It\u2019s not just young goalies who have to get over, in game, giving up a bad goal.<\/p>\n
Those who reach the pinnacle of their craft often credit a desire for continued learning, whether they\u2019re just starting out or have been working on their trade for many decades. The same is true with hockey, specifically with goaltenders who face physical difficulties, of course, but are also plagued by the mental aspects of expectations.<\/p>\n
While many associate younger, developing players with learning and improving their craft, those in the NHL never stop advancing their knowledge. The San Jose Sharks currently have both, a young up-and-coming goaltender in Yaroslav Askarov and a veteran in Alex Nedeljkovic looking to make a big role for himself.<\/p>\n
Both discussed gutting it out when you\u2019re not at your best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still learning and still growing,\u201d said 29-year-old netminder Nedeljkovic. \u201cIt\u2019s hard, and I think you have to go through it in order to learn from it. You\u2019ve got to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nedeljkovic, who is in his ninth NHL season, has played 17 games for the Sharks this season. During that time he has recorded a 5-7-2 record with a .895 save percentage and a 3.06 goals-against average.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The majority of learning for goaltenders at the NHL level is focusing on the mental side of the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen guys have a tough night, you could see it on their faces and whatnot, but then it\u2019s how you show up the next day,\u201d said Nedeljkovic. \u201c[Then] two nights later, you watch the same guy, and he looks totally confident, and puts up a 40-save shutout, or a 50-save effort, like it doesn\u2019t phase them. That\u2019s part of being a professional and being at your best, just moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Nedeljkovic, his form of moving on is simple. \u201c[I] just take a little sip of water and just tell myself, \u2018Go get that next puck.\u2019 Ultimately, that\u2019s all you can do. It\u2019s done. It\u2019s over now, and they\u2019re not taking it off the board.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yaroslav Askarov, meanwhile, is faced with the expectations of being the No. 1 goalie for the San Jose Sharks and growing into that. This season, he\u2019s appeared in 26 games and has a 15-10-1 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to develop [Askarov] and get him to be the guy for this organization going forward,\u201d head coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cThere are going to be moments where he\u2019s going to have some nights where he doesn\u2019t feel his best, but [he] can grind it out [and] make some big saves early or late in games, like he did against Vancouver [in a 6-3 win on Dec. 27]. Asky\u2019s learning and developing just like everyone [else].\u201d<\/p>\n
There was one of those moments in Monday night\u2019s game against the Anaheim Ducks. While the Sharks were up by a goal, Askarov tried to play the puck behind the net. He ended up turning the puck over to Anaheim, and Troy Terry swiftly found the back of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, that\u2019s the game when I have to start play with the puck more,\u201d Askarov said post-game, referencing a pre-game conversation about overcoming adversity with San Jose Hockey Now. \u201c[Then] that happened, and I was like \u2018What a fucking idiot.\u2019 Especially against this team [and their forecheck].\u201d<\/p>\n
When all was said and done though, Askarov ended the night with 38 saves on 42 shots in a 5-4 win, showing his ability to bounce back quickly: \u201cThis can happen sometimes, a bad bounce. So [you] just have to keep your head up and just [keep] moving on. [The game is] 60 minutes. You have to battle through that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Askarov did the same thing on New Year\u2019s Eve, after three long goals allowed against the Minnesota Wild. When the San Jose Sharks needed him most, he turned away Quinn Hughes on an OT breakaway, then he shut out the Wild in the shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s mentally tough,\u201d Warsofsky said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s bad lessons, but it\u2019s still a great experience,\u201d Askarov said on the morning of the Ducks tilt. \u201cYou have to go through that, [to keep] moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Warsofsky noted, Askarov is one of many young players on the San Jose Sharks roster which creates some additional challenges for a young goaltender, as there are bound to be growing pains for those around him as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But no matter the score, Askarov is learning to stay within himself and what he can control.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what [the score is], [whether] we\u2019re leading by five, or we\u2019re losing 5-3, you have to keep battling and keep focused on the next shot, no matter what\u2019s going on on the ice,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s finding a way to just make that one more save and just giving us a chance, in the end, to get a win and [Askarov\u2019s] done a great job with it,\u201d Nedeljkovic said about his tandem mate. \u201cHe\u2019s just battled. The numbers, they\u2019re not what you want [them] to be right now, but at the end of the day, all that matters is wins and he\u2019s been winning a lot for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Askarov, in fact, has a 6-4-0 record in December, a winning mark, despite an .875 Save %, a testament to how he\u2019s learning to gut out wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment is not too big for him, he\u2019s embracing it all. That\u2019s the best part, he\u2019s looking at it as an opportunity and a challenge to be better. His mindset is perfect,\u201d Nedeljkovic said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen a day where he\u2019s been at the rink, and not smiling. He\u2019s always smiling, he\u2019s always having fun. He\u2019s just happy to be here, happy to be on the ice and happy to be playing. It\u2019s what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not just young goalies who have to get over, in game, giving up a bad goal. Those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[9846,64,63,952,575,89070,7527,23189,85,68803],"class_list":{"0":"post-386935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alex-nedeljkovic","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-ryan-warsofsky","14":"tag-san-jose-sharks","15":"tag-sjhn","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-yaroslav-askarov"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}