The more I watch Steve Mason, the more I start to think that his excellent play so far this season is the real deal. It's not question of statistics (2.13 goals against average, .931 save percentage in 14 starts; has yet to yield more than three goals in a game since coming to the Flyers from Columbus). Rather, it's the total picture of how he approaches each game and then carries that plan into action.
Over the last two decades, we have all seen Flyers goalies who have put up strong statistics -- sometimes even superior to Mason's --- for a month or two at a time. Nevertheless, there was often a feeling that the goaltender was not going to be to sustain his success.
For example, even as Roman Cechmanek won two Bobby Clarke Trophies and enjoyed one season in which he was runner-up for the Vezina Trophy and finished fourth in the Hart Trophy balloting, there was rarely a sense that he was truly in control of games. His positional play was atrocious, his mechanics were unorthodox and his emotions were all over the map. Often, one got the sense that his unpredictability was what made him tough for opponents to solve -- but that could only go so far at the NHL level.
With Mason, there is a sense of calm rather than chaos. He has overhauled his mental approach to games, breaking them into bite-sized segments from TV timeout to TV timeout and then moving on to the next segment.
Mason looks very big in the net, because his angles have been superb and he has been very fluid in his movements. His glove is quick. His rebound control has generally been strong. His footwork has been smooth and he has strong legs and quickness in closing up the pads. His lateral movement is cat-like. On top of it all, he is also an excellent puckhandler; I'd go so far as to rank him third in the NHL in the puckhandling category behind only Martin Brodeur and Mike Smith.
Goaltenders tend to have the longest learning curve of any position on the ice. Mason may have had a little too much success too fast with his spectacular Calder Trophy winning season in Columbus at age 20. There was bound to be some regression and, in his case, the regression was pretty severe.
During his struggling post-rookie years in Columbus, Mason still had to mature as a player. The fact that he had generally weak teams in front of him did not help a bit, either. One mistake would become two, and two would become three. One bad goal or one subpar game was more than a bump in the road. It was a harbinger of doom.
Nowadays, Mason seems to be the better for the tough times he went through in Columbus. He takes nothing for granted and he realizes that he has it within himself to overcome some pretty severe adversity.
Age 25 is hardly a late-blooming age for an NHL goalie to truly come into his own. Mason's turnaround actually started prior to the trade to Philly. He'd already started to work on many of the things that are paying dividends now. Those improvements were obscured by the emergence of new teammate Sergei Bobrovsky into a Vezina winner, resulting in Mason getting displaced as the starter and being traded for peanuts to the Flyers.
Since his arrival in Philadelphia, working with goaltending coach Jeff Reese has also been a big help to the process. The two have formed a fabulous working relationship. It should also be noted that Mason and Ray Emery function well as a goaltending tandem. They support one another and seem to push each other in a constructive, cooperative way even as Mason appears to have emerged as the team's primary starter.
As enjoyable as it has been been to watch Mason's play in games, it is also pleasure to watch Mason work at the start of practice. On a regular basis, he and Reese are out on the ice well ahead of everyone else. No details are missed in the goalie's preparations, as he constantly works on his fundamentals.
In any given practice, Mason works first on angling his stick to deflect pucks into the corners. He works on using his legs to make saves, both with his leg pads and with his skates. He works with his blocker. He works with his glove. He works on his angles and hugging the post to seal off wraparounds. He works on knocking down pucks where he can easily smother rebounds. Mind you, all of this done before practice even officially starts for the rest of the team.
After last Monday's practice before the start of the Flyers three-games-in-four-nights road trip, I noted in my post-practice blog update that Mason looked exceptionally sharp in practice. There was one segment that was downright spectacular, as he stopped Vincent Lecavalier, Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds on a 3-on-0 line rush; and it wasn't like his teammates weren't trying in earnest to score both on an initial Lecavalier shot and a rebound follow-up by Schenn. The goalie just collectively bested all three members of the team's second line.
The next night in Ottawa, Mason recorded a 24-save shutout. It was nice to see him carry the razor-sharp practice performance over into his first shutout of the season (20th of his NHL career) in the very next game.
Mason's consistency this season has been a direct result of the many, many hours of hard work he's put in every day. His mental toughness has been evidenced by the way he's just kept on rolling even as the team in front of him has provided precious little goal support at the other end of the ice.
More and more, I hope that Hockey Canada is paying attention to Mason in considering candidates for the Olympic roster. I suspect that he won't be one of the three goalies chosen, though, even with Cam Ward's injury issues. I suspect that Roberto Luongo, Carey Price, Smith, Corey Crawford and possibly Jonathan Bernier are all currently ahead of Mason on the candidate depth chart.
From my own standpoint, however, if Mason is bypassed for a roster spot in Sochi, it will not be because he's undeserving of more serious consideration. I truly believe there is reason for optimism that Mason has already turned the corner in his development and (assuming good health) stands a good chance of being a mighty fine NHL goaltender for many years to come.
Incidentally, the two goals that Mason yielded in Friday's shootout in Winnipeg were scored high to the blocker side. One squeezed through under Mason's armpit after he got a piece of it and the other was perfectly placed over his stick. I am sure he's going to put in a little extra blocker side work at practice ahead of Tuesday's home game.
Mason has yet to have an outright subpar performance this season. Even the three goals he allowed in the 7-0 debacle against Washington had nothing to do with mistakes he made. It is inevitable that there were will eventually be a few bad games for Mason this season. Every goalie has them. Right now, however, I have a high degree of confidence that those games will be few and far between.
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