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Mike Smith Makes Incredible/Stupid Save On Marian Gaborik



The Phoenix Coyote’s Mike Smith makes an incredible save on Marian Gaborik in overtime of the game on January 10th. I don’t understand how hard it is to lift the puck just a few inches off the ground, I’ve seen this so many times, All the player has to do is lift the puck over the stick or pads and its a wide open net but they just push it along on the ice. Maybe some of you hockey players can explain this to me.

13 Comments

  1. @tyleracampora if you look at the replay the puck started to come off the ground but smith saved it

  2. because smith covered the angle. gaborik couldnt go upstairs. the stick/blocker covered all the angle to go upstairs. actually if gaborik woulda just slided the puck on the ice he woulda scored.

  3. If Gaborik would have lifted the puck just high enough to go over Smith's stick, it would probably be a goal, but if he would have lifted it just a bit to high, there would be the danger of hitting the crossbar I guess…

  4. @tyleracampora As a goalie I know exactly why. Gaborik did go to bury it in the upper part of the net. The thing is, a puck can only come off the stick at a certain angle and rate of acceleration towards the top of the net. As a goalie, in a desperation save, you try to get your stick or glove as close to the shooter's stick blade so that you can cover that angle. Smith's stick was in the sweet spot of the max elevation of Gaborik's stick. To score he would have had to shoot under.

  5. Because a lot of times trying to bury it high this close it's easy to go over the net. Smith stopped Datsyuk in a Shootout before where Pavel had the whole roof to work with but decided to try to just pop it over smith.

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