TAKING THE HIGH ROAD: Shepherding The Crease

New signings in Streatham this season all seem to be about returning faces, and this morning the club announced the return of another familiar face in Brett Shepherd.

Photo taken by Blueline Photography

Starting net minders are hard to come by, especially this time of the year. Thats what head coach Ben Paynter told me during his post game interview for the SLP a few weeks back. Streatham had just come off the back of two wins over title rivals the Slough Jets in pre-season action. But the 2 wins had come with a huge cost as starting net minder Danny Milton had suffered an injury in the game on Saturday. This had lead to Ben pulling off a miracle move. Convincing Damien King to return from retirement for a few games. King didn't look out of place. But as King was in retirement his commitment to a full season was not going to be possible.

 This has seen second and third choice net minders Danny Phillips and Nik Romhas step in where King has been unavailable. Neither has looked bad in net, and both have at least one shut out to their name from their deputising while the club has waited for Danny Milton's return. However it can be argued that Streathams start to 24/25 has only seen them play one game they were expected to be troubled in. That being the early season encounter with Invicta where King was between the pipes. 

                                                   Photo taken by Blueline Photography

With the season now in October and heading into its 3rd month, and no word from the clubs official channels on Milton's injury or length of time on the sidelines. It can only be assumed that Milton has suffered a serious injury that will take a long time to heal. As Damien King no doubt has off ice commitments, as does Romahs and the load can not all be placed on Phillips young shoulders the club has managed to find that which Ben said was hard to find this time of year. A starting net-minder in Brett Shepherd. 

Something of a prodigal son, Shepherd returns to the club where he started out in UK hockey. A product of the Streatham youth academy, Shepherd is a player I feel would have been a Red Hawk sooner had it not been for the absence of an NIHL 2 side in Streatham at the time. With Shepherd first heading to Lee Valley for a season, before putting in impressive numbers in 18/19 backstopping Slough Jets to an NIHL 2 South title and NIHL 2 National championship title. During that season Shepherd also played up on occasion for Streatham and while he only posted a .850 percentage he still looked impressive and NIHL 1 Calibre. This had me hoping that we would be seeing Shepherd back on the High Road in 19/20, but instead Shepherd opted to stay in Slough with the Jets. 

His first season, he would post a .883 save percentage, but was overshadowed by Matt Smital's .905. Smital moving on meant Shepherd was able to make the net his own in 2021 and over 24 games posted an average of 3.11 GAA and a .915%. An improvement to 2.98 GAA and .917 in 2022/23 was enough to catch the eye of Berkshire Bee's who have had Brett in the back up role for the past season and a bit where his ice time was limited to 15 games over 2 seasons. In 23/24 he posted a 5.69GAA and .850 save percentage. While this season has posted a 7.00 GAA and .806 in 1 game. 

Photo taken by Blueline Photography

Shepherds signing comes a little bit out of left field this morning. It will have been no secret the club was still likely looking for a starter to stand in for Milton. While as I said Romahs and Phillips have been solid when called upon, neither right now is an NIHL 1 starter, especially with the expectations on the Streatham roster this season. The move signals that Milton's injury is possibly worse than thought and so short term deals will not cover the tougher games against the likes of Chelmsford, Slough, Solent and Invicta. Though the Bee's may have a sort of buy back clause as they mention monitoring Brett's numbers and that he is still an important part of their plans. With Morgan Garside coming in on a 2-way, already signed up with Cardiff Canucks to fill in, though how that all matches up against the Canucks schedule am not certain. Either way hopefully any buy back options have a Danny Milton return condition on then

The amount of starts Brett has at 24, and the levels he has played at mean that the club has landed that starter it needed to find. He's a championship winning caliber net-minder having won NIHL 2 and the Coventry NIHL 2 showpiece in 18/19. Brett's numbers in Slough for the Bee's are comparable to those that Jordan Lawday and Matt Smital were posting when at National level. With Lawday's last season in NIHL a .863 with a 4.65GAA and Smital's a .843 and 5.43GAA for Raider and a .827 and 7.37GAA for Bristol. The common denominator across all of these being the strength of the offence they faced vs the strength of the defence they worked behind. 

Photo taken by Blueline Photography

Goalies are very much voodoo wizardry and nonsense. The stats they post are a mixture of factors, because if you have a goalie saving 100 shots in a game, it's because the defence allowed 100 shots,as Dan Weller Evans said to me in Slough recently after a big win for the Bees over the champion Leeds Knights. That's what happens when the D makes the goalies life easier. With that in mind, it means you have to look more at how a goalie plays in net. How they control the puck, how they position themselves for shots, how they track and see the puck etc. 

In the case of Brett Shepherd, he's a goalie who passed my eye test a long time ago. Just one of those goalies that looks the part when you watch them play. I have said that the defence in-front of a net-minder is a key aspect of the stats. And with Streatham's very strong defence in-front of him there is no doubt that Brett will post solid numbers, and have life made easier for him. In the below video we see just why he will be able to deliver on that. 

Granted a 62 save performance does say a lot about how the Jets D allowed those chances in this game. But the chances he saves, especially the break away chances and ones with net front traffic showcase why Brett has always passed my eye test. 

Firstly he's good at tracking the puck, and good at playing positing when there's traffic, something you need in your starter. That tracking of the puck feeds into his positioning relative to the shooter every single time here is spot on, Shepherd was a menace for Streatham to play on the high road, always able to cover off the angles on our pad(of course his home knowledge helped) And while yes he will make mistakes and not always get that positioning correct, allowing goals. He has the ability to nail that positioning with a higher success rate. Add to this final part in the holy trinity of goalie skills, in puck control. I don't mean how he skates the puck ofcourse, I mean how he re-directs shots off the pads and blockers. Some goalies can be guilty of just pinging it wherever, but Brett is certainly not a goalie I can accuse of that. While he'll have the odd unfortunate bounce, shepherds strikes me as a goalie who always tries to make sure his rebounds are controlled into a direction his D can clear it or its out to the corners. 

Photo taken by Blueline Photography

As I have said goalies are voodoo wizardry and nonsense. Everything I have said is no guarantee of success. Hockey players, especially goalies can be a bit like the stock market. They have seasons where they rise and they have seasons where they may fall. Past success is no guarantee of future success. But that being said a net-minder in the vein of what I have just described in terms of ability, the stats and experience he has at such a young age. All point to this move having the potential to steer the club clear of what could have been some choppy waters in its quest to retain that league title.