NHL Playoffs: Crawford Over Relies on Reverse VH and Costs Hawks a Stranglehold

Like any new fashion, it is very easy to soon see it everywhere and all occasions.  The Reverse-VH or post-leg down style of sealing the post is no exception.  The first iteration of this maneuver was the Standard VH or post-leg up.  I remember watching Kiprusoff use it 15 or so years ago for the first time and thinking immediately that it was an amazing evolutionary development in goaltending.  Very quickly, in the world of heavily scouted games and video, the development and use of the Standard-VH became all pervasive in the NHL and nearly as quickly, the snipers and forwards started to exploit its weaknesses.

Several years later, the Reverse-VH was developed, at first as a natural way to seal up the post when a goalie has to backside-edge or shimmy to the post because there is no time to recover up and go to the post.  It worked well when it was new, original, and used sparingly.  Players who expected an easy wrap-around goal because there was a gap between a goalie who was stuck in his butterfly and the puckside post were soon stymied by the Reverse-VH.  Due to its increasing effectiveness and the increasing success of goalies that use it, read Quick, the maneuver has come to be, well, over-used much like the Standard-VH was.  For many goalies, it has become the proverbial "hammer in a world full of imaginary nails".  Every situation down low for these goalies looks like a nail, even when it is not, and they quickly pull out their trusty and well-used hammer.

As a demonstration of that point, the Blackhawks Corey Crawford makes the mistake of using the Reverse-VH when the situation didn't warrant it and then to make matters worse, he held the pose for way too long, and by getting beat between his body and the post by a dead-angle shot.  So goalies beware, while the Reverse-VH is extremely useful in the right scenario, it can easily be over-utilized and the result can be a lost game in OT in the Stanley Cup Playoffs!!