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The month of October 2010 was nasty, brutish, and short for Johan Hedberg. He had two appearances. The first came in relief during a rout only made worse. The second came as a starter but was pulled in the midst of a rout. He gave up 6 goals and upon video review, I found that half of them were soft.
November would be a better month for Hedberg, at least in terms of minutes. Due to an injury to Martin Brodeur's arm after stopping a shot, Hedberg went in between the pipes in Chicago and got credited with the team's first road win of the season. Moose would get more games, though his efforts did not lead to wins - not his fault, more so the skaters' and John MacLean. After coming in relief for another in-game injury to Brodeur (re-injured arm in a game at Toronto) later in the month, he was more stingy and his efforts were rewarded with some rare wins. Including a shutout over Washington, of all teams.
November was Moose's second best month of the season both in terms of quantity and in quality. However, with more minutes come more goals against. The 15 he gave up in November is the most he's allowed in any given month in 2010-11. How many were soft goals? Who made an egregious mistake on those GAs? Where did he get beat? Let's review all 15 goals against Hedberg in November and answer these questions after the jump. (P.S. Please set your viewing to "Wide" before continuing.)
About the Review
I'll be including this with every review post as a reminder. The main thing I'm looking for are "soft goals," those that should have been stopped by the goaltender. Here's how I am defining a soft goal. The goalie must have seen the shot coming; the shot was not deflected or change otherwise in motion; the goalie was in position to actually make the stop; and the goaltender made an uncharacteristic mistake that led to the goal. If all were true, then I deemed the goal as "soft." In fact, the very last bit alone can make the difference between a soft goal or not (e.g. first goal against by Hedberg).
I've added a new column to the chart called Skater Error. Did a Devils skater do something seriously wrong on the play that led to the goal? If so, their name (or names) end up on the chart. I could be picky and call them out for every goal, but I'm only highlighting who's actions or lack thereof contributed to the goal against. There will be goals where multiple skaters screw up, so you may see more than one name. I'm tracking this to see who was commonly at fault, assuming it means anything. As with the goals against themselves, feel free to discuss this too.
Lastly, I have provided links to the video I looked at for each goal from NHL.com. These links will auto-play the video, so be forewarned.
The 15 Goals Allowed by Johan Hedberg in November 2010: A Chart
| Date | GA# | Where Beaten? | GA Description | Soft Goal? | Video Link | Skater Error |
| 11/3/2010 | 7 | Low, past his left | Campbell collects puck in right corner and fires a pass to crease. Deflects off Colin White's stick and in. | No | Link | |
| 11/3/2010 | 8 | Low, on his left at post | Stops Stalberg's shot, Fernando Pisani is open at right post, takes short rebound and curls it past Hedberg. PPGA | No | Link | |
| 11/3/2010 | 9 | Medium, over body/glove | Goalmouth scramble, Viktor Stalberg picks puck in between White's skates and lifts over fallen Hedberg. | No | Link | |
| 11/5/2010 | 10 | Low, through legs | Anisimov shanks his shot, but Brandon Dubinsky fires the loose puck through Hedberg's 5-hole | Yes | Link | |
| 11/5/2010 | 11 | High, on the left side | Dan Girardi fires a shot from the point, Brian Boyle deflects it past Hedberg in slot. PPGA | No | Link | |
| 11/5/2010 | 12 | Low, left post | White and Dubinsky rush up on SH chance; White's shot is stopped, makes pass from behind net to Dubinsky at left post for easy tap-in. SHGA | No | Link | Greene Kovalchuk |
| 11/10/2010 | 13 | Top left corner | Hedberg stops a long Connolly shot; rebound goes into slot; Jason Pominville beats Volchenkov to it and pounds it in the top corner past a possibly-screened Moose. | No | Link | Volchenkov |
| 11/10/2010 | 14 | Top left corner, over shoulder | Derek Roy enters zone with puck, fires a clear slapshot over Hedberg's shoulder. | Yes | Link | |
| 11/10/2010 | 15 | Top right corner, over shoulder | Rob Niedermayer makes a cross-ice pass to a wide open Tyler Myers in high slot. He picks the top right corner. | No | Link | Pelley |
| 11/10/2010 | 16 | Low, past right pad | Myers collects missed shot from behind net, curls around left post, and makes pass to Tyler Ennis at the crease. Ennis taps it in past right pad. | No | Link | White Langenbrunner Tallinder |
| 11/18/2010 | 17 | Short side on right post | Nazem Kadri finds Kris Versteeg all alone in the lower right circle. Versteeg beats Hedberg high short-side on one-timer. PPGA | No | Link | Corrente |
| 11/24/2010 | 18 | Top left corner | Mark Giordano fires a shot from the point, Rene Bourque deflects it in the slot to make it go high and over glove. | No | Link | |
| 11/26/2010 | 19 | Low, either through legs or below left pad | Frans Nielsen fires a cross-ice pass to Jesse Joensuu, who fires a low one-timer past a sliding Brodeur | No | Link | |
| 11/26/2010 | 20 | High, over left shoulder | Blake Comeau fires a cross-ice pass to Robbie Schremp. Schremp fires a shot over a sliding Hedberg's shoulder. | No | Link | Gionta |
| 11/27/2010 | 21 | Low, off Hedberg's body and in | A Jeff Carter shot bounced off Scott Hartnell's skates in front, went right to Danny Briere at right post, and fired it low off Hedberg's falling body to sneak it in. A fluke of a goal. PPGA | No | Link |
Note: No goals allowed from 11/22/2010 against Washington, Hedberg shut them out in 5-0 win.
