As it stands right now, Braden Holtby’s save on Alex Tuch late in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final has been the defining moment of the series.
With the Capitals preserving a one goal lead late in the game, a strange bounce off the boards and a centering pass from Cody Eakin gave Tuch a chance to tie the game with a seemingly wide open net. The goal would have likely forced overtime and given Tuch’s Golden Knights the opportunity to take a commanding 2-0 series lead.
But Braden Holtby dove across to make an almost impossible save with his paddle and secure the victory for the Washington.
The physical spectacle of ‘The Save,’ as many are now calling it, and the weight of the moment in which it occurred puts it up there as one of the greatest saves in the history of the National Hockey League.
Internet creatives have captured the moment in a wide variety of forms.
theflippist, a popular YouTuber known for his elaborate flip books, gave his own rendition:
Reddit user theastralj rebuilt the moment with Legos:
The Washington Post stitched together a sequence of photos to create a montage of the moments directly before, during, and after ‘The Save’:
"The Save" on repeat.#Holtbeast #ALLCAPS #StanleyCup #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/h11eFSdhFD
— Post Sports (@PostSports) May 31, 2018
Our friends at Bobblehouse made a custom Bobblehead of it:
Sometimes, someone does something in sports that NEEDS to be bobbled. The @Capitals , Braden Holtby was that bobble #TheSave#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/2lPD90smPT
— BobbleHouse® (@BobbleHouse16) June 6, 2018
John Locher of the Associated Press captured the instant of puck meeting paddle in breathtaking fashion:
AP photo of The Save from John Locher. pic.twitter.com/8tvpUiZdoj
— michael phillips (@michaelpRTD) May 31, 2018
The netcam revealed the face Alex Tuch made while Holtby performed magic on him:
As of right now, there have been no reports of any tattoo renditions of ‘The Save,’ but at this point it feels like an inevitability.
