Drew Commesso’s first Blackhawks begin again in December resulted in catastrophe after two promising intervals, however he believes it has helped him longer-term.
“Ever since then, I’ve simply felt actually assured,” Commesso stated this previous week. “My sport has gotten lots sooner, and I really feel like a a lot better goalie from it. I believe my play not too long ago shows that.”
The Hawks’ high goalie prospect, a 22-year-old Boston College product now midway by way of his second season in Rockford, has certainly righted the ship after a tough begin to the season.
Earlier than making his first career NHL start Dec. 14 in New Jersey — permitting 4 objectives (all within the third interval) on 24 pictures — he had gone 4-6-0 with an .879 save proportion in his first 10 AHL appearances of the season. Since then, he’s 4-3-2 with a .925 save proportion in his final 9 AHL appearances, together with two shutouts. (Final season, he was 18-16-4 with a .906 save proportion.)
“Up there, every thing occurs sooner, and me realizing that has allowed me to play somewhat bit faster down right here,” Commesso added. “It permits me to learn the play higher and be somewhat bit forward of pucks. In case you watch my video games not too long ago, I really feel like I’m doing a superb job of beating performs as a substitute of assembly them.”
Mentioned Rockford interim coach Mark Eaton: “When he’s on, it’s very noticeable. He makes each save seem like a straightforward one, despite the fact that they’re not.”
Commesso is a really clever man who’s all the time innovating his strategy to hockey, each on- and off-ice. Final season, he added meditation to his pregame routine, and he believes that slows issues down and helps him focus solely on what he can management.
As a result of he’s so sensible and artistic, nonetheless, Commesso discovered early this season he was arguably attempting to do an excessive amount of concurrently, and that was over-complicating his sport. Rockford goalie coach Matt Smith helped him calm down.
“When you will have goalies which are tremendous clever, they tend to know the sport at a unique degree,” Smith stated. “However now we have to get from Level A to Level B first, earlier than we go to Level C. Generally they need to go proper to Level C. It has actually helped him to slender his give attention to one or two issues at a time.”
Smith’s key repair to Commesso’s on-ice motion concerned getting him set in his stance (together with his knees bent) and sq. to the puck sooner than he had been.
“The sooner he can get set, the extra he can let his thoughts play the sport and digest what’s in entrance of him,” Smith stated. “[That] permits him to make use of what we expect is one among his strengths: studying the play.”
A second, extra nuanced change they made associated to Commesso’s side-to-side motion within the crease.
Beforehand, Commesso would shift his weight earlier than pushing over, which made the entire movement take longer and in addition induced his head to briefly swing in the wrong way at first. Smith has taught him to shift his weight as he pushes and in addition to drive his head by way of the motion, following side-to-side passes extra aggressively.
“I do know I’ve the bodily instruments — and I’ll preserve engaged on them — however the mentality of getting there faster has been actually huge for me,” Commesso stated. “In case you have a look at my sport now in comparison with two months in the past, you’ll discover fairly huge variations.”
Word: Hawks goalie prospect Adam Gajan is having a rougher season. A freshman at Minnesota-Duluth, Gajan posted an .882 save proportion in 12 video games and has now been sidelined since November attributable to harm. He’ll seemingly want a number of years of faculty hockey earlier than turning professional.
