ARLINGTON, Va. – They are safety nets and superheroes, last resorts before disaster strikes.

“Everything in hockey breaks down. It’s your job to save the day when it breaks down.”

That how Mitch Korn, the veteran goaltending coach now plying his trade with the Washington Capitals, sees the mission of a professional netminder.

“Let’s face it, it’s like car insurance. You don’t need it, until you NEED IT,” he says, with effect. “And then you find you if you have good car insurance or bad car insurance.”

Korn has been in the insurance game for roughly 35 years at every level. His most heralded achievement was helping Dominik Hasek become the Dominator, winning four Vezina trophies while Korn was the Buffalo Sabres’ goalie coach from 1991-98.

Then he went to Nashville under the franchise’s inaugural coach Barry Trotz, and became foreman of one of the NHL’s most consistent goalie factories: Mike Dunham then Tomas Vokoun then Chris Mason then Pekka Rinne, with players like Dan Ellis and Anders Lindback playing above their heads on his watch.

“There’s no secret. We’ve had some good success. A lot of names you’ve heard of, a lot of names you haven’t heard of, yet we try to build them the same way. Some guys get it, and some guys don’t. At the end of the day, goalies make themselves goalies,” he said.

So does Braden Holtby get it?

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That’s been one of the most pressing questions about the Capitals this season. For the most part, he’s been – statistically speaking - one of the worst starting goalies in the NHL through two months. Then he uncorks a gem like the one he had against the Chicago Blackhawks over the weekend, with 38 saves on 40 shots, and you’re reminded why the Capitals fancy him as a franchise goalie.

The task for Korn upon his arrival in Washington wasn’t just to elevate Holtby’s game, but to help him reclaim it. His effectiveness and confidence took a nosedive under former goalie coach Olaf Kolzig, who repositioned him inside the net, and former head coach Adam Oates, whose defensive philosophy was to hang Holtby out to dry like wet linens on a clothesline.

The Capitals’ improved defense, as A. Stringham of Japers’ Rink wrote, inspires confidence that Holtby will come around:

Holtby's poor save percentage is not warranted by the shots - quantity or quality - the Caps are yielding. His problems between the pipes may be between the ears - it seems reasonable to expect it might be difficult for a goalie to adjust to a(nother) new coach and system. The good news is that the Caps' defense appears to truly be solid; the bad news is that the goaltending has been abysmal. In terms of long-term success, this actually bodes well for the team, as it seems far more likely that the goaltending will get better than that the defense will get worse.

“It’s well-documented what they wanted him to do last year. It’s not in his DNA. I get that,” said Korn at the start of the season.

How does one rebuild a goalie that’s lacking confidence?

‘It’s muscle memory. We’re breaking down skills into little pieces for him,” he said. “It’s not to say the guys who came before us did anything wrong, but hockey evolves. He needed to change.

“I wanted him to get comfortable. I wanted him to trust us. I wanted him to know more about himself everyday, more than he did the day before. How is your body reacting? Is your movement efficient? Are your arms working together?”

If this sounds as cerebral as it does athletic, that’s because grey matter is at the core of Korn’s philosophy. Not only in how goalies evaluate their own performances, but how they react in the moment.

“Skills a big part of it. As hard as you try to improve processing, some guys can’t do it fast enough to play in the National Hockey League,” he said.

So what makes for a great goalie?

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Mitch Korn is a wizard. Or at the very least he looks the part. Small in stature with a hint of mischief, he’s not far off from one of Trotz’s nicknames for him: “Yoda.”

(We prefer “Obi-Wan Kan Goalie,” but we don’t want to Force things when it comes to Lucasian nicknames.)

This is especially true when you start talking goaltending philosophy with him. He’s more Mr. Miyagi than Kobra Kai: Korn isn’t a “my kung-fu is the best” type, rigidly attempting to force goalies to conform to his desired style; rather, he searches for distinct talents in netminders and accentuates them. “You don’t want to coach out of a guy what he does special,” he said.

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