Worst Playoff Series of All Time by a Goaltender?

[GrkFlyersFan]

Fleury in 2012. We could go down by 3, and the game was never over. Bryz had a bad series and was still by far the better goalie in that series.

 

[Doctor No]

But might scoring levels play a role? In a low scoring environment you don't really get a mulligan as a goalie. In the run and gun 80's you could usually give up a softie and not have it ruin your entire evening.

That's a great point - it's come up in discussion in the thread where I describe the methodology, but in a binomial distribution (which is the simplifying assumption made here), when you're dealing with higher base probabilities, it's harder to have an outlier on the high end.

Restated to be more hockey and less math: when the league average save percentage is 92%, it's a lot harder to stand out (positively) than when the league average save percentage is 89%.

 

[simon bedford]

Grant Fuhr in 82 vs the kings , a few of those 'miracle' goals were weak at best...both netminders were pretty awful but Fuhr gets the prize for being on the stronger team and ending up with the series loss.

 

[Sadekuuro]

Grant Fuhr in 82 vs the kings , a few of those 'miracle' goals were weak at best...both netminders were pretty awful but Fuhr gets the prize for being on the stronger team and ending up with the series loss.

The Oilers would have won the Miracle on Manchester game despite it all if Messier hadn't flubbed an empty net in OT. He had Lessard totally out to lunch.

 

[EpochLink]

agreed. cloutier being horrible doesn't make bertuzzi or naslund any less horrible.

here's one that people forget:

in the first 4 games of the first round in '92, rick tabaracci, who had recently dethroned young up and comer bob essensa, looked like a future star. 2.00 GAA, .932 SV%. that was also big, young, force-of-nature keith tkachuk's coming out party. both guys just beasted. the jets jumped out to a 3-1 series lead.

then in games 5-7 that was the end of tabaracci forever. it took expansion to save him from being a career journeyman backup. ended up being the ugliest series i've ever seen from a goalie.

The ironic thing was Bob Essensa was a stud that season, John Paddock went with the hot hand for the playoffs. From games 5, 6 and 7 the Jets forgot that they had to win 4 and coasted through out, Pat Quinn adjusted while Paddock didn't.

When you lose 8-2, 8-3 and 5-0 down the stretch, your team couldn't have choked any harder.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Hellebuyck is on notice for this distinction, pending the results of Game 7 in his current series.

Game 1 - 17 shots, 3 goals
Game 2 - 22 shots, 1 goal
Game 3 - 25 shots, 6 goals
Game 4 - 18 shots, 5 goals
Game 5 - 19 shots, 3 goals
Game 6 - 23 shots, 5 goals

Through 6 games - .815

The distinction between this and other candidates mentioned upthread is that this is happening to a Hart finalist and Vezina favorite, playing behind the President’s Trophy winning team, in the first round.

 

[jimmysheva]

Roman Turek vs Sharks in 2000

 

[bobholly39]

Hellebuyck is on notice for this distinction, pending the results of Game 7 in his current series.

Game 1 - 17 shots, 3 goals
Game 2 - 22 shots, 1 goal
Game 3 - 25 shots, 6 goals
Game 4 - 18 shots, 5 goals
Game 5 - 19 shots, 3 goals
Game 6 - 23 shots, 5 goals

Through 6 games - .815

The distinction between this and other candidates mentioned upthread is that this is happening to a Hart finalist and Vezina favorite, playing behind the President’s Trophy winning team, in the first round.

It's pretty terrible. I've always been hard on Hellebuyck, and also am not a Jets fan - but I expected Jets to maybe lose in round 1 while posting a sub 900 sv%. Those are all-time bad numbers.

And - over a small number of games - it's easy for an outlier game to impact numbers. Like if he was mostly ~okay in some games, but had one game of like ~9 goals, the low sv% and gaa could be explained. But he's been bad in pretty much every game. It's terrible.

I'll say one thing. I'll draw a parallel to Bobrosvky in the finals last year. He was really bad midway through the series, and came close to being the main reason (other than McDavid) why Panthers were about to choke a 0-3 lead in the finals and lose out on the cup. But - then he stepped up huge in game 7, and they won, and none of that mattered. So - the obvious parallel is - if Hellebuyck steps up huge with a solid game 7 to win this series for the Jets - it won't really matter. Especially if he can go back to form for round 2. I don't know that that's what I expect to happen though.

 

[kaiser matias]

Hellebuyck is on notice for this distinction, pending the results of Game 7 in his current series.

Game 1 - 17 shots, 3 goals
Game 2 - 22 shots, 1 goal
Game 3 - 25 shots, 6 goals
Game 4 - 18 shots, 5 goals
Game 5 - 19 shots, 3 goals
Game 6 - 23 shots, 5 goals

Through 6 games - .815

The distinction between this and other candidates mentioned upthread is that this is happening to a Hart finalist and Vezina favorite, playing behind the President’s Trophy winning team, in the first round.

Not quite as bad as numbers, but Darcy Kuemper, another Vezina finalist this year, ended his 6 game series with a 3.74 GAA and .889 SV%.

 

[Moose Head]

Not quite as bad as numbers, but Darcy Kuemper, another Vezina finalist this year, ended his 6 game series with a 3.74 GAA and .889 SV%.

No disrespect to the Blues, but Kuemper was facing one of the most efficient PP’s I’ve ever seen. He also had a coach that didn’t realize he had more than 9 forwards on 4 dmen on his roster. Most goalies, even playing very well, would have trouble getting a 900+ save % in those circumstances.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Hellebuyck is on notice for this distinction, pending the results of Game 7 in his current series.

Game 1 - 17 shots, 3 goals
Game 2 - 22 shots, 1 goal
Game 3 - 25 shots, 6 goals
Game 4 - 18 shots, 5 goals
Game 5 - 19 shots, 3 goals
Game 6 - 23 shots, 5 goals

Through 6 games - .815

The distinction between this and other candidates mentioned upthread is that this is happening to a Hart finalist and Vezina favorite, playing behind the President’s Trophy winning team, in the first round.

He only needs a 106 save shutout in game 7 to get his save percentage back up to 90%!

 

[The Panther]

Not to make too much of it, but... er, yeah. Hellebuyck's entire career legacy might be on the line in game 7.

Surely, he's a Hall of Famer even if he blows it in game 7, though, right...? Right?