Last night I'm having a typical Saturday night like you probably imagine I would, sitting in my favorite chair, deciding whether or not to open the bag of Cheetos or have an apple, and watching Hockey Night in Canada.
Knowing how much hockey means to our friends up North, I'm always confused as to why the picked Saturday to be that night when, frankly, every night is hockey night in Canada. But I digress.
In the course of watching the Montreal Canadians play the St. Louis Blues, the announcers were going on and on about how fabulous Carey Price is as a goalie. How he always comes up with the great game winning saves when you need him to do so, and he's the greatest goalie in the history of hockey, and he is about to cure cancer.
As I grabbed the remote to see what was on Expedition Unknown, I started thinking, well, maybe he is better than I think he is? So I did the professional thing and got up at zero dark thirty this morning and did some research. Guess what? As the great Dennis Green once said, "He's what we think he is."
Goalie Splits GP Wins Loses GA GA Avg. SV % Cups Won
Carey Price Reg 627 322 226 1523 2.47 0.918
Play 60 25 31 151 2.53 0.914 0
Tuukka Rask Reg 497 267 150 1082 2.28 0.921
Play 89 50 39 204 2.19 0.927 1
Corey Crawford Reg 450 244 144 1047 2.43 0.918
Play 87 48 37 210 2.28 0.919 2
Mike Smith Reg 573 245 236 1476 2.71 0.912
Play 24 11 12 53 2.17 0.938 0
Henrik Lundqvist Reg 858 450 298 2021 2.41 0.918
Play 128 61 65 297 2.28 0.922 0
Roberto Luongo Reg 1044 489 392 2515 2.52 0.919
Play 70 34 35 178 2.49 0.918 0
Ryan Miller Reg 758 379 275 1915 2.61 0.915
Play 57 28 27 149 2.52 0.913 0
Pekka Rinne Reg 626 344 187 1440 2.38 0.918
Play 89 45 44 220 2.49 0.914 0
Jimmy Howard Reg 518 245 174 1253 2.55 0.914
Play 48 21 26 123 2.58 0.918 0
Marc-Andre Fleury Reg 802 441 251 1973 2.59 0.913
Play 142 78 62 371 2.56 0.911 2
So what does all this mean?
You want your goalie to be your best player in the play-offs and you want him to be better in the play-offs than during the regular season. When you improve your save percentage, and goals against average, and add to that more wins than losses, you are going to have a goalie that is helping you win championships.
Carey Price is not that guy, but Tuukka Rask, Corey Crawford, and Marc-Andre Fleury are, and that is why they have won Stanley Cups and the others have not. The most talked about goalies in recent years, Henrik Lundqvist, Roberto Luongo, Mike Smith, Ryan Miller, Carey Price, and others have zero Stanley Cup wins. None. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.
The least talked about goalies in the NHL Corey Crawford, Tuukka Rask, and Marc-Andre Fleury have five between them. That's more than zero I'm pretty sure. If Carey Price and Henrik Lundqvist played for Dallas and Carolina you would never have heard of them. But since they play for Montreal and New York they are the greatest of all time.
I really have no other point to this other than what I've said. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. You may now rejoin your life, already in progress.
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