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How Much Does The Goalie Matter? |
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Before I enter into this age-old debate—how much does "elite" goaltending matter in the playoffs—I will qualify what I say with the fact that I am not a Jason Millen, or my buddy from Puckin Hostile (someone who has actually tended goal and knows what they're talking about from a technical standpoint).
My goaltending career consisted of one year in Squirts. And since I was a righty catcher (lefty goalie), I played the whole season with skaters' gloves, no blocker or catcher.
You can't make stuff like that up.
But, watching Martin Jones, a relative unknown until the last season or two, take a star turn last night and carry the Sharks to a huge Game 5 win, the question popped into my mind—as I'm sure it did in many others—how important, really, is the $6-7 million goaltender as far as winning a Cup?
To me, it seems the pads, and the goalies themselves, have gotten so huge that technique has become correspondingly somewhat less important.
What gets characterized as a great save nowadays is often just a 6 inch shift of the pad—the goalie is pretty much already there because he nearly covers th entire net just by suiting up and staying within the pipes.
Sure, the depth a goalie plays at, how he handles angles and covers posts, and sometimes the speed of his glove, how he tracks pucks, or going from post to post, still matter. But these are also things that can be coached. And I have been a believer that coaching is huge in how a given goalie performs form year to year.
So it seems to me, just my opinion, that if you have a big, reasonably well-coached goalie nowadays—who doesn't melt down emotionally and totally lose it—you have a pretty good chance to win the game provided you find the twine 3 times or more 200 feet the other way.]
I'm also not really prepared to offer an opinion on Jones or, say, Michal Neuvirth and their long-term upside. But Jones and his counterpart in the Finals, Matt Murray, are making the case yet again that elite credentials don't matter so much in a long playoff run, or even a Stanley Cup victory. The same case made by Antti Niemi in 2010.
Jones and Murray have another thing in common besides relative obscurity until recently—both are tall, rangy goaltenders. See my point above. The goalie is big, the pads are big, keep the technique simple, keep the goalie's mind right, he's going to stop a lot of pucks—sort of by default at times.
Right here on this blog recently, I have made the case that you have a better chance to make a long playoff run with a proven playoff performer in net. And I'm not sure, all things considered, that's wrong. Corey Crawford, while not huge at 6'2", is big, utilizes more of a blocking style—and when he is well coached-up, and has his mind right—he is a proven winner who can carry you.
So I'm not sure there isn't a slightly greater value in a good goalie like Crawford or say Jonathan Quick, who've been to the top of the mountain a couple of times. But I'm also not sure goalies of their stripe are absolutely essential to winning a Cup either.
It may depend on factors.
For the Blackhawks, this could be a big question this summer.
The truth is, the Hawks were uncharacteristically bad this past season in a couple of key areas: 5-on-5 play and defense. They had a higher than usual GAA and a shot differential that tilted way more to the opposition than in seasons past. It can be, and has been, argued that Crawford carried them much of the regular season.
But the reason I use terms like "higher than usual" and "uncharacteristic" above is that, in recent history, the Hawks have been a great defensive team.
On paper at least, with the acquisition of Czech defenseman Michal Kempny, and a long overdue full summer of rest for the Duncan Keiths, Brent Seabrooks, and Niklas Hjalmarssons, the defense should be better in front of their goalie.
With Crawford taking up nearly 10% of what could be a somewhat stagnant salary cap, and Artemi Panarin potentially due a raise into the same territory in the next 12 months, this whole discussion seems to be perhaps quite salient.
So no, I won't claim to have the answer. I will say, I think these are the right questions.
All for now,
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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