The Vezina race is always an interesting one to watch. Oddly enough the goalies we consider true number ones rarely seem to win this thing. Henrik Lundqvist has only one in his career despite years of being arguably the best (or most consistently good) goalie during the stretch, or Luongo etc. That's because goalies are weird. They truly are. I don't mean to simplify it so nonchalantly, but when a guy like Sergei Bobrovsky goes from a laughing stock sophomore and run out of Philly to a Vezina winner in a half season...well you can't tell me goalies aren't weird. Let alone Mason blossoming back into a respectable goalie in Philly after years of abject dreadfulness in Columbus. All it takes is one season where things go right and the trophy is yours. Or you can be Tuukka Rask and steal it from Semyon Varlamov because the voters glanced at the stats sheet and saw 7 shutouts and a .03 sv% upgrade and didn't want to take the trouble of wondering how Varlamov did so well with a defense containing Andre Benoit, Nick Holden, Cory Sarich (could have sworn he was retired) and Nate Guenin. Yes, I'm still upset over that. Sorry, but as we're seeing this year, without miraculous goaltending that Colorado defense has been eaten up. I digress, this blog isn't about the past.
This years race has been pretty interesting. Most notably due to two constant favourites and contenders having poor starts that will likely have stripped them of contention already. Namely Lundqvist and Rask. There have been some great stories early on, but two slots are basically a given.
Pekka Rinne
If you read the Hart trophy blog, you probably guessed this was coming. It's hard to think somebody deserves to be the most valuable player to his team and not be in Vezina contention. We're going to ignore Michael Hutchinson who is, strictly speaking, the actual sv% leader in the NHL as he has only started 7 games. Rinne is tied for the lead in NHL sv% with a .931. He's got the third lowest GAA with 1.89 and leads in wins with 17. His return to form and health have been one of the biggest bright spots for the surprising Predators. I bring him up because Rinne was well on his way to coming into that conversation about the best goalie in the game before a poor season that was topped by an injury, that and an only average (for him) lockout year. At his age and with Trotz gone and an offensively inclined coach taking over, the valid question was asked "will this expose the Preds goalies?" There was always an underlying assumption around the Trotz led Preds. They had great goaltending and had it from many sources. Ergo, plug any goalie in and profit. Last year showed us what happens when the Preds don't get excellent goaltending, they don't go very far. Rinne has been playing elite this season and whoever lucked out and got him in your fantasy league looks pretty smart.
Jonathan Quick
The playoff hero doesn't have any regular season hardware, but I'm sure he would tell you he doesn't mind. Unless you count the Jennings...which I don't, because quite frankly it's a team award. The Kings have been a frustrating team this year, rife with the regular season inconsistency we've come expect from them. They can't score, they aren't healthy, where is Dustin Brown, the hottest line in hockey is gone, Gaborik has a booboo, Voynov might go to jail, Muzzin is out, hey Doughty play 40 minutes a game. It never seems to end, except at the last stop. Quick has been elite. On a team mired in issues, the one constant has been elite goaltending. Tied with Rinne in sv%, one more shutout and 15 more saves despite two less games played. The two time Cup winner is having as good a season as 2011-2012, if not better. He's having a hell of a year.
Roberto Luongo
Yes, I know, controversial. There are a bunch of guys I could have picked for the third slot Corey Crawford is having an elite year, Craig Anderson is getting by despite that tire fire defense, Jaroslav Halak has been a major reason why the Islanders are not only in a playoff hunt but a division championship hunt, MA Fleury is trying his best to prove he's worthy of the faith the Pens put in him when extending him, Price and Schneider have been great and seemingly playing 90% of the season. So why Luongo? Well, right off the bat it's because he's having an amazing year. More importantly though he's one of the biggest reasons the Panthers aren't a joke this year. They are a surprisingly tough and competitive (if not boringly trappy) squad that might defy early expectations and find themselves in the playoffs. The Panthers are the second lowest scoring team in the league and boast only one player with over 10 goals. Their leading point getter is a rookie defenseman. So how are they modestly successful and not in the hunt for Red October? They don't allow a lot of goals (8th in the league in GA) and a large part of that comes from goaltending. If he keeps up his play and the Panthers sneak their way into the playoffs, he will definitely deserves the nod.
Winner : Pekka Rinne
Yes, the cop out! I think right now either Rinne or Quick could win and there would be few complaints, but Rinne is taking a team most expected near the bottom portion of the league to contention for a division championship in arguably the hardest division to win in hockey. If things keep going the way they are, it could be award season in Nashville.
Thanks for reading.