Worst Playoff Series of All Time by a Goaltender?

[Ace36758]

Building off of the "Worst goalies of all time" thread, what are some of the worst goaltending performances over a series in playoff history?

 

[Jack Tripper]

dan cloutier, vancouver vs minnesota in 2003 western conference semifinals (0.826 sv% over the 7 games)

was pretty much solely responsible for the canucks losing the series and a chance at marching to the finals, most blatantly in games 2 and 7

 

[Doctor No]

Here's a best/worst (since 1976) that I put together a few months back:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=105049131#post105049131

This post, and the next few beyond that.

 

[mcauliffe]

Murray Bannermann, 1983 and 1985 against Edmonton.
Ron Hextall, 1993 against Montréal.

 

[The Panther]

Both Trevor Kidd (remember him?) and Arturs Irbe were rather terrible in the 1995 first-round Calgary vs. San Jose series.

In losing the series, Kidd had an .856 save-%, while Irbe went .848 (often pulled for relief by that noted Hall of Famer, Wade Flaherty). The Sharks gave up 35 goals against in 7 games... and won the series (!).

 

[Killion]

Both Trevor Kidd (remember him?)....

Indeed I do. Highly rated & touted coming out of Junior.

 

[Ishdul]

Fleury in the 2012 Flyers series was appalling.

 

[DyerMaker66*]

Here's a best/worst (since 1976) that I put together a few months back:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=105049131#post105049131

This post, and the next few beyond that.

Came here to say MAF 2012.

 

[The Pale King]

Both Trevor Kidd (remember him?) and Arturs Irbe were rather terrible in the 1995 first-round Calgary vs. San Jose series.

In losing the series, Kidd had an .856 save-%, while Irbe went .848 (often pulled for relief by that noted Hall of Famer, Wade Flaherty). The Sharks gave up 35 goals against in 7 games... and won the series (!).

drafted ahead of Brodeur in the '90 draft, and then further imortalized in the McDonalds Happy Meal mini-masks promotion in the mid-90s with the Flames. Not sure how many different goalies were chosen, but it certainly wasn't a league-wide thing. It seemed like at least 50% of them were Kidd masks though.

 

[Black Gold Extractor]

That entire 2012 series between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia was insane. A total of 54 goals were scored in 6 games, for a whopping 9.00 average goals scored per game. That puts even the high-flying 80's to shame.

EDIT: ... except for the 1985 match-up between Edmonton and Chicago... 11.5 average goals scored per game. XD

 

[IComeInPeace]

I'm going to disagree with Cloutier.

That team had no concept of how to play good defense.

They would dominate play, and then give up a 2 on 1, or a breakaway, or some type of scoring opportunity that was kind of rare in full trap playoff hockey at that time.

Minnesota got few shots, but their scoring chance to shot ratio would be really high.

Cloutier is often the fall guy for a team that Marc Crawford and/or Brian Burke should be raked over the coals for.
At a time when defense won championships, Crow and Burke seemed to be stuck in the early 80's shotgun approach.

It worked in the regular season, but in the playoffs, it would always mean that a team with far less talent could sit back and wait for you to self destruct.
We always did.

 

[alko]

Many of you are arguing with saving %.
But that could be a wrong point.
If some goalie had 5 goals in one game, it doesnt mean, he was very bad. What if he in the same game stopped 10, 15 clear goals?

We dont have for this any statistics, so nobody will remember this after few years. And he will end as a looser.

 

[Moose Head]

Richard Sevigny for the habs in 81 vs the Oilers.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Hextall vs the Rangers in 94.

Richter vs the Flyers in 95.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Hextall vs the Rangers in 94.

This is where my head went to first, but I'm not sure we can count it since he only played games 1 (first two periods), 3, and 4. Jamie McLennan played (and was shelled in) game 2, but stopped every shot he saw in the third period of game 1.

