Mind games part of life for goaltenders

The hardest part of being a backup goaltender in the NHL is not serving as target practice for the hardest-shooting players on the planet.
It isn't being the guy tabbed for one-timer drills from close range or groin-straining breakaway contests after practice.
The hardest part isn't between the pipes at all.

It's between the ears, and it gets harder the less you play.
RELATED: [Organizational goalie depth proving critical this season]
"The most challenging part for me was being able to perform even though I haven't played for a week or two," said Washington Capitals backup Philipp Grubauer, who started 16 games in 2015-16, 19 in 2016-17, and has started eight games this season. "You always play so many games coming in from the minors or growing up and, all of a sudden, you don't play for weeks."
Part of that challenge is knowing you'll have to sit on any mistakes for a long stretch.
"It's a mentality change," said Cam Ward, who is on pace to play 22 games as the Carolina Hurricanes' backup after 11 seasons of being the No. 1, including 61 games last season. "The hardest part is if you have an average game you have to sit and wait for that next start and in the past if you knew you were going to be able to go back out there the next day or two."
So, what are the keys to succeeding in the backup role?
Like a lot of things in goaltending, they vary depending on the individual.

Some goalie coaches believe the job is better suited to a technically sound, more conservative positional goaltender who plays with less backward flow and movement. Those tendencies are more reliant on the rhythm, timing and reads that are hard to maintain during long gaps between game action, and harder to simulate during the practices in between.
St. Louis Blues backup Carter Hutton isn't buying into a lack of rhythm as an excuse, but he does believe mental determination is the key.
"Everyone always says the more you play, the better you can get in a rhythm, whereas I don't believe in that at all," said Hutton, who averaged 22 starts in his first four full NHL seasons and has a .937 save percentage in six starts and eight appearances this season. "We have so much time to practice, but we come from this school of thought that you need to play to be in rhythm. I think you can set yourself up to be in a rhythm with the way you practice, the way you train, the way you prepare. Your head controls a lot of that; the way we think and prepare. Do we prepare to succeed or do we prepare to fail? I think a lot of guys go into games thinking, 'Oh, I haven't played in a few weeks, I am not going to be feeling it.' It's all mental."
Hutton, 31, has learned what he needs to focus on when he isn't playing.
"For me, it's all about seeing pucks," Hutton said. "That's the biggest thing: you face a ton of good shots in practice but in a game guys aren't shooting any harder, it's just that everything around [the shot] is going on faster, so your eyes have to pick things up quicker, fight through traffic quicker. So, I try to see a ton of shots in practice. I do a lot of one-timers, things that are game-like, where I can track pucks, and then, off ice, do a lot of eye exercises to keep myself engaged."

NHL practices are not always an ideal environment for goaltenders, especially when there are a lot of no-defense rush drills. Players are taking their time to tee up shots from prime scoring spots that, in a game, they might not get uncontested all season.
As a result, goalies are tempted to come out and challenge shooters more than they would in a game, or to cheat the pass option, when available, during rush drills.
Former NHL goalie Jason LaBarbera once said he would sometimes cheat on plays so his non-goalie coaches would see him make more saves and feel better about getting him into a game. Those cheating habits can start to get ingrained in your game if you use them too often.
"I will challenge more than maybe I would do in a game, but you just have to remind yourself it's not what you would do in a normal situation," said Kari Lehtonen, who is in his first season as the Dallas Stars' backup after seven as the starter. "You have to remind yourself not to jump away from the path or style you know works and that's hard to do sometimes."

Backups rely on goalie coaches to come up with drills to help them stay sharp technically. While it's important to groove common movement patterns, Hutton said those drills shouldn't always be predictable.
"We play in this vacuum with the goalie coaches, this perfect world where this guy is here and he is going to shoot low-pad, and then you get in a game and it's a melee," he said. "Sometimes you need to engage yourself and just battle and compete."