Stop With the Goalies, Guys

By NiNY

Pop Quiz: what are good stats for NHL goalies?  Goals Against Average and Save Percentage?

How does 2.00 and .930 sound?  Fair, yes?

Last regular season (such as it was) Craig Anderson was best among goalies who played a reasonable amount of games with a 1.69 GAA.  Four goalies (in order: Bernier, Crawford, Emery and Bobrovsky) came in under 2.00, the rest of the top 30 were between 2.00 (Bobrovsky and Rask) and 2.59 (Price and Mason).

Anderson also paced the league in save percentage, turning in a .941 (hell of a year, Craig!).  Bobrovsky came in with a .932, and the rest of the top 30 were between .929 (Rask) and .908 (Giguere and Ward).

For the '11-12 regular season, the GAA leader was Brian Elliott, who allowed 1.56 goals per 60 minutes.  Again, four other goalies (in order: Quick, Schneider, Lundqvist and Halak) were sub-2.00, and the rest of the top 30 were between 2.13 (Howard) and 2.65 (Khabibulin).

And Elliott was also tops in save percentage in 11-12 with a .940.  The next 29 guys ranged between .937 (Schneider) and .911 (Sanford).

So, yeah I think 2.00 and .930 are pretty good metrics for a goalie.  

How about 1.15 and .946?  How do those numbers sound for a goalie?  Those are Harding's numbers.  Backstrom has been worse (3.40 and .849).  But, together, they have combined for a 1.86 and .915 line - hardly disreputable.  

Okay, but that's not all the games, right?  There's Kuemper's partial game.  Yes, Kuemper had a bad outing.  Three goals against, one that would have been a goal no matter who was playing, two softies. Can't deny that. 

But, we're really willing to say that one game's worth of mediocre-to-poor play from our 3rd stringer negates the work our top two goaltenders have done?  Come on.

I'm not saying watching the Wild hasn't been aggravating.  I've got agita just like the rest of you.  All I'm saying is: relax about the goalies.  Bryz-schmyz.  We're rolling with Bax and Hards.  It's done.  Move on.

Now, about that 22nd ranked offense....