Reformation of Steve Mason

Remember Steve Mason? He was once the goaltender for the Columbus Blue Jackets when they went to their only Stanley Cup playoff appearance and when he won the Calder Trophy. After that, he has struggled, the Blue Jackets have been eliminated every year, and now he had been traded to the Philadelphia Flyers where he seems to have gotten his game back together.

He came to Philadelphia with a hope that he could get some answers into how to restructure his game. He flipped through magazines and newspapers, looking for something that might give him the edge. One thing he did find was that the goalie should focus on segments within the game as just one game. He says that he sees the game more as a neighborhood of nine segments.

He said, "I just break it down into a pretty much seven-minute increments of a period."

This, of course, is referencing to the three TV timeouts per period, which, adding up, totals nine segments in three periods. He talks to his teammates sometimes and compares notes on what he's seeing from his crease to what the skaters are seeing.

Mason doesn't pay attention to numbers on the scoreboard (no player should, in my opinion). He doesn't keep score. Even when the Flyers were losing despite his best efforts to keep them in the game, Mason does his best to distance himself from his teammates. He didn't want his own performance to falter when his other teammates were slumping.

He gives credits to goalie coach Jeff Reese with a lot of the improvements in his game. Apparently, because he's been playing so well, he's considered for the Olympics.

I won't say anything on whether he should be considered for the Olympics, because that's not my area of expertise, but I will say that Mason looks like he has revisioned himself in a way that helps out the Flyers. I like how he has been able to cut this down to see it as just one game at a time per seven minutes of play. And even though the Flyers haven't been doing too well, he's been able to stop a lot of pucks because of the way he visions his gameplay. They've won five of their last six games thanks to good goaltending. Look for Mason to continue his strong goaltending and hopefully help the Flyers get back into the playoff picture.