other hand, Ville somehow gets the feeling that he hasn’t been terribly worried about the results or because of that he hasn’t changed anything in his game, says Rämö.
Few easy goals
It’s clear that Husso hasn’t been at the level of the early season in recent weeks, but at the same time it’s probably fair to say that there aren’t many slips in this spike.
A broader look at Husson’s scoring in late December and January paints a bleak picture of Detroit’s top five defense.
For example, against Colorado and Pittsburgh, Husso was taken off in the middle of the game, but in both cases the goals could not be blamed on the goalkeeper. Against Pittsburgh, 3–0 was on the scoreboard as a result of three rough puck losses in their own zone and the limp defense that followed them.
In recent weeks, against Husso, the puck towards the goal has been set to such an extent, often from the best goal-scoring sector, that it would not be possible for anyone to maintain good statistics.
Especially underpowered, Detroit’s square has too often been turned into hole cheese, as a result of which the puck has been moved to the net from an empty back post. The goalkeeper’s chances will also be small, if Patrick Laine is allowed to tune in peace and quiet from a close distance after a cross pass without being disturbed.
– There was a goal in the New Jersey match, right from the start Doggie Hamilton you can walk to a good sector and calmly see where to put the puck. “Detroit also has a lot of problems with underpowered people, that guys just fall asleep there,” Rämö states.
Of course, Husso also has his responsibilities. The lack of the best sharpness has been reflected in the fact that the last big winning performances have not been made. You can’t blame Husso, but you have to be able to tighten the screw over the years if this is going to grow into one of the greats of the sport.
– Ville played at a top level in the fall and I believe that he would now be the first to state himself that the game is a bit off track. Part of it is timing, we probably played him a little too much at some point, Lalonde said.
Load leveling
In the future, equalizing the match load will probably be one solution to the problem. Nedeljkovic, who played poorly, was sent to the farm and now the 31-year-old operates as Husson’s deputy Magnus Hellberg. Hellberg has played better than his predecessor and Rämö expects this in the future as well.
– If I could decide, I would watch the program and make a good plan based on it. I would take some of the load off Ville so that he could train, stay in shape and get a good starting point for the summer. Now he’s on pace for 60 games. In terms of percentages, the optimal split would be 70-30 or 60-40, if the club has a top-level second keeper.
Rämö is no more worried about Husso than he is about the young team.
– A year like this is like money in the bank for Ville. You learn from these. There’s no need to worry. That team and Ville along with it had a good start to the season and now they have since learned a lot about what it takes to win in the NHL and how important individual situations are.
NHL stock exchange