Hey thanks for explaining this for me! I unfortunately don’t get to watch too much of St Louis (or west in general) so this was very helpful. Does Husso have potential to be a starter or was the January/February showing more of a - great play in a small sample size, kinda thing?
I don't think so, they may bring him back for a 1A/1B tandem. But I think Binner is the true starter until Hofer is ready.
He has starter ability, but not sure he has Cup winning ability unless the team in front of him dominates. He also needs a bigger NHL sample size to get a good feel for his longevity. Teams now have good film on him to scout him out to figure out his strengths and weaknesses, so how he responds to that will be interesting. I think he's more than just a random really good hot streak, but it's probably still questionable if he can be a ~50 game starter year in and year out.
Not a chance after basically costing us the playoffs this year.
He had a sub .900 Sv% and close to 4 GAA. We definitely lost due to goaltending. Had Binnington stayed healthy I don’t see a reason why those two 3-2 games against the Avs wouldn’t go in our favor. He let up some back breakingly bad goals those games. This isn’t even a dig at Husso. I love Husso and how he plays the game but you’re lying to yourself if you think goaltending isn’t the main reason we lost that series.
Binnington was standing on his head though and stealing games. If Binnington was healthy, we absolutely have a shot to beat them, but it would be because he won the series with unsustainable amazing play in net. Even just regular great play in net doesn't get us past the Avs.
Don’t do that. Binnington played fantastic against the Avs, but it certainly wasn’t some other worldly Hasek performance out there. Blues limited the opportunities and he made good saves. Would he have had a bad game? Likely, but he was certainly capable of sustaining that play.
I wouldn’t say he was standing on his head. He was just as good in that series and the Minny series as he was during our 2019 run.
He had a 95.5% sv%, if that's not standing on your head, I don't know what is. Now yes, he was also doing that against Minnesota, I never said he wasn't. And for how good he was in 2019, he was better this past playoffs, where every single game was a game stealing type performance.
Don't do what, if you think any goalie is capable of sustaining a 95.5% sv% against a team like the Avs, then you're delusional.
There obviously may be a stinker in there somewhere, but it’s certainly common for a goalie to string together more of those games than not
Binnington played out of his mind Game 1 and they still lost.
Granted, way less games, but Binnington’s save % was a 91.2 in 2019 POs vs a 95.5 in 2022 POs. He was playing way better than he did during the 2019 POs.
Small sample size. But just for arguments sake, Binnington only let in 4 or more goals 5 times during 26 games while Husso let up 4 or more goals 5 times in 7 games.
Ideally, I don’t think you want to commit to more than 1 year for anyone because Hofer should be close to ready after this season.
He’s only had 1 full season in the AHL and will only be 22 this year.
Lindgren or some other free agent. Don't want to rush Hofer. Or count on him. Can't see DA anointing him as the backup for next season.
