Try A Little Tenderness

by Derek Zona on May 18, 2009 8:53 AM MDT in Analysis

Below is a list of combined save percentages rank in the NHL since the lockout based on qualifed goalies with more than a single season. Highlighted in red are the goalies that have played for a pennant.

There are some really interesting things in here.

None of the top 10 goalies here have played for a pennant.

Three of the top 10 goalies were backups this year.

Three of the top 10 goalies played for Minnesota in this time frame.

Marty Turco is just stealing money from the Dallas Stars. Really. He should give some money back. They were nuts to trade Mike Smith.

Unless Manny Legace just fell off of a cliff this year, he deserves a shot at some work next year. His track record is too good not to have a job.

When Spector starts talking out of his ass about Horcoff's contract being the worst in the NHL the next time, someone needs to have him take a long, hard look at the deals that were given to Jose Theodore, Marty Turco and Evgeni Nabokov.

Jason LaBarbera never should have hit waivers this year. He deserves a regular job as well.

Miikka Kiprusoff is...on...the...long...slow...trip...to...outrageously...overpaid...backup. .923, .917, .906, .903...

Someone at LT's joint mentioned that Cam Ward is the new Chris Osgood. I might buy that.

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Interesting group in the conference finals this year. Nobody in the Top 20 in Sv% over the 4 years, yet the group includes 3 of the past 4 Stanley Cup winners (none of whom are even top 30) and last year's losing finalist.

Does it mean goaltending is overrated? Save percentage is overrated?? Or ... ???

by Bruce on May 18, 2009 4:52 PM MDT reply actions

Does it mean goaltending is overrated? Save percentage is overrated?? Or ... ???I have no idea. This was originally going to be about relative worth of a goalie, but as I started looking at these stats I was pretty shocked. Is it just luck or small sample size? David Staples asks the same questions you did in my weekend post on this.

by Coach pb9617 on May 18, 2009 5:37 PM MDT reply actions

It's tough to say that these numbers don't confirm the value of a top 10 goaltender.

Suppose goalie A plays a bunch of games and faces 1800 shots over the course of a season. Suppose Goalie A has established a career 0.917 sv%, i.e. he lets in 8.3% of shots. He's disposed to let in 149.4 goals next season, if other things remain constant.

Goalie B, with a 9.0 career sv%, i.e. a goalie that lets in 10 % of shots is disposed to let in 180 goals on 1800 shots.

The difference between goalie a and goalie b is 30.6 goals. That's HUGE!

Goalie C, let's say a middle of the pack guy like Roloson, has a sv% of 0.909, which means he lets in 9.1 % of shots, will let in 163.8 shots.

Thus, presumably, bringing in Luongo would have dropped the Oilers GA, almost 17 goals. which would be 6th in the conference. That's definitely the playoffs, even given all the other problems this team had and even given that Rollie played a great season.

by kris on Jun 19, 2009 1:28 PM MDT reply actions

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Northwest Standings

	GP	W	L	OTL	PT
Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	54	34	15	5	73
Minnesota Hockey Wilderness	54	25	21	8	58
Calgary Matchsticks and Gasoline	55	25	22	8	58
Colorado Mile High Hockey	55	27	25	3	57
Edmonton The Copper & Blue	54	21	28	5	47

(updated 2.10.2012 at 1:26 AM MST)

21 - 28 - 5

Streak: Lost 2

Oilers Schedule

Next 5 Games

@ Ottawa Silver Seven	Sat 02/11	12:00 PM MST
Toronto Pension Plan Puppets	Wed 02/15	8:00 PM MST
Colorado Mile High Hockey	Fri 02/17	7:30 PM MST
Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	Sun 02/19	7:00 PM MST
@ Calgary Matchsticks and Gasoline	Tue 02/21	7:00 PM MST

Last 5 Games

@ Detroit Winging It In Motown	Wed 02/08	L 2 - 4
@ Toronto Pension Plan Puppets	Mon 02/06	L 3 - 6
Detroit Winging It In Motown	Sat 02/04	SO - W 5 - 4
Chicago Second City Hockey	Thu 02/02	W 8 - 4
Colorado Mile High Hockey	Tue 01/31	W 3 - 2