Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek comfortably handling huge workload: 'You don't even feel like you're tired'
LOS ANGELES — The Blackhawks are riding Petr Mrazek like a camel right now.
The 32-year-old goalie is expected to make his sixth consecutive start and 10th start in the first 12 games of the season Saturday against the Kings. It's a workload unlike any has experienced in years — even exceeding last season, when he set a career high with 53 starts in 82 games.
Remarkably, though, he doesn't feel worn down by the constant action. He finally figured out a solution to his career-long groin issues last season, and that perfect health has continued since.
"It has been great since the start of the year," Mrazek said Friday. "The things that I've been working on over the years pay off. There were times where it was hard to sleep after the games. Now, I've been sleeping well and I've been recovering well. I've been feeling the best I've felt.
"Once you play in more games, you feel confident and you feel good. You don't even feel like you're tired — you just want to play. It's been fun. It's just time to win some games."
Mrazek's .896 save percentage so far doesn't jump off the page, but it's skewed by one bad game against the Canucks in which he allowed six goals. In general, he has been solid, giving the Hawks a chance to win most nights.
He has allowed three or fewer goals in seven of his nine games, making him one the NHL's leaders in terms of quality-start percentage. And his GSAA (goals saved above average), which takes into account the difficulty of the shots he faces, is right around average at plus-0.06, per Natural Stat Trick.
The Hawks haven't produced enough offense to take much advantage of his consistency, however. After their disheartening loss Thursday against the Sharks, they're now 3-6-0 in Mrazek's starts this year and 1-4-0 in his last five — and the one win (against the Avalanche) required some goaltending heroics in the third period.
"He has been great for us," coach Luke Richardson said. "We've got to get him more than two goals."
This extreme reliance on Mrazek certainly wasn't the Hawks' plan approaching the season. They envisioned a near-equal split with newly signed goalie Laurent Brossoit, who had been statistically one of the league's best backups in three of the last four seasons with the Jets and Golden Knights.
Brossoit's late-summer meniscus injury, Aug. 27 surgery and longer-than-anticipated recovery time has thrown a wrench in things. His initial estimated recovery time put his return window between Oct. 1-15, but those dates have long since passed and he still hasn't begun fully practicing with the team — although he did partially participate one time last week before this road trip.
Arvid Soderblom has stuck around as the backup goalie instead, but he missed a couple games due to illness, forcing the Hawks to start Mrazek back-to-back last weekend against the Predators and Stars — which marked just the second time since February 2020 he had done that.
"[It was the] same as every game, the way I prepared," Mrazek said. "Nothing changed that game. But I didn't know what to expect from it. After that game, I was like, 'It felt pretty good.' It felt actually better than resting a couple days."
Soderblom has recovered and will start Sunday against the Ducks, giving Mrazek some much-needed rest, Richardson said.
But Mrazek and the Hawks are both lucky things have gone so smoothly up to this point. He believes his lack of aches and pains allows him to sleep better, which allows him to recover better, which creates a positive spiral of healthiness.
"When you're in the flow and you play more games, you feel more confident," he said. "You see the game different, and you feel like you can stop every single puck."