Burnt Biscuits
Registered User
- May 2, 2010
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- 3,534
It's actually hilarious when you look at the goaltending a player like Ovechkin got in his playoff stretches
11-12 .935 (Holtby)
12-13: .922 (Holtby)
14-15: .944 (Holtby)
15-16: .942 (Holtby)
16-17: .909 (Holtby)
17-18: .922 Holtby (won Cup Finally)
18-19: .914 (Holtby) Ovy don't do repeats
Mother f***er, Connor would have 3 or 4 Cups with goaltending like that.
Oilers in the McDavid Era By comparison
16-17: .924 (Talbot)
19-20: .889 (Smith)
20-21: .912 (Smith)
21-22: .913 (Smith)
22-23: .883 (Skinner)
23-24: .901 (Skinner)
Six times in the playoffs, 1/6 times he's had really strong goaltending. Why do anything different.
Added context the NHL average save percentage in 2011-12 was 0.914 drastically different then the modern NHL (average 0.900) where goal scoring is up and save percentages are down.
Secondly Holtby's career playoff save percentage is 0.926.
Contrast that against the career save percentage's of Brodeur 0.919, P. Roy 0.918, and Hasek 0.925
Ovechkin had better playoff goaltending than the 3 most prominent HOF goaltenders and still only made it past the 2nd round a single time in his career, McDavid has already done that twice, kind of defeats your whole argument that goaltending is this singular thing that will make all the difference in the world and the only thing you talk about.
A realistic good goalie upgrade would be a 0.910 sv% that's well above average and quite solid, apply that upgrade to Skinner's total shots against last playoffs and that theoretical good goalie replacement allows 5 less goals against with that upgrade in save percentage.
Then you contrast that against 5 on 5 results alone, not even special teams and you have McLeod, Foegele, Desharnais, and D. Ryan each allowing 8 more GA than GF , Ceci a -6 goal differential, and Nurse a whopping -11 goal differential.
Nurse is playing some of the best hockey of his career this season, so maybe the issue is already half fixed, but very obviously we had significant issues with out 3rd/4th lines and 2nd pairing D that were on paper more impactful than goaltending.