Does he really leave fewer rebounds? I feel like his rebound control isn't elite and Hank was good at it.
With Hank playing deep, relying on reflexes, and not great at catching the puck baseball style, he left alot of juicy rebounds, but he was lightning fast to read them and stop them too (playing deep allows super quick side to side movement). He often had no interest in focusing on rebound control and just focused on keeping the puck out of the net. For example, instead of lunging to cover a rebounded puck and risk being out of position (Philly goal last night), he would wait deep in his net, stick down, leaving no space for the opposition to shoot if they got to the rebound before our guys did. I think our team realizes Igor is amazing at stopping unscreened first shots (he's great at seeing through screens too) but he does leave some big rebounds on bad angle low shots, and our D focuses on keeping his sightlines open, and tying up sticks around the net to give Igor a chance to get into position for the rebound. Igor is really good at absorbing the puck with his chest and not leaving rebounds on those shots, something that Hank wasn't really focused on when he played- he was all about 'stop the damn puck' and worry after about dealing with whatever comes after.
Low shots are still a bit of a struggle for Igor with rebounds. Hank was very good though at using his stick on lower shots more than his pads to deflect them to the side boards or more often out of play. The Tor broadcast crew (or maybe mtrl) pointed that out in our first game against them this year, that goalies in general prefer to stick the puck and deflect it as that allows control of the rebound, versus last ditch pad saves which are basically passes off the goalie (like the game winning ot goal against Hank in OT). That's why our D focuses so much on typing up sticks so those fat rebounds have rarely ended up in our net this year. Kakko shot it off Hart's pads last night from in deep, always a good play when no passing seams are open, and the puck came right off the pads perfectly to Mika, a bit too hot to handle for him though.
Igor is great, but our team D right now seems way better than anything Hank had to play with, and focuses on working synergistically with Igor, aside from the ridiculous Torts 6 goalie system that gave Hank great numbers but too little scoring support. That system kept us hemmed in the zone too long blocking point bomb after point bomb, fatiguing Hank and everyone else on the team, especially in the POs.
