Establish Space

One thing what I'd like to see from Jonas Hiller is for him to be more aggressive in net. A lot of times, he seems too passive when opposing players are in or near his crease. Most times, he just looks around the bodies,  but avoids contact with them. He was quite the opposite to his former teammate J.S. Giguere. Giguere would push bodies when they got too close to him or punch them in the head (which was really funny).

Another aggressive goaltender is San Jose Sharks Evgeni Nabokov; a goalie who is well known for clearing his crease to the point of moving to the top of the crease, when an opposing player comes anywhere close to his crease. He's even kept his own teammates out if they're too close.

There's obviously no denial that Hiller is a great goaltender despite some struggles down the stretch during the 2009-2010 season. The past season, he was a little shaky but also managed to win big games. As a whole, the team didn't do what was expected of them for many reasons. Other than that, a little more aggression needs to be seen out of Hiller not necessarily Nabokov type aggression. Just enough where, he "marks his territory" keeping other players including his own, out of his crease. Not withholding, he hasn't or doesn't do this on an occasion. He needs to be aggressive to the point where like said, to keep his territory. But he shouldn't be stupid aggressive. Which once in awhile is seen in veteran Tim Thomas such as  in the Winter Classic, when he pushed a Flyers player  out of the way but ended up letting in a goal shortly after because he was too focused on the players in front not the play or the puck. (Thomas is still a excellent goalie and to the fact he's on my Fantasy team) Though, that was just a little quirk and a bad one on Thomas' part....a little more aggression from Hiller could help dominate his game more.

One thing with aggressive goalies, they have to be smart aggressively. Like described from the Thomas mistake, one cannot be so focused on the player(s) in front that it ultimately distracts them from the play. Another thing which has to be taken into consideration is, the player is there merely to "block out the sun"  to make an attempt at making the goalie lose the sight of the puck in hopes of their teammate scoring. Sometimes, players will back up into the goaltender while trying to cut the line of vision from the goalie, another vital distraction to get under the skin of the gatekeeper. The attempt of blocking out a goalie isn't only physical; it's mentally too (::cough:: Corey Perry ::cough, cough::) a goaltender who loses his concentration on the play would at the end ultimately lose the play. It could go "Off the post" music to a goalie's ears, the puck could be "fanned on" "misfired" or  "go wide" but because of the loss of concentration, because he's too focused on the player in front the puck usually ends up in the back of the net of something he  should of stopped. Watch Nabokov play, he rarely makes those mistakes yet he's still one of the most aggressive goalies in the league. 

Hiller needs to push the players out of the way, the ones who butt up against him or say something more to them, (although it is fairly unknown how much he does say to a player in front) he just needs to tell them stay out of my crease. While he does show some aggression; he needs to show it more, establish his space.Even taking Jiggy's lead and poking the player in the back of the head....and get away with it. Somewhere, where, he should start being more aggressive is in practices with the team because being scored on, isn't as vital as it is in game time. Then, while practice and playing a game is different from one another; he can make the transition to the game. As said, he seems too passive in his crease a lot of the time. He also shouldn't be afraid to push his own players out of the way, who are interfering with him... are too close to him.

Just to the fact, your own teammates will get in your way not on purpose but because they're so focused on the play, trying to block a shot, they're not paying attention completely to their surroundings and there... is where you hear "his own player blocked him out on that one" (Not just for Hiller that statement is rhetorical, it's for every goalie)

To see some more aggression from Hiller would be great and it'd fit his style of play. With Hiller, that's just his personality, he's not an aggressive person and it shows in his position. Hiller's more of the quite kid in class, but can and will be aggressive when he wants or needs  to be. Definitely like to see more aggression from him, pushing players away.  Establish his space, make it known it's his space and only his. Be a little greedy in that part. Jiggy was aggressive during his play, which if the two had almost complete different styles of play. While at the same time, they did have similarities.  Which came from being with the same goalie coach for such an extended period of time: Francois Allaire had worked with Hiller since he was 16 and Jiggy, at least since he first came to the Ducks. And now Allaire and Giguere are reunited in Toronto. Ducks currently have  Peete Peters as goalie coach.

But like said in a previous post look for more improvement from Hiller he'll have less on his plate it'd be a clean slate. And the season schedule will be back to normal, as in we'll see the All-Star break back. Instead of  the Olympic break.

As a grade overall this is what I wrote in The NHL Arena
I'd give him a B this time around. He clearly was a bit shaky down the stretch at times. There were games where we knew this isn't the Hiller we're all used to seeing. But given Anaheim's goalie situation and the way Anaheim coaching staff handled it (Carlyle) there was a lot on his plate.

After the Olympics, he definitely struggled but but given the fact that he was mentally tired, somewhere he even said it was hard mentally after the Olympics. I hope we don't play him as much but where he still has consistent minutes of being a starter. Sure, it could be argued that there's goalies who have a huge workload such as Luongo and Nabokov...but Luongo has been struggling since the Olympics though he did play a great game, to keep his team in the series....Nabokov has been solid but he also struggled after the Olympics....overworking goaltenders is bad. Yeah...they're a professional so they should be used to it....well yes, they should be used to it but Nabokov, Luongo, Anderson , Hiller etc are all human they will wear down at one point....go on a skid. No matter how good they are /rant 


Also read this excellent article from The Goalie Guild School of Block

Hiller shall play as we see him which earned him the name "Hiller the Killer" but with a little bit more fiestiness, more aggression. Otherwise he's just fine in the way he plays.