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Trend To Keep An Eye On

February 3, 2015, 8:03 AM ET [220 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
To start the year the Penguins had a lot of things going right for them. Their power play was being talked about as potentially breaking the single season record for effectiveness, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz were lighting it up with Patric Hornqvist, Fleury was playing well, and the injury bug had yet to hit.

Currently the Penguins have seen their power play drop, Crosby and Kunitz not getting tangible results, the injury bug has hit, and goaltending has not been great.

Today the spotlight will be on the goaltending.

What was looking like a strength is now in a definite holding pattern.



This is a 10 game rolling average of EVSV% in 2014-15.

This doesn’t mean the trend will continue, but it is a trend none the less.

League average for EVSV% in the NHL this year is .921 and this is usually where it is in any given season.

At the beginning of December Fleury had a very good EVSV% of .929.

It is currently at .919.

This is still at around league average and staying there will not sink a team. Will the slide continue? I don’t think it will go much lower if at all, but thinking it was going to stay at a Vezina level was wishful thinking when nothing in his career sample size spoke to that. Mike Bales may be a really good coach, but he isn’t magical.

It would be wise to get Greiss more work moving forward. Fleury has played too much as previously documented here.

Greiss will also need more work in case the trend does not fix itself.

Should the team in front of Fleury be to blame for his dip in save percentage? And if so what are you really saying about the goaltending position as a whole?

Thanks for reading!

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