Padstackers Club

Every week we run down the best in gloves, toes, kicks, sticks and stacks

Courtesy BehindThePads

By Marnitz Kotze

"Me and my goalies, we tighter than a glove/ Save a lot of games its how we do it at the Padstackers Club" - Eric "Eazy-E" Wright

A great save can get you cemented in history as a game-changer, but most importantly it will get you mentioned on my weekly article about saves. This is the Padstackers club.

Kari Lehtonen on Jordan Eberle

In the third edition of what is apparently becoming the Kari Lehtonen fan page, we once again have Lehtonen leaving a player questioning his hockey abilities and his manhood. The Dallas Stars are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games and a large part of that recent success has to be directly attributed to the play of their goaltender. The save came in the first period while the game was still scoreless, and while Edmonton doesn't win games, a goal at this point might have given them a different idea. Judging by how often Lehtonen has appeared in the exclusive Padstackers Club, I'd like to think he is making an early case for the Vezina.

Craig Anderson on Claude Giroux

It's no secret that Giroux is having a difficult season scoring-wise, and it can't be good for his confidence when Anderson does things like this. The positive side for Giroux on this one is that they're up 3-0 at this point and go on to win the game, so no harm done. In Anderson's case, Ottawa fans must have wondered where this save was three goals earlier. Desperation stick saves are always sexy though. Enjoy.

Brayden Holtby on Tomas Tatar

What do Brayden Holtby and Kari Lehtonen have in common? Well, besides their regular appearances on the blog, they have both had amazing saves on Tomas Tatar. Last week it was Lehtonen robbing Tatar and this week Holtby. I could only imagine the frustration here for Tatar as the puck is actually on the line as Holtby slides across and gets the pad down. The look on his face at the bench in the video just says it all. 

Josh Harding on Mayson Raymond

The story of Josh Harding is truly incredible. He has started 14 games for Minnesota and gone 12-2 in those games, and what's even crazier is his save and goals against numbers. Harding sits on top of the league with a 1.25 GAA and a .946 save percentage also best amongst starting goalies. Craziest of all though is the fact that he's doing this all while playing with multiple sclerosis. This save on Raymond came in the shootout and if you watch closely you can see Harding bite on the deke but still stretch back to make the save. 

Christian Ehrhoff on James van Riemsdyk

Okay, I know Ehrhoff is not a goalie, but does that stop him from making saves when Miller leaves the net? Not only does he makes the save, but Rick Jeanneret goes wild, AND Ehrhoff scores a goal right after the save. Save of the year in my books. Okay maybe not, but either way it was still pretty sweet.

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