Hockey expert Kirill Kornilov expressed the opinion that Zach Fucale from Chelyabinsk “Tractors” is an average goaltender for the Continental Hockey League (KHL ).
At the beginning of this season, 28-year-old Fucale played 16 matches for the team in the Fonbet KHL Championship, in which he won seven victories with 91.5% reflected shots.
— A month and a half after the start of the championship, we can say that Zach Fucale is a good goalkeeper. He sees the school, everything is in perfect condition with the equipment. Like most North American goaltenders, he plays a lot and often with his stick. But what is also striking is that he does not always do it on time. Initially, this could be attributed to a lack of mutual understanding with the defenders, who did not always understand the goalkeeper’s intentions.
Fucale made scoring errors giving the opponent a chance to score unexpectedly. Sometimes this led to missed goals. If we compare with the foreign goalkeepers that Traktor has had in recent years, then, of course, this is not an equivalent replacement for Roman Villa or, especially, Pavel Francouz.
The result of Traktor in the first month and a half is undoubtedly unsatisfactory. The head coach has already been changed, and the goalkeeper cannot be considered the main reason for all the team’s failures. There aren’t any big complaints about Fucala – he catches almost all of his pucks, but doesn’t make great saves. At the right time, he doesn’t, let’s say, steal matches from his opponent. You remember the victorious matches against Spartak and Avtomobilist, where he played very reliably and confidently. But to make a great save in a tough game and give the team the needed momentum, it just didn’t happen.
Generally speaking, we can say that Fucale is a good average goalie in the KHL, without any pretensions at the highest level. He is not a contender for the best goalkeeper of the season award. With a goaltender like that, it will be tough for Traktor in the playoffs if the team gets there. Because it’s at this stage that you have to steal matches. And last season, Fucale even lost the competition to young Hunter Shepard and almost did not participate in the AHL playoffs, ”Kornilov said, as quoted by RB Sport.
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL Championship matches on the and MATCH PREMIER TV channels, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
RB Sports
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
