DackellDuck
Registered User
- Sep 20, 2024
- 802
- 1,331
its a catch 22.... youre not a good goalie without a good D in front of you. Why is it we never talk about great goalies on bad teams?
Ullmark isnt taking a 26th (?) place team to contenders overnight. Travis Green, Jake Sanderson and co. will play a much bigger role in that turnaround. And if Green is that good, then sure, Ullmark will have been a good investment.
And you won't have a good D without a good goalie.
Let me put it this way. The Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators had essentially the same expected goals against, at 5v5, over the course of 82 games last year. Ottawa was at 2.5, Boston was at 2.51.
But according to the numbers:
• Boston's goalies made 33 saves that they *shouldn't have* made
• Ottawa's goalies let in 26 goals that they *shouldn't have* let in
That's a 60 goal swing because of goaltending. Almost a goal per game.
The people who think it was all system clearly never watched many games. Ottawa was absolutely sunk because of their goalies.
The risk for them is whether Ullmark can handle a higher workload, because he has to play 60-65 games, since Forsberg still sucks.