Pokecheque wrote:
Logical Progression wrote:
Aren't most team better defensively than the Leafs? They can almost score at will but Andersen is a great goaltender and is getting shelled which I would argue has a lot to do with the D-corps.
Freddy is honestly one of the most divisive goalies I've ever seen. He puts up great numbers but he is also prone to VERY bad lulls. He let in a goal last night against the Cats that was beyond awful. He's lucky his team battled back and that the goalie at the other end of the ice was worse than he was.
I think Freddy is...good. Sometimes very good. But not elite. And until the Leafs figure themselves out defensively they kinda need an elite netminder. No easy answers in Toronto unfortunately.
As for Hutch, I don't know. He also gave up some real stinkers. If he truly plays for the Avs like he did for the Leafs, this little experiment will not last long. Doesn't matter how good the defense is in front of you, ya gotta stop them shots.
One thing the Avs seemingly excel at is clearing rebounds, which Francouz serves up very handily. I don't know exactly what Hutch's problems are but based on what little I've seen, rebound control isn't one of them. He just needs to stop pucks properly.
This post prompted me to pose the question: what constitutes an "elite" NHL goaltender? So I searched goaltenders with a save % of .918 or higher with more than 10 seasons in the league
(criteria my own). Bold denotes currently active. DQ denotes less than 10 seasons.
(stats courtesy of Hockey Reference) 1. Dominek Hasek .9223
2. Johnny Bower .9219
3. Tukka Rask . 9216
4. Ken Dryden .9215
5. Ben Bishop .92066. Tim Thomas .9199
7. Jaques Plante .9196
8. Roberto Luongo .9187
9. Andrei Vasilevsky .9186 - DQ
10. John Gibson .9183 - DQ11. Henrik Lundqvist .918112. Robin Lehner .9179 (!!!!)13. Cory Schneider .9177
14. Carey Price .9176
15. Pekka Rinne .9175
15. Corey Crawford .9175
17. Sergei Bobvrosky .9170**Patty Roy sits at #55 with .9102 and he is widely considered to be the GOAT but I base that on playoff success -- and since we are looking more at the modern game, it's hard to fit him into this thought experiment. Definitely need to do an analysis purely on playoff victories, SC wins and SV%. That's next on the docket.
Amongst active goaltenders under the above criteria and rounding up, we have
1. Ben Bishop, 2. Henrik Lundqvist, 3. Robin Lehner, 4. Cory Schneider, 5. Carey Price, 6. Pekka Rinne, 7. Corey Crawford , with an honorable mention to Sergei Bobvrosky. Surprised that Robin Lehner made this list but MAF did not - impressive deadline pick up by Vegas.
Freddie currently sits
22nd all time at .916 with 7 seasons under his belt (this season's .906 has brought him under the bar), tied with Braden Holtby (whom I would not consider to be elite).
I would argue he's knocking on the door SV% wise but the jury is still out. Not sure he's as divisive as much as he is unproven. This post season and next three seasons will be key indicators of has status. If he can eliminate the odd "bad game", he should get there. But he also needs to steal a playoff serIes. The Leafs better get the D corps together - which invites another question: how much weight do we give to goaltenders who "play on a great team".