Ted Hoffman
Done
- Dec 15, 2002
- 29,289
- 8,719
If we're cherry-picking samples, can I cherry-pick the stretch from December, 2017 to December 2018 when he was shit on a stick? Yeah, guys were hurt and guys were trying to figure out how to play together and on and on, but the simple fact is he was brutally bad when the team needed him to pick them up. Do I need to go back and dig out post after post where people here cited his staggering ability to get beaten on bad angles, fail to position himself at the post like a normal goalie, and his amazing ability to slide halfway across the rink half a dozen times a game while misjudging the puck and leave the net gaping wide for everyone on the opposing team to shoot at and force his guys to go try and block the net out as he stared back helplessly watching? Or his ordinary f***ups where he glared at his teammates for whatever reason he was imagining instead of sacking up and trying to get better and not f*** up the next time?To the bolded: Allen was a .922 goalie from Binny's first start to the end of the season. That was 13th in the NHL among 67 goalies who played more than 5 games in that stretch. 16th among the 81 goalies who played an NHL game in that stretch. That's a hell of a lot better than simply "wasn't terrible" and is certainly better than "at least competent" in the backup role. That's elite level backup production over those 3 months. I don't think Allen is a .922 over a full year as a backup, but I have also seen multiple examples of him able to play well as a backup/1B but not be able to handle a 55-60 start workload and crumble. His best stretches when Hutton was here were when he was losing (or had lost) his job. He posted a .920 through 44 starts in 2015/16. He posted a .913 his first full NHL year through 32 starts (Ells posted a .917 as the 1A/starter for comparison).
What do I see? I see "he only picks his game up when he's getting pushed" and that tells me as soon as he gets back in net as the #1 for whatever reason, he's going to get content and lazy and go back to being Shaky Jake. That's been him for years, and he by and large withers under the pressure. Sorry, I'm not interested in forking over even mid-level dollars to someone who only gives a crap long enough to get his spot and then slacks off and can't be counted on for more than about 6-8 weeks at a time [if that]. I'm really not interested in someone who for years has had bad fundamentals and has relied much more on reflexes than solid positioning.
Obviously, your motives vary. That's fine. You've got your opinion, I've got mine. I just don't see where we're better off paying $4+ million to a headcase when we could pay about half of that to someone at least moderately competent but much more steady.