Mike Chen's Hockey Blog
Worst of the Best
by Mike Chen on 11/10/08 at 12:25 PM ET
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Goals are up by about 1/3 of a goal per game, but does that translate into so many good goalies having bad years (at least statistically)? There was a time about 20 years ago when having a .900 save percentage was the benchmark for having a pretty good season. Now if you’re below .900, you’re having a bad year, and so far many notable goalies are falling into this category:
Martin Gerber: .898
Chris Osgood: .892
Evgeni Nabokov .891
Miikka Kiprusoff .888
Vesa Toskala .884
Dan Ellis .879
Martin Biron .878
Jose Theodore .877
Marty Turco .858
The strange thing is that these poor numbers are translating into all sorts of different things in the win/loss column. Some guys (Nabokov, Osgood, Toskala) are still racking up the wins while some guys (Turco, Biron) are shouldering a good chunk of the blame for their teams’ slow starts. However, they’re all letting pucks in that they really shouldn’t, and it’s hard to tell whether it’s a team issue or an individual player issue.
Turco, for one, has admitted to fighting the puck, and the whole thing might have gotten into his head by now. Nabokov might be the victim of a whole team adjusting to a new system while Ellis might simply coming back down to earth after a stellar campaign.
As for Osgood, Kiprusoff, and Biron? Their teams haven’t shifted around that much but it shows how fine a line it is between winning and losing. Consider the goal differential in Detroit: despite a stellar 9-2-2 record, the Wings have only a +7 goal differential. At the same time, the 4-6-3 Flyers only have a -2 goal differential.
Of course, for losing teams part of it can be psychological. Defensemen can try to do too much to help out their struggling goalie, ultimately leading them out of position and putting their goalies in even worse situations. The basic theory, then, is for everyone to back off and just let the goalies work through it.
Unless, of course, you’re Jose Theodore. That guy will probably just be a question mark for the rest of his career. But hey, he’s one of the few NHL players that got to say he made out with Paris Hilton, and I suppose in some circles, that’s more valuable than a good save percentage. Just remember to get a blood test soon, Jose.
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Goaltending, Statistics,
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