Blue Jacket's Playoff Success. Really?

[charlie1]

Why would anyone take Mike Smith over Halak?

No one trolls better than Mike Smith.

 

[Groin Of Bates]

Defintely not Fleury. League-average goaltender at best. Mentally questionable. Would hate to have to rely on him in the playoffs.

Defintely not Niemi. I follow the Sharks and he is just not that good anymore. Most Sharks fans are hoping Stalock will take over next year.

Not Lehtonen. Don't know why people are high on him. His Sv% has always hovered around league average. The best thing about him is that he sits on top of the net. He's ok, but I'll take Halak over him.

Not Rinne. Maybe Rinne of three years ago, but he has been well below average recently, and has had major hip problems.

Crawford vs. Halak is a toss-up for me.

I agree with the rest.

My reasoning for Fleury is that he can play 65+ a year and has roughly put up the same regular season numbers as Halak in 20 more games. Sure, in the '12 and '13 playoffs he certainly got beat up, but his play last year was not terrible in comparison. If you take out the '12 and '13 years, he also has comparable numbers to Halak's only main playoff run.

My reasoning for Niemi is the same for Fleury. I think some of his playoff failures are also directly attributed to the Sharks lack of team play in front of him at times, but we could say that about any team. Again, a main selling point to me is that he has put up comparable (if not better at times) numbers in at least 20 more games a season. The guy was up for a Vezina only 2 years ago...

Lehtonen, as I mentioned, I think is a quiet performer. Can't really blame him with the Stars D as pitiful as it's been the past few years, but he's still putting up decent numbers and is capable of about 60 - 65 games.

Rinne is completely based on if he can get back to his form pre-injury. Doesnt help that Nashville is a **** show at the moment.


Again, the majority of my opinion is based on goalies who have shown they can handle the load and put up the numbers while carrying it. Halak, to this point, has not shown that he was capable in the chance he was given in St. Louis. It didnt help that Elliott played well when Halak got injured the first time either. I DO want Halak to succeed here and I believe he can now that he is a de facto #1 on our roster. I'm just not ready to anoint him elite top-10 yet I hope Im proven wrong

 

[ScaredStreit]

Rask
Fleury
Price
Lundqvist
Schneider
Miller
Crawford
Quick
Niemi
Luongo
Lehtonen
Rinne
And I can make a case for both Bob and Smith

These are all goalies I would take over Halak on first thought. This isnt counting goalies who are similar such as Howard, or ones that I think have great potential like Holtby / Bernier / Bishop.

That would leave Halak around the middle of the pack...I think that assessment is dead on.

Don't worry about Broadway Jay. He claims that Halak > Quick this past (regular) season. Mainly due to Corsi (another reason why Corsi isn't the end all/be all of stats).

 

[rikker]

Don't worry about Broadway Jay. He claims that Halak > Quick this past (regular) season. Mainly due to Corsi (another reason why Corsi isn't the end all/be all of stats).

Jay is a solid poster. there is a reason that teams are turning to more in-depth stats.

just wondering... what do you like about the Isles? is there anything?

 

[nc1972]

Blue Jackets

I think you have to look at the move's and progress of this team since the installation of a truly fine group of hockey men. Our rebuild is moving in the right direction but its almost a decade in the making! Given the same amount of time I feel J.D. and company would fair much better i.e. ST.Louis. I wouldn't call Columbus a hockey hotbed, yet they don't seem to have much trouble attacking talent. Professional Hockey men running an operation in a manner that we will not know until the sale.

 

[LeapOnOver]

Jay is a solid poster. there is a reason that teams are turning to more in-depth stats.

just wondering... what do you like about the Isles? is there anything?

He doesn't like anything he doesn't understand....