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A few days ago I did a study to see the variation between save percentages against shots taken by defenseman compared to forwards.
Saturday I wrote a post on Cory Schneider to see his save percentages vs. the two positions and to see exactly which players had success against him last season.
In this post, I'll do the same for future Hall of Famer, Martin Brodeur.
Before I begin, here are Brodeur's season save percentages vs. defenseman, forwards and his season total.
While Brodeur's .927 save percentage vs. defenseman may look sexy, it's quite deceiving. You could obviously do worse than a .927SV% in that situation but it is below league average and there is room for improvement.
Brodeur had some struggles against forwards, as well, as he had less than a .900SV% when shots were fired from forwards. The New Jersey Devils play in a tough division loaded with star forwards and that likely factored into his SV% being so low. That said, it should be higher and will need to improve this season.
With Schneider on board and the Devils having a more balanced team, Brodeur's workload should be both lighter and easier. Hopefully that allows him to improve his numbers as a .901 season SV% isn't going to get it done.
Now you've seen his numbers and how many goals he allowed against defenseman and forwards last season. Who had success against him, though?
Here is the list of defenseman who scored on Brodeur last season.
As you'll notice, most of the defenseman that beat Brodeur are either a) players on divisional opponents or; b) really good offensive defenseman.
The only defenseman that scored on Brodeur that wasn't a division rival or good offensive defenseman was Chris Phillips of the Ottawa Senators.
Let's take a look at the forwards who scored more than one goal vs. Brodeur last season.
Right off the hop you see some usual suspects. John Tavares and Steven Stamkos score a lot of goals against anyone so there's no shame there. After that, there's Mike Ribeiro and then the list drops off a cliff.
Brandon Sutter and Shawn Mathias are good players and getting better, but those aren't some names you'd expect to see on the list. They're respectable players, though.
Believe it or not, I was surprised noted goal scorers Nate Thompson and Gregory Campbell made the list.
All in all, some good players had success vs. Brodeur last season but the list of forwards who scored two or more goals on Schneider was much more respectable.
It'll be interesting to see how Brodeur's numbers change this season as he'll have a lesser workload and could be given some easier games by Pete DeBoer.
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Who found success vs. Schneider last season?
A look at how Schneider and Brodeur fared vs. defenseman compared to forwards last season.
How would you grade the Devils off-season?
What is Adam Henrique worth?
Why Ryane Clowe's in line for a bounce back season.
Just how good is Reid Boucher?
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