There is bailing your team out with a great game in net, and then there is taking it to a Dominick Hasek Buffalo Sabres level.
Antti Raanta made a case for himself last night to have his status upgraded to 'elite superstar,' and if this keeps up, it's going to happen. John Gibson and S. Varlamov are early season Vezina favs, but what Annti Raant did last night has to be the best goalie performance the NHL has seen this year.
He was insane.
Sure, he allowed three goals, but that is on 50 shots. A 94% save percentage, unless my math is wrong. And some of them were wild.
The Coyotes barely showed up last night. They were out-shot 41-19 at 5v5. They were outchanced 35 to 19. I didn't even know you could allow 35 scoring chances in a game.
That's more than one every other minute.
The Coyotes played like complete crap. They made the most of their chances (and how does Brad Richardson have THREE short-handed goals already this year? The over-under on an 82 game season for him is like five goals total, let alone shorties).
The Carolina Hurricanes are one of the NHL's best teams, but this level of beat-down usually comes with a 7-1 win. Not a 4-3 loss. The Hurricanes controlled 70% of the game.
A 70% CF is almost unheard of. I don't know the actual numbers, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that when a 70/30 game occurs, the team with the 70 almost always wins. I'd be shocked if it's under 98% of the time.
So chalk one up for Raanta. Honestly, they could give him the Vezina right now, just for that game. It was that impressive.
Andrei Svechnikov himself had six (6!) high danger scoring chances. The guy was a monster. He's going to be a superstar. The Canes defense is just too good, they're only one or two finishers away from being unstoppable.
Again, WOW what a performance by Raanta. Definitely the game of the year for anyone so far this season. That is five in a row, that makes them the hottest team in the NHL. The Coyotes have won six of their last seven and are on absolute fire. This is the first time the team has won five in a row since 2013.