Commentary
Out of 15 goals allowed, I only counted two that were soft. Interestingly, I didn't think they were that soft at the time. On GA#10, while Hedberg did have to go laterally, he didn't have to go far to face the shot. Dubinsky just saw enough daylight in between the legs and got it in. That could have easily been stopped either better form or just having his stick there. GA#14 was an open slapshot by Derek Roy. As good of a shot that was, Hedberg saw it and should have had it. Still, 2 out of 15 (13.33%) is rather good in terms of not letting up some stinkers.
What as more distressing was the number of errors by the skaters. I'm not referring to plays like GA#20 where the skaters were seemingly in slow-motion. Besides, Joensuu's one-timer was perfectly placed. I'm talking about Stephen Gionta not covering his guy on GA#21, where Robbie Schremp scored from an incredibly tight angle. I'm talking about Matthew Corrente standing at the crease instead of doing anything at Kris Versteeg on a PK for GA#17. I I'm talking about GA#16 where Henrik Tallinder was too slow to cover the passing lane, Colin White was out of position, and Jamie Langenbrunner did nothing to Tyler Ennis for his one-timer right on the doorstep of the crease. I'm talking about Rod Pelley not picking up his guy - or anyone else for that matter - so Tyler Myers had acres of space on a backdoor play - and GA#15. I'm talking about Anton Volchenkov getting beaten to a rebound he could have lunged for on GA#13. Yes, it was a big rebound, but it was put out far enough so a skater could, you know, clean it up easily instead of something short where Hedberg has to hope the other team isn't where it goes (see GA#8). I'm talking about Andy Greene's turnover and Ilya Kovalchuk's "defense" on a shorthanded 2-on-2 that resulted in GA#12. Those were some serious, it's-now-April-I-am-still-yelling-at-the-video errors. I called them out for 6 goals against, or 40%.
Rounding out the list, there were also a few deflections that beat Hedberg: GA#7, GA#11, GA#18. There was even a fluke in GA#22 (and GA#7, it was just a bad bounce off White); along with two bad breaks for the Devils in GA#8 (it was a PK situation, no shame there) and GA#9 (right place, right time for Stalberg).
This month was a case where the statline really tells the story: Hedberg played well and when he was beaten, you usually couldn't fault him for it. Good work, Moose.
Location of Goals Allowed
All locations are relative to Hedberg himself, not necessarily where the puck goes into the net. It's pretty simplistic, but it'll do for general information.
| Location | Count | % Total |
| Low Left | 4 | 26.67% |
| Low Middle | 1 | 6.67% |
| Low Right | 2 | 13.33% |
| Medium Left | 0 | 0.00% |
| Medium Middle | 1 | 6.67% |
| Middle Right | 1 | 6.67% |
| High Left | 5 | 33.33% |
| High Middle | 0 | 0.00% |
| High Right | 1 | 6.67% |
Interestingly, the left side was constantly picked on for Hedberg in November. I don't know whether to say it was a weakness. Some of these goals against were deflections, some were off short rebounds, and some were just well placed shots (e.g. GA#17, GA#20) that happened to pick that top left corner. While last month showed that Hedberg was often beaten low, I find that in this month that there was more success in going high. Still, low shots got through slightly more than those high ones.
I also found the rare "medium middle" goal against on GA#9. From the video of goal, Stalberg got it up over a fallen Hedberg seemingly into the middle of the net. While it did technically go over Hedberg's head (and outstretched arms), it didn't go all the way high. For the sake of clarity and the precedent set in January 2010 when I did this for Brodeur (the Andrew Brunette "header"), I deemed it "medium middle."
Your Take
Now that you saw what I found, what do you make of it? Surprised to see that Hedberg gave up only two softies? Surprised that I called out 6 goals against where the Devils skaters screwed up in a serious manner? Do you think I should have called them out more? Satisfied to see that Hedberg bounced back from a short and awful October to a longer and effective November? Worried to see what December will hold next week? Please leave your answers and other thoughts on the goals allowed by Hedberg in November 2010 in the comments. Thanks for reading.