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New Early Season Top Goalie
by PuckStopsHere on 10/29/09 at 10:36 AM ET
Comments (8)
Earlier this season I picked Ilya Bryzgalov of the Phoenix Coyotes as the best goalie in the early season. Bryzgalov is continuing to play well, although his numbers are regressing a bit from his incredible start. There is another goalie who is continuing his incredible start further into the season. Craig Anderson of the Colorado Avalanche has been the top goalie in the season so far. Anderson is a big reason the Colorado Avalanche are in first place in the NHL. Anderson sports a .940 saves percentage and a 1.97 GAA. These are very strong numbers. These numbers have been posted when Anderson is facing over 35 shots per 60 minutes of play (which is a very high number).
Anderson had posted some good numbers as the Florida Panthers backup goalie (but always in limited starts). It is on the strength of those numbers that Anderson has been given a chance to start with the Colorado Avalanche. It is unclear how well he will handle the increased workload and the increased attention scouts give to his game.
At this point in the season Craig Anderson of the Colorado Avalanche has been the best goalie in the NHL. He is a late bloomer who is becoming a top NHL goalie at age 28. There is precedent for this late blooming. Last year’s Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas was playing in Finland at age 28 and was still a few years from establishing himself as a number one goalie. Despite that precedent, it is reasonable to be skeptical about Craig Anderson’s play. It is rare that a player climbs to his current level and stays there for a lengthy period. Those that do are clear Hall of Famers and we have yet to see much evidence that Craig Anderson is likely to be on a Hall of Fame trajectory in his career.
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Tags: Colorado+Avalanche, Craig+Anderson, Ilya+Bryzgalov,
Comments
Just about to post that John W. Miller has been quietly outstanding all year.
PSH’s new goal since the Corsi hell is to tell us who is playing well or poorly, days after it is established news.
Here’s a rundown of the various great stories he’s given us in October…
He’s told us that Ovechkin is good, Del Zotta has a lot of points so far, that Nylander was sent down to the AHL, Frolov was benched, the Penguins have a lot of wins, Ilya Bryzgalov used to be the best goalie, Phoenix doesn’t get a lot of fans to their games, Toskala is the worst player in the league, and 10 games into the season, that Tim Thomas wasn’t doing as well as last year.
What genius.
Posted by moore00 from the Ohio State University on 10/29/09 at 12:41 PM ET
moore00-LOL
Next up is.... Hockey is played on ice with skates-TPSH
Posted by Luongo-is-my-hero on 10/29/09 at 12:52 PM ET
I think John’s on the money here. They’re both playing well but Miller’s defense is not as notable as Colorado’s. I also think it goes to Miller.
Posted by Matt Fry from Winnipeg on 10/29/09 at 01:22 PM ET
That’s facing 29 shots a night, lower than Anderson, but I would argue it’s tougher to have a higher save% facing less shots.
Actually, it is harder to have a good saves percentage when you face a lot of shots per night than when you face a more moderate load. That generality holds quite well (the biggest exception is when somebody faces a very low number of shots - but Ryan Miller is not in that situation).
What we haven’t discussed yet is quality of those shots - which is something hard to reliably quantify - but by observation I would argue that Anderson has faced tougher shots. He also has several more games played, which gives him a far bigger impact in his team’s results so far - part of that is a scheduling fluke (Colorado has more games played than Buffalo and Miller has had a game off) but it has Anderson with a bigger positive impact so far. If Miller catches up in games played and numbers stay the same, then the argument for Miller is a much stronger one.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 10/29/09 at 01:25 PM ET
They’re both playing well but Miller’s defense is not as notable as Colorado’s.
Colorado has a defence many predicted to finish near last in the league. Colorado has the weaker defence.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 10/29/09 at 01:26 PM ET
Man you are completely full of shit. If your face less shots and give up the same number of goals, your save% is worse than someone who faced more shots. The fact that Anderson has played more games even further proves my point, because that means Anderson has faced significantly more shots than Miller, yet Miller’s save% is still better.
Miller opened the season the first week going 2-0-1, a stretch in which his team scored 4 goals total. 2 wins in 3 games with 4 goals for. Sounds pretty good to me.
Every post you make further proves my other point:
WORST. BLOG. EVER.
Posted by John W. from pulling fish out of a hole in the ice on 10/29/09 at 02:02 PM ET
John you completely misunderstood me. If two goalies have the same saves percentage and all other things are equal (they never are) then the goalie who faced more shots is almost certainly the better goalie (the fine print here is that this is not necessarily true if one goalie faces a very low number of shots - neither Anderson nor Miller are in this case).
It is more likely to have a streak/slump that lasts a short number of games than a longer one. In Miler and Anderson’s cases this is a streak. It is almost certain both will not finish the season with as strong numbers as they have now - so this is a streak for both of them. The fact that Anderson’s streak has gone longer shows it is more significant and that is a big part of why I list him as the better goalie at this point.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 10/29/09 at 02:12 PM ET
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Actually I would think the nod of best goaltender thus far would have to go to Ryan Miller:
Record: 7-0-1
Save%: .944
GAA: 1.60
That’s facing 29 shots a night, lower than Anderson, but I would argue it’s tougher to have a higher save% facing less shots.
Posted by John W. from pulling fish out of a hole in the ice on 10/29/09 at 12:00 PM ET