Kevin Poulin followed up his first career start and win against the Avalanche with an equally impressive performance against the hottest team in the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks. He stopped 19 of 20 shots in the first period and finished with 49 saves on 52 shots in a valiant 4-3 shootout loss on home ice. Click below to listen to our audio scouting report while you watch NHL.com’s highlights of the game.

SCOUTING NOTES

+ If you were able to catch this game, you saw first-hand just how well Kevin was able to track pucks through screens and traffic. This was one of his biggest strengths in tonight’s game. It allowed him to stop all four power-play shots he faced in the game. He has now stopped all eight PP shots he has faced.

+ Because Poulin has active hands but relies on good positioning in the crease, he has to be careful when there’s traffic in front of him or off to his sides. Due to the fact that he doesn’t have the fastest footwork or recovery mechanics, pucks that bounce around his feet or are re-directed at the last second will cause bad rebounds or sometimes cause him to lose his balance. The more quiet his body can be, the more his feet will be set and the better chance he’ll have to absorb shots or control rebounds.

+ Not once in the game did Kevin look like he was suffering from energy drain. He displayed a high work ethic and level of intense focus from the first minute until the shootout. This is a terrific sign that he’s not only in great shape, but he understands how to manage a heavy workload in a single game. 52 shots against the best team in the NHL is no simple task, even for the league’s top goalies.

+ Kevin showed an excellent ability to get his body or legs behind shots he didn’t completely see from release point to the point of arrival. Rarely did he lose sight of the puck for more than a split second. Again, in his two-plus games of NHL action, his clear-cut strengths in regards to butterfly technique is puck-tracking and well-placed hand positioning.

+ Poulin simply can’t lunge out at pucks. His recovery mechanics once his skate blades come off the ice are not strong. It takes him a long time to recover from a scramble mode back to his original stance and this has caused him to dive or throw his upper body across his crease in order to seal holes. Even though he has lost around 20 pounds during his tenure in the QMJHL, he could stand to lose 10 more pounds. This will greatly improve and increase the speed in which he recovers from scramble-mode plays.

+ The only mistakes Poulin made in this game, save a few bad rebounds, was lunging out at pucks with his stick. They were not full-blown poke checks, but on Alex Burrow’s goal (1st period) and the shootout-winning goal, he was caught trying to challenge the shooter with the stick. As I have been saying for years, the less a goalie tries to challenge with their stick, the better off they will be. It’s simply too much of a risk when the shooter has time and space to work with.