Photo Credit: Our very own Chris Maher
With the pre-season now wrapped up the Flyers are set to embark on the start of yet another season. But with that being said even with all of the departures and new arrivals to the teams’ blue line this offseason. The teams goaltending seems to still be a point of concern. Thankfully Starter Carter Hart’s play as of late is no longer in question as his struggles from last season should be viewed now as nothing more than a sophomore slump. However, the problem rather lies with his newly appointed backup 31-year-old, Martin Jones. Who the Flyers signed this offseason after making the right decision to move on from the aging veteran Brian Elliott.
Jones who still had three years left on his deal with the Sharks was bought out by San Jose after last season. That decision stemming from his ever-increasing goals against average and his diminishing save percentage since the time he led his team to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 2016.
Now who knows why Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher choose Jones over the lengthy list of other more accomplished free agent goaltenders. Which was highlighted by the two-time Jennings Trophy winner Jaroslav Halak, and the highly decorated four-time NHL All-Star, Vezina Trophy winner and Stanley Cup Champion Braden Holtby just to name a few. In any case, Jones was the one the team ended up with. In signing Martin to a one-year deal worth two million dollars the Flyers hoped that he would be able to come in and be more of the 1A type goaltender that other teams possess, seeing that for years now he has taken on the brunt of the load for the Sharks which was highlighted by his four consecutive years playing sixty plus games a year for them before COVID hit.
Currently Flyers fans are torn. While some regret the team’s choice to sign him to begin with, others were more optimistic and therefore more willing to give him a fair shot. But even those optimistic fans are now beginning to become a little unsettled with his play as of late in-between the pipes this pre-season. To his credit Jones has been forced to familiarize himself with the habits/practices of virtually a whole different group of defenders in front of him. With the only exception to that being Justin Braun who was with him for a number of years in San Jose. Take it from this lifelong goalie turned writer this alone will take some time to produce a certain level of trust and expectations of one another when faced with different situations during a game. But these things will come with time, what is alarming and should be viewed as problematic is Martin’s inability to execute basic goaltender fundamentals this pre-season. While I’m willing to brush of the first few games he dressed and played for the organization given the fact that he like all the other players on the ice were trying to knock off the rust, while playing with a lineup that did not even come close to the one that he would see come Flyers opening night. However, in his last game against the Washington Capitals he did have the full complement of Flyers players in front of him.
Throughout this final exhibition game against their fellow Metro Division rival Jones’ game seemed just not quite up to par to put it nicely. By this point in the preseason, teams and fans alike want to see a player (especially their goalie) more polished and able to make the saves their supposed to make look easy. And sadly, on many occasions during his last outing Martin appeared to do anything but.
Many times, during the game Jones appeared to not follow the puck very well. Which resulted in him giving up many juicy rebounds, some of which resulted in goals (such as the first one of the game scored by Lars Eller). Also, Jones’ angles were way off largely due to his inability to come to a stop when sliding from one side of the net to the other. Do so caused him to overshoot the spot where he should have been in the crease to best stop the oncoming shot attempt and thus be then out of position. But what part of Jones’ game that should be viewed as most alarming was the fact that when he dropped down to the butterfly his hands looked as if they were glued to his sides. Normally when a goaltender goes down into the butterfly, he is trained to raise his hands high with his glove always facing out so as to best still be able to cover the top of the net. This lackluster effort to maintain basic positioning while down in the butterfly shown by Martin cost the team multiple goals. As evident in the video recap of the game back on the 8th you can see Jones do so on the Caps. 2nd goal when John Carlson was able to score. Then again on Washington’s 3rd goal coming from Tom Wilson in front of the net when Jones’ glove hand wasn’t even facing outward so that he could try and catch the puck. Rather it was turned around so that the back of his hand was facing the play and resting on the top of his pad. Something that I along with many other goalie coaches repeatedly try to get into young goaltender’s heads not to do! Instead, enforcing that they should always be at the ready for an oncoming shot. The last example of this on the night was thankfully on the disallowed goal scored by the Capitals winger Daniel Sprong. Where thanks to the Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault decision to challenge the play, it was found that the Caps were indeed offsides before the puck entered into the zone. Upon review of this play you can see once Martin drops to the ice Sprong was able to rifle a shot to the top of the net because Jones’ hands were down and thus, he had no time to get them up to where they were supposed to be once the shot was taken.
I know it is extremely early but let’s keep in mind that these bad habits or lackluster efforts by Martin Jones were some of the main reasons mentioned by the Sharks media leading up to his dismissal as to why they think he needed to be bought out by the team. Can Jones turn it around before the start of the regular season? Will his old habits prove to die hard? We will just have to watch and see but with all the problems in net over the past few decades here in Philly let’s just hope Chuck Fletcher made the right choice this off season in net.
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