Save Selection: McKenna Analyzes Fleury’s Highlight-Reel Save vs. Fabbri

By: Mike McKenna

New sweater, same Flower.

On Monday night, reigning Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury made 36 saves on 40 shots to help grab the “W” for his Blackhawks. That’s a nice stat line. But in classic Flower form, his evening was punctuated by a massive, sprawling glove save on Detroit’s Robby Fabbri with just under three minutes left in regulation.

It was timely. It was a beauty. And it was all because of excellent mechanics and athleticism.

New team, same panache for the reigning Vezina Trophy winner😳pic.twitter.com/P2yy8bFUvE

— DailyFaceoff.com Hockey (@DFOHockey) October 5, 2021

The first thing worth pointing out is Nick Leddy’s shot. It’s a quick play to the net directly after a faceoff, so Leddy knows there will be plenty of traffic in front of Fleury. His head is up and he sees Blackhawks forward Tyler Johnson flexing out – effectively taking away the shooting lane. And here’s where Leddy is smart: he’s able to spot Red Wings teammate Pius Suter off to the side of the net tangled up with Hawks defenseman Jakub Galvas and decides to shoot at them.

He’s expanding the net. By purposefully shooting wide, Leddy is giving Suter a chance to deflect the shot. That would be a hard save for Fleury. But in this case, it doesn’t happen. The puck ends up getting blocked by Galvas at the top of the crease, which isn’t a bad thing for the Red Wings. Any time a puck is shot into traffic, it creates variables and triggers the chaos factor.

Goalies don’t like chaos. 

When the puck is bouncing all over the place, it’s really difficult to stay square and maximize the blocking surface. And that’s where Fleury’s incredible athleticism shines. He’s so explosive that he’s never out of the play.

When the puck hits Galvas in front, it kicks over laterally to Detroit’s Robby Fabbri, who’s staring at an open net. But first he has to corral the puck. Fabbri catches it on the backhand before transferring to his forehand and taking the shot. That slight delay is what gives Fleury a chance to get across.

Let’s take a closer look at the details of Fleury’s dazzling glove save.

When Leddy releases the original shot, Fleury’s depth at the top of the crease is somewhat aggressive by today’s standards. A lot of NHL goalies prefer to play this type of situation with their skates completely in the blue paint. If something goes wrong, they don’t have to travel as far to get square to the shooter.

Fleury goes with the awesome, classic look of a 1980's hockey card – probably a tip of the cap to Tony O, whose number 35 will be on all Hawks jerseys this season. pic.twitter.com/dKkuYvYWzv

— Steve Warne (@TSNSteve) October 3, 2021

But Fleury trusts his world-class skating and explosiveness. He knows he can play a little more aggressively so long as it’s in a controlled manner.

The key to this save is Fleury’s rotation while down in the butterfly. After the shot gets blocked he immediately finds the puck and rotates his entire body almost 90 degrees to the left. Fleury then pushes towards the far post, using it as a bumper. Had Fleury’s route been in front of the post – or towards Fabbri – he may have never gotten his body square to the shot.

“I knew I was pretty far from the puck because I went to my right for the initial shot, but it ended up to my left.” Fleury told Daily Faceoff. “So I tried to push towards the post to cover the empty net and he didn’t shoot right away. It gave a little bit of time to react.”

Fleury arrives on the proper angle, but he’s still a little late because the play developed so quickly. To make up for it, he’s forced to reach with his leading pad and glove hand. He’s visually attached to the puck and relying on years of experience to read where it’s going off Fabbri’s stick. And the slight delay allowed just enough time for Fleury to activate his glove hand and react to the shot.

It’s a great save, but it would have never happened without proper mechanics leading up to it. Tracking. Rotation. Destination. Explosiveness. The end result is a classic Marc-Andre Fleury windmill glove save to keep his team ahead in the closing minutes.