can you challenge in the last 2 minutes?
the theory of pulling your goalie earlier stems from some study a few seasons ago that showed that the optimum time to pull is way earlier than conventional wisdom at the time (last minute or so).
but i don't know. at least for this team, as far as I'm concerned, pulling early doesn't help. it's happened so many times and turned into an early dagger, while i can only remember one time that the extra time helped score a tying goal.
maybe it's small sample, or maybe there is underlying cause. this team plays a puck possession style normally and when it takes chances it gives up that sure-handedness, which leads to the dagger. this team also plays a strong team game in a generally north-south direction, when it tries to make special plays it needs the room to operate east-west ... that room disappears with the 6th man.
also i think deboer doesn't use the pull at the right times ... he often pulls on faceoffs. at least wait to see if the team gets possession, or pull when the team is entering the zone!
i feel like you pull early for teams that have nothing going and can only hope to get something going with the extra attacker. the sharks don't have trouble getting something going with 5 men against almost any team for a short period of time. we have a lot of big players that can flat out dominate. the 6th player just seems to disrupt the flow of things.