Director “San Jose” goalkeeper training Yevgeny Nabokov explained , thanks to which Russian goalies are so successful in the NHL.
Three Russian goaltenders appeared in the NHL All-Star Game this year – Andrei Vasilevsky, Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin. This is the first time this has happened in league history. This season, 10 Russian goalkeepers are simultaneously playing in the NHL – we are also talking about Alexander Georgiev, Ilya Samsonov, Sergey Bobrovsky, Petr Kochetkov, Semyon Varlamov, Daniil Tarasov and Yaroslav Askarov.
FHR President Vladislav Tretyak previously explained this by a reform that was introduced in the Super League – a tax then had to be paid for each foreign goalkeeper in the team.
“Maybe there’s some truth to that. Through games you gain experience. But when you look specifically at the technical part of the guys – where are the hands, what kind of position they have, how they move crosswise, how they play on the bars – all of that is honed in training. And it’s only through games that it won’t come. And that’s the result of the work of the goalkeeper coaches who worked with the guys. Ask the Russian goalkeepers yourself – they will tell you exactly who helped them the most.
Preparation is one of the biggest changes over the years. But the playing practice provided by Tretyak’s reform also helped,” Nabokov told the columnist.
Evgeny Nabokov played 697 NHL games and won 353 games with the San Jose, New York and Tampa Bay Islanders.
Source : MatchTV
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