 

[Doctor No]

Many of you are arguing with saving %.
But that could be a wrong point.
If some goalie had 5 goals in one game, it doesnt mean, he was very bad. What if he in the same game stopped 10, 15 clear goals?

We dont have for this any statistics, so nobody will remember this after few years. And he will end as a looser.

(Among other reasons), this is why I consider my list a candidate list, and not the final answer.

However, there are very few games - very few - similar to what you described above. Save percentage isn't perfect - in fact, it has multiple identified flaws - but you can concoct a "look how bad this is" example to refute any statistic.

 

[danincanada]

As a Wings fan Manny Legace in '06 probably tops my personal list. He's far from the worst ever though.

 

[Sentinel]

MAF / Bryz 2012. A hilarious / hideous display of goaltending.

 

[double5son10]

Richard Sevigny for the habs in 81 vs the Oilers.

This. And he shot his mouth off before the series as well.

 

[NewtJorden]

Both Trevor Kidd (remember him?) and Arturs Irbe were rather terrible in the 1995 first-round Calgary vs. San Jose series.

In losing the series, Kidd had an .856 save-%, while Irbe went .848 (often pulled for relief by that noted Hall of Famer, Wade Flaherty). The Sharks gave up 35 goals against in 7 games... and won the series (!).

It got worst in round 2, when the Sharks allowed 24 goals in 4 games.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Here's a best/worst (since 1976) that I put together a few months back:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=105049131#post105049131

This post, and the next few beyond that.

Any list with Cloutier vs Minnesota 2003 and MAF vs Philly 2012 as the worst 2 who actually played a significant number of games passes the eye test.

But seriously... Cloutier so much worse than anyone else

 

[Doctor No]

But seriously... Cloutier so much worse than anyone else

Cloutier's is almost comical now - given the opponent and the season, he was expected to give up about 11 goals (alko's comments above notwithstanding). He actually gave up 25. Yikes.

 

[MS]

Cloutier's is almost comical now - given the opponent and the season, he was expected to give up about 11 goals (alko's comments above notwithstanding). He actually gave up 25. Yikes.

It was even worse by the eye test than it was on paper.

Game 2 is the forgotten one of that series.

To my eye, it was probably the best game the WCE-era Canucks ever played. They outshot Minnesota something like 35-18, outchanced them about 20-5, out-hit them, and the ice was generally tilted all game. Corsi stats would have been amazing if they were kept then.

But Roloson played terrific, and Cloutier let in 2 meh goals on meh chances in 3 minutes mid-way through the 3rd period to gift the game away. Simply didn't make a save all night.

 

[Big Phil]

Fleury in 2012 was one of those rare times when you got nervous EVERYTIME the puck was shot. I really don't know what got into his head during that series.

Murray Bannerman in 1985 is the first one I thought of, that was horrible, even if it was against the Oilers in their prime.

Mike Vernon was one of those "feast or famine" goalies. His obituary reads such years as 1988, 1990 or 1993. The last two he wasn't in net for the whole series because he was pulled.

Here is one that might get some scratching their head. The truth is, he was superb statistically with a 1.46 GAA but he had a weird knack this series for letting in very untimely soft goals..............John Vanbiesbrouck in 1999. I guess he doesn't belong with the rest of these but how can a guy let in so few goals yet all of them be weak?

 

[tjcurrie]

Maybe wasn't the ENTIRE series, but the North Stars got shredded by the Penguins in the final 3 games of the 1991 Stanley Cup Final. Jon Casey seemed like he just hit a wall, when he was darn good until then. Mind you, it was Mario and the Pens, so maybe we show a bit of mercy.

The numbers though:

Casey: Game 6 (4/17) Game 5 (4/13) Game 4 (4/23)
Hayward: Game 6 (4/11) Game 5 (2/18)

Casey let in 12 goals on 53 shots the final 3 games
Hayward let in 6 goals on 29 shots the final 3 games

Total: 18 goals on 82 shots

That final game skews things a touch, but still, overall horrific.