Not sure what led me to look into this but I took a look at poor defensive teams making the playoffs in the eastern conference. Over the past 3 seasons there have been just 6 teams to make the playoffs in the eastern conference with goals against averages greater than 2.80. They are: Tampa Bay [...]
There is a post over at Backhand Shelf today that lists 10 backup goalies that have out performed their #1 counterparts. It is an interesting read but it may be a perfect example of how simple statistics don’t tell the whole story. The first pair of goalies on the list are the Bruins Tukka Rask [...]
As we head towards the start of the 2010-11 season, lets take a look at 9 teams who may struggle in goal. Philadelphia Flyers – Michael Leighton has been a waiver claim 4 times in the past 4 years and another time was traded straight up for a 7th round pick. Despite playing well at [...]
If you have not yet read Part I and Part II of this series, you should probably do that now so you will better understand Part III. In this part I wanted to take a look at individual goalies and see how they compare to the average. The following is a list of the 19 [...]
I have always believed that goaltending is by far the most important position in hockey and have claimed it can make or break any teams season. I have claimed that the main reason that the Leafs have failed to make the playoffs post lockout is because of bad goaltending. Many others have scoffed at this [...]
If you polled hockey fans who the top contenders are for the Stanley Cup, four of the most frequent answers you will get will be Washington and Pittsburgh from the eastern conference and San Jose and Chicago from the western conference. What these teams have in common are very good groups of offensive forwards with [...]
I am going to come out with complete 2009-10 season predictions for the eastern and western conferences later today or tomorrow but for now let me focus on my favourite team, the Maple Leafs. Coming out of training camp there is a lot to be optimistic about the Leafs future. Nazem Kadri showed very well [...]
For those that have been reading this blog for the past couple years know that I have been one of the harshest critics of the Leafs goaltending for a long time.. When Andrew Raycroft was setting records for wins by a Maple Leaf, I was contending that he was a bad goalie and benefited from [...]
other
David Johnson