Goaltender Game-by-Game Logs (1965-66 to present) and research questions

[Doctor No]

Some 1969-70 initial observations (since I apparently stayed up late last night):

• Bruins had a good pattern going with Cheevers and Johnston alternating until the end of January. Then Sinden got streaky.
• Cheevers in the 1970 playoffs - five above average, seven average, and only one below average.
• Chicago is interesting - Esposito got the start against his old team on October 25, and that was it. Even when DeJordy got back into the net as a starter in mid-December, it didn't last long (I bet there was a minor injury to Espo there, although I need to find it).
• Still amuses me that Chicago swept Detroit 4-2, 4-2, 4-2, and 4-2.
• I haven't run the variability calculations yet, but Roy Edwards' chart in Detroit looks like it will be really high. He ended up about league average in total, but the highs and lows are there.
• The Kings had to run with Gerry Desjardins due to Wayne Rutledge's injury problems. This was some bad goaltending (noting that all of these are derived from save percentage, which has acknowledged flaws, and the Kings' defense surely contributed to this).
• The North Stars floundered for a backup to Maniago (Rivard, Broderick, Gilbert) before getting Worsley to come out of retirement.
• Rogie looked good in Montreal - they stayed with him over Myre even when he struggled around New Year's. Final game of the year is the famous "5 empty net goals" game.
• Terry Sawchuk's finally in the charts as the New York Rangers' backup to Giacomin. He had a few moments, but he looked done (of course, he was 40 in an era where 40 was old).
• Charlie Hodge looked done here for the Seals - Gary Smith has a nice long streak without being subbed for (even in-game) here.
• Bernie Parent looks solid here, although you can see that his time pre-Plante was streakier.
• Smith, Binkley and Daley struggled in Pittsburgh - until the playoffs against Oakland.
• Once Glenn Hall returned, the Blues had a nice three-man rotation with Plante and Wakely. I don't have an injury noted for Plante around his 12/20 shutout, but it's weird that he disappeared for a bit at that point, so I'm going to look for one.
• The underrated Bruce Gamble holds down the fort in Toronto. Johnny Bower briefly appears for the first time in my logs on December 10.

 

[Killion]

^^^ Wow. Thats awesome Doc, brings back a lot of memories.... I'm afraid I cant help you out on that Dejordy start in mid December, whether something ailed Tony Esposito or what was going on there, cant find anything on-line that might explain it. Couldve been an injury, couldve been simply a Coaching decision, Dejordy getting a Start to keep the rust at bay... no idea. Given that Esposito won the Calder that year, and sure, even with Dryden in the Habs system youve just got to figure Montreals' "Braintrust" at that time mustve' been second guessing themselves a fair but huh?... And ya, I saw a fair amount of Bruce Gamble and absolutely underrated & underappreciated. Seriously solid goaltender in rather unenviable situation given that Johnny Bower was so popular with the fans & media, that he was considered "strictly a backup" despite getting a lot of Starts & performing at times quite brilliantly, just wasnt able to get out from under the shadows of his more celebrated crease colleagues in Toronto coming & going during his stay in Leafland.

 

[Doctor No]

Thanks, Killion!

Gamble's always been a favorite of mine - people use the word "gritty" to describe a lot of goalies (and it applies to a lot of goalies), but Gamble was the archetype. He was never really a fan favorite; wasn't as flashy as Parent or Plante or Favell, but the guy worked his butt off. He won a game where he suffered a heart attack, for Pete's sake.

Canadiens were in a weird spot then. I think that they trusted Vachon (and to his credit, he was a Hall of Famer). Dryden was a good prospect, but he wasn't KEN DRYDEN yet, so I'm sure that Esposito's success (for which the Canadiens received nothing in return) irked them.

DeJordy's spot start may have just been because Espo was struggling - eight goals at Minnesota, and then four goals at Montreal. I'll find it eventually. People often ask why I don't just scrape the NHL's site at this point. One reason is because there are definitely still errors in the NHL's updated totals. The bigger reason is that I'm less interested in the number than I'm interested in the stories, and the injuries, and the weird stuff. Things like Ken Dryden getting his contact lenses stolen because they were in a pair of pants that were pilfered when he left his hotel room door open. Those are the sorts of things I'm trying to preserve.

 

[Sanf]

Bruce Gamble is certainly a goalie which I "found" from your site.

Wakely surprised me. Blues is also team in which i´m interested to see the Strength of schedule....

Desjardins had really rough season. Interested to see what kind of rookie season looked like. That looks a season which can destroy career from the start.

 

[Doctor No]

I actually *just* calculated the 1969-70 power rankings (and strengths of schedule).

All units are in goals per game. For instance, if you faced Boston on the road, they would be favored by 1.398. Boston's overall schedule was +0.092 goals/game above average.

St. Louis had a really bad schedule: -0.143 goals/game. They played a lot of expansion teams, and they didn't have to play themselves.s

I was surprised where Montreal landed, given that they didn't make the playoffs.

 

[Doctor No]

More tables - these are the regular season 1969-70 strength of schedule numbers for each goaltender.

Average opponent strength - the average (minutes weighted) