Nikolai Khabibulin Scoring Chances 2010-2011

This article made me laugh… and then I realised Khabibulin is still signed for 2 more years.

So thanks Derek, for confusing my emotions!

Let’s say the Oilers decided to address their goaltending this summer, and signed Vokoun to a 2 year, 11 mil deal. And let’s also assume Vokoun posts his normal .920 sv%. That would be a ~ 42 goal improvement on its own, assuming Khabibulin posts the same number of games/shots/sv%, etc. I think it’s reasonable to expect Khabi to be somewhat better next year, but I would still imagine you could reasonably expect Vokoun to be ~ 25 goals better than Khabibulin next year, plus less health concerns, etc.

I’m not saying they’ll take that approach, or even that they should (where does that leave Dubnyk if you’re trying to grrom him as a starter?), but if they did, how far are they away, really, from a playoff spot if they spend to the cap to address needs after hypothetically acquiring Vokoun?

These numbers are pretty worrying for Devan Dubnyk. It seems like Dubnyk faced a lot less quality chances than Khabi (or am I not understanding this chart)?

Perhaps rebounds is a reason and this is repeatable, but given the sample size isn’t there a chance this is just bad luck and Dubnyk will face more scoring chances and see a decrease is SV% because of it?

I have decided to look at the above information as an affirmation that Taylor Hall is a beauty. Glass half full and all that.

My take is that NK was left in a bunch of games by Renney when things went really bad. He was in net for two 5 goal against games, four 6 goal against games and one 8 goal against games. In most situations, the coach will mercy pull the starter when things go horrible. Renney had a tendancy to leave him in and save DD for the next night. These kind of nights will really add up when you are talking about a sample size of 47 games started.

I am not trying to defend or mitigate his play, just that on nights where the rest of the team was looking at the clock and trying to get tossed, NK was left to get shelled.

Score effects usually take place when it’s close. You are leading by one and go into a defensive shell. The Oilers got blown out lots of nights and it was just a duck shoot.