A Top-10 Goalie Is a Treat, but NHL Teams Need a Tandem
A standout starter can lift an entire club. That is exactly why the second goalie, the shared practice load and the unglamorous plan behind both matter so much.
A ranked starter gives a hockey fan permission to daydream. I understand the appeal of imagining Dan Vladar as the answer to every hard night the Flyers will face. But a good season in net is rarely a one-person magic trick. It is a tandem, which is less glamorous than a top-10 graphic and much more useful.
The word tandem does not mean two goalies must be identical or split every assignment down the middle. It means the club has built its goaltending around two people who can take real responsibility. One may start more often. One may have a more specialized role. The essential point is simpler: the team is not pretending that the crease stops existing whenever its preferred starter is on the bench.
A great starter creates a bigger need for a useful partner
Vladar's ranking came after a season substantial enough to make the idea concrete. NHL Network ranking coverage credited him with 52 appearances, a 29-14-7 record, a .906 save percentage and a 2.42 goals-against average. That is a lot of work. It also shows why the relief work cannot be treated as an afterthought. If a club gets important performances from its starter, it has something valuable to protect rather than something it can casually spend.
I would frame the tandem's job in three parts. First, it keeps the team from asking one person to supply every good night. Second, it gives coaches a real option when the schedule, opponent or recent workload points another way. Third, it keeps practices competitive, because the starter is not rehearsing alone in a private little kingdom. Those are organizational advantages, not consolation prizes.
Philadelphia has named the pair
The Flyers' current answer is not hidden in a vague depth chart. NBC Sports Philadelphia's opening-night report listed Dan Vladar and Joseph Woll as the club's goalies. That simple pairing says more than a forecast about who will start the next game. It tells us the team expects both to be part of the season's structure.
There is a nice preseason version of the same idea. The Flyers' official September 21 preview put Vladar and Woll in the first half of an intrasquad scrimmage before two other goalies handled the second half. Across the rink in Hershey, the Capitals' plan reported by RMNB called for Charlie Lindgren to play half a game and Clay Stevenson to relieve him. Teams rehearse the sharing before they need it.
Do not confuse a tandem with a lack of belief
This is the bit fans sometimes get backward. Giving a second goalie meaningful work is not necessarily a vote of no confidence in the first. It can be the opposite. The better a starter is, the more a team has to preserve the conditions that make that player effective: preparation, rhythm, a manageable workload and a backup who is not rusty when called on.
The Flyers' preseason games also show why labels can be too neat. Boston's September 24 preview described a traveling group that was younger than the previous game's veteran-heavy lineup. A goalie can be asked to work behind a different sort of defense from one night to the next. The tandem is not only about calendar management. It is about having credible choices when the cast around the net changes.
We can enjoy the top-10 label without turning it into a demand that Vladar play the role of an indestructible folk hero. A really good tandem is a quiet pleasure. One goalie has the spotlight, the other makes the whole plan less fragile, and the team gets to treat a position of constant pressure as a shared craft. That is better hockey, and it makes the special save feel like a bonus instead of a rescue.
Sources
Every factual claim above traces to one of these. Links open in a new tab.
- NHL Network Ranks Dan Vladar Eighth on its List of "Top 10 Goalies Right Now"
- Flyers’ Dan Vladar cracks NHL Network’s Top 10 list of goaltenders
- Flyers will have their all-important piece for opening night
- Preseason RAV4 Things: Flyers @ Capitals
- No Ovechkin: Capitals reveal roster for preseason game against Flyers in Hershey
- Need to Know: Bruins at Flyers | Preseason
