Goaltending has traditionally been considered perhaps the single most important aspect of the game for a team seriously aiming for a championship in the NHL.
If the keeper behind the team is standing on his head, anything is possible, and conversely, if the goalkeeper collapses, the whole house of cards will probably fall down with it – and this applies even to a house of cards built on a solid foundation.
The latest example can be found in Boston just over a week ago.
If the goalkeeper’s game remains at an average level, the powder must be dry on the offensive end.
There is no doubt that Colorado’s formidable offensive arsenal saved the Canadian goalkeeper in the summer of 2022 By Darcy Kuemper. Kuemper tried his game throughout the final series, conceding several, if not directly easy, goals that the goalkeeper would have caught in a better shot.
In many places, Kuemper’s statistics were the weakest of the entire playoff spring.
On the other hand, one could ask, did Kuemper’s problems come as a surprise? At least not in the sense that before the playoff run a year ago, this was practically a completely unwatchable card in tough games. Kuemper started in Arizona in the spring of 2020 in nine games, but the previous – and only – playoff games were in the spring of 2014.
Colorado went into the spring with a goalkeeper who had fourteen playoff game experience.
A peculiar trend
Kuemper and Colorado’s happy ending seems to have prompted many other clubs to try to conquer the holy grail without a top-level goalkeeper. There is a special trend and spring at hand, in that very few of the remaining eight teams can find a truly meritorious goalkeeper in their ranks – rather the opposite.
It is partly about the generational change at hand.
Some of the long-lasting successes of the past years have hit their mattresses on the nail, and some have simply run dry. The first-mentioned department includes, among other things Tuukka Raskthe latter who won two pitchers in Los Angeles and was traded to Vegas this season Jonathan Quick.
Rarely have there been so many question marks at the same time in the second round of the NHL playoffs when it comes to goaltending.
And it’s no wonder when you look at the kind of playoff experience many veskars have come into the spring.
The readings are in many ways deafening. For example, the combined playoff experience of New Jersey’s goalie duo reaches 16 games. The Dallas and Toronto duo will reach 19 and Edmonton will reach 23 games.
Only Seattle and Vegas go over a hundred. Even in Vegas, 92 games out of a 100-game pie come from the previously mentioned Quick, who sits on the bench. The Knights of Kasinokaupungi went to the spring with the first guard Laurent Brossoitwho had played 27 minutes of playoff hockey before this spring.
Of the remaining eight first-choice goalkeepers, five have less than 20 games of playoff experience.
Such a trend could be characterized as quite a gamble.
The most experienced of the bunch are Quick from Vegas, Seattle Martin JonesCarolina Frederik Andersen and Florida Sergei Bobrovskybut even the first two mentioned have played a really weak season and are practically out of the game, unless something really dramatic happens.
None of the starting goaltenders have ever played beyond the second round of the playoffs in their careers.
Seattle and Carolina in the safest waters
The situation becomes particularly difficult for many people if something happens. For example, Dallas’ second guard Scott Wedgewood hadn’t played a minute in the playoffs before Monday morning. First keeper by Jake Oettinger the level has clearly dropped from the regular season, which casts a big shadow on the championship dreams of the star jerseys. On Monday, Seattle bombed Oettinger in a trade.
The situation is also on in Toronto. With a weak player With Ilya Samsonov has the experience of 17 playoff games, but now he too was injured. When Matt Murray too is sick, maaliIn skated with the experience of one playoff game Joseph Woll.
With New Jersey’s second guard With Akira Schmid has seven, Florida’s second guard With Alex Lyon three and Edmonton’s second guard With Jack Campbell fifteen game playoff experience.
There are no bad goaltenders in the NHL, but the situation at hand is very special and exceptional. It’s hard to give a factory guarantee on the goalkeeping of any team at this point, because nobody has any evidence from such a long spring.
The best situation would be in Seattle, where Philipp Grubauer has played well both for Carolina, which has three genuinely good NHL-level goalies in Andersen, Antti in Raanta and In Pyotr Kotshetkov. Florida’s Bobrovski has also found a good balance and peace in his playing.
And let’s not forget that if Florida had somehow gotten rid of Bobrovski’s ten million dollar contract last summer, the situation would be different in the mouth of the panther goal.
Finns
Of course, inexperience does not mean that the team cannot win the biggest one. Of course, we’ve gotten used to it in recent years, especially in Tampa Andrei Vasilevsky to superhuman grips in hard places, but there are also other kinds of stories.
St. Louis won the 2019 championship with a completely inexperienced goaltender Jordan Binnington, who was the single most significant player of the Blues’ championship spring. Matt Murray, currently representing Toronto, won the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh as a rookie in the spring of 2016 and again in 2017.
Kuemper, Binnington and Murray are evidence that experience is not everything, but then a lot is also required from the team up front.
According to Finns, a quiet spring is upon us, with only two jackets. Traded to Los Angeles Joonas Korpisalo played well but ultimately bowed out in Edmonton’s handling. In Carolina, Raanta also started well, but was eventually replaced by Andersen.
Finnish goaltending success in the NHL has been rare in recent years. Rask was with Boston in the finals in 2013 and 2019, Pekka Rinne With Nashville in the summer of 2017, but we haven’t seen Finnish players playing like that since the second round – and it may be that we won’t see it now either.
In the most recent Ika änäri episode, we talked about Florida’s giant surprise and Seattle’s top season. There were Finns in the discussion Eeli Tolvanen, Alexander Barkov and Kaapo Kako. You can find all episodes of Ika änäri on Areena at this link.