Their stats being the same literally proves and shows that they performed at the same level. If you don't wanna use stats, what metric are you using when say 2015 Price was better than 2012 Hank?
Ullmark certainly had one of the best Vezina winning years post lockout, whether hes better than both in their respective season is up for debate. The easy argument is he played 49 games to Hanks 62 & Prices 66 and that's not insignificant gap.
First off they're not the same. Price had an additional 5 wins on a crappier team. That's pretty significant. And when you're posting .930+, even a .03 difference is decent. GAA and shutouts, sure those are near identical but price still got better of him there too
So to you, if this basic statline of SV%, GAA, W and SO is proof that one is better than the other, shouldn't you be saying Price instead? Since you know, he topped Hank in all categories? If not, then what else are you looking at here?
Their basic statline isn't all I look at, which is why I never bring it up as my only argument when having this debate. I trust my eyeballs first and foremost when it's this close. But I also consider what team they were playing on, what systems they were running, what defence they had infront and quality of forwards they had as well. You have to take all that into consideration which is why I brought up Ullmark. Potting a .938 playing for the best team ever assembled (points wise) doesn't automatically catapult you above Price and Hank just because of
stats. Let me ask you this - do you feel confident that Ullmark could have done that on the 2012 rags or 2015 Habs? I don't see it. I don't even see a debate...
To be honest the quality of teams Price and Hank had infront were similar in comparison. I'd say Rags had better team overall. It's close tho.
You're probably not going to like this analysis because it's subjective to my own eyeballs. What stood out the most to me in 2015 was Price's ability to completely steal games on a consistent basis, and especially in last 5 minutes of a game, usually holding a 1 goal lead. I can think of so many games like this off top of my head where team was pressuring Habs for final minutes throwing everything they had at Price but he just wasn't having any of it. Game vs the sharks , the islanders, coyotes...making incredible saves right at the end. If you want a good example watch game 6 sens vs Habs. I know it's playoffs but that dominant of a performance was something he was doing all year long. Good examples of Ottawa in Habs zone for long periods of time at the end only to be denied by price. That was a pretty normal game for the Habs lol - score 1-2 goals, then resort to getting hemmed in their own zone for majority of game while Price puts on a clinic and steals it.
Hank had his fair share of those games too but not as many as Price had. Price just felt and looked more dominant, and more relied on to win his team a hockey game than Lundqvist with the Rags. Had 5 more wins. He was the Habs. Hence why he won the Hart trophy that year.
