Braden Holtby had the toughest season of his career, lost his job, stayed positive, worked through it, and hand-delivered his team to the Cup final. Braden Holtby rules. If Braden Holtby is your hero, you picked a good hero.
By The Numbers
| 54 | games played |
| 1648 | shots faced, all strengths |
| 153 | goals allowed, all strengths |
| 34-16-4 | win-loss record |
| .919 | 5-on-5 expected save percentage |
| .917 | 5-on-5 save percentage |
Visualization by HockeyViz
About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows various metrics for the player over the course of the season. A short description of each chart:
- Ice time per game (by game situation)
- Shot attempt rate by both teams during 5-on-5 play
- Goal rate by both teams during 5-on-5 play
Peter’s Take
So here’s a tweet from three and a half years ago.
"I hope I never reach the top of my game." – Braden Holtby, zen as fuck
— RMNB (@rmnb) February 4, 2015
Tough break, Braden. You’re there now. And what a weird path you took to get here.
2017-18 was without a doubt the worst regular season of Braden Holtby’s career. After saving an eerily consistent 93 percent of 5-on-5 shots over the previous five seasons, Holtby guttered.
| Season | Save % |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 93.1 |
| 2014 | 93.0 |
| 2015 | 92.9 |
| 2016 | 93.1 |
| 2017 | 93.7 |
| 2018 | 91.7 |
By Christmas, Holtby’s name was miles away from the Vezina conversation. By mid-February, he ceded most starts to Philipp Grubauer. In April, he wasn’t the number-one goalie for the postseason.
But by June he was a Champion anyway. Grubauer struggled in games one and two against Columbus, so Holtby started game three. He was fine, but he was only getting warmed up. Closing out the series, Holtby saved 94 percent of shots during 5-on-5 and 93 percent overall to help the Caps advance. Once Washington beat Columbus and Pittsburgh, Holtby entered a new level. He recorded back-to-back shutouts to eliminate the Cup-favorite Lightning, turning away 53 shots and 20 high-danger chances from the league’s most explosive offensive team to carry the Caps to their first Cup final in two decades.
Those were back-to-back shutouts against a team that averaged seven goals every two hours in the regular season. From a goalie who wasn’t starting much two months earlier. Those shutouts were the first of his entire, blighted season – one in which he received more criticism and disparagement than any previous outing.
Here’s where I have to insist that Holtby got a bum rap. Remember the save percentage table above? Here’s those same seasons, but with the volume and danger of the shots Holtby faced per hour during 5-on-5 play:
| Season | Attempts | Scoring Chances | High-Danger | Medium-Danger |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 57.1 | 24.3 | 9.6 | 14.8 |
| 2014 | 58.6 | 27.6 | 10.5 | 17.1 |
| 2015 | 52.9 | 23.3 | 9.4 | 13.9 |
| 2016 | 54.0 | 24.5 | 10.1 | 14.4 |
| 2017 | 53.0 | 24.3 | 10.5 | 13.9 |
| 2018 | 60.6 | 29.7 | 12.4 | 17.3 |
2017-18 was the hardest season of Holtby’s career in every metric that he could not control. More shots overall and far more of them in high-danger circumstances that are more likely to become goals. It was a rotten situation to put him in, and his drop-off should not have been a surprise.
No one paid the price for the Caps’ defensive setbacks more than Braden Holtby, but when the Caps absolutely needed a transcendent performance, Holtby delivered one. No, wait, he delivered two.
I know we’ll talk about Ovechkin’s goals and DSP’s clutch play forever, but let’s not overlook the story at the other end of the ice. When everyone counted Holtby out, that was when he reached the peak of his game. He saved this whole damn team.
Holtbeast on RMNB
- Sidney Crosby did a headshot on Braden Holtby way back in October.
- On how the Caps communicate on ice: “We’re not Ernest Hemingway out there.” Every insufferable hockey writer trips over themselves to point out that Hemingway actually used small words and short sentences.
- Another thing most people don’t know: Holtby started the season darn well. He was a star of the week in November.
- Here’s Holtby, Backstrom, and Wilson entertaining schoolkids. It’s the most fun they had until June.
- Holtby was a high-profile supporter of the NHL’s hockey is for everyone month. When he celebrated with the Cup in DC (during the Pride parade), Holtby wore a rainbow hat.
- Okay, less fun stuff. So Holtby’s bad year really seemed to me like the natural consequence of last summer’s roster moves. If Holtby had faced a less jacked up distribution of high-danger shots, he’d have been perfectly cromulent this season, if unspectacular. But he didn’t, and he got blown up.
- In February, the Caps played especially terribly, and Holtby let em know about it during intermission. Trotz, on how they treated Holtby: “Braden was upset and rightfully so. We left him out to dry. I think he was the difference from it getting any worse.”
- Three days later, it happened again. On that game: We just got a little arrogant and tried to make fancy plays. It burned us. We deserved [to lose].”
- By the end of the month, it was clear something had to give. Trotz benched Holtby and began started Philipp Grubauer. Holtby was being given time to “reset”, according to Trotz. For Holtby, it was time to “clear [his] head” because he put too much pressure on himself. Check out the video in that last link for sure; the candor Holtby has in the middle of the worst part of his career is staggering.
- Here’s how Holtby reacted when his backup goalie recorded a shutout while he had to ride the bench.
xoxo 😘#HockeyHugs #HockeyKisses #CapsSharks #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/KQM0mNtYbA
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 11, 2018
- So Holtby got his job back in Game Three. He recorded his first back-to-back shutouts at the perfect time. Then he did this to Alex Tuch.
- Kids called it The Save. There are shirts. There was a flipbook.
- Tami cried. Braden cried. The author of this article cried putting this together. Holtby rules.
Your Turn
Do you think Holtby bears all responsibility for his downturn during the regular season? And exactly how much do you care now that he’s the Champ?
Read more: Japers’ Rink
Headline photo: Cara Bahniuk
