This is just a bias statement. Your comparing the stats of a backup goalie and a starting goalie. Schneider has either backed up or split time with Luongo each of tthe past three seasons. Of course your going to have better stats if you play way less games than another goalies. Its common sense for a goalie in the sport of hockey.
You also don't just kick the best player at his position to ever play the game to the curb.
- mike12cambria
That is flatly false and is not supported by either by observation or statistical evidence.
In small sample sizes, sure, you can put up way better numbers (or way worse numbers) than your talent would really justify; that's how a guy like Craig Anderson can put up a .941 in 24 games (he's good, but no way is he really that good) or a guy like Moose can put up an .883 in 19 games (he's bad, but no way is he really that bad).
That's not because it's
easier of
harder to play fewer games, it's because it takes a while for random swings of good and bad fortune to smooth over. That's why I used 3-year samples instead of just the most recent abridged season -- to give Schneider a decent amount of games played (88) for us to be reasonably sure his talent is genuine.
In order for us to argue that Brodeur's numbers are as good as Schneider's over the last 3 years, we would have to argue that Brodeur's job (from some combination of shot quality and fatigue) was 38.3% more difficult than Schneider's over that timespan. There is no way the difference between Vancouver's and New Jersey's defenses, plus any apparent effect from fatigue for Brodeur, is even close to that wide.
You accuse me of bias, but I say that anyone who argues that Martin Brodeur is still a good NHL starter in 2013, let alone better than Schneider, has to be in complete denial of all the evidence. The numbers are irrefutable. You can give Brodeur some benefit of doubt for his puckhandling or for his workload, but in no way is it enough to make up for his statistical mediocrity. In order to argue Brodeur is still good you basically have to say stats don't matter at all, or at least they don't matter in regard to Brodeur, and the only way to judge a goalie is by your eyes or by Stanley Cups or by wins or by some other entirely subjective or team-based metric. I don't subscribe to this philosophy.
Now, if it's more important to let Marty ride off into the sunset with his ego undamaged than to make the playoffs, sure, split the starts. But if the Devils want to win games, they ought to ride Schneider. In my opinion New Jersey would have been a playoff team last year if they hadn't been torpedoed by rotten goaltending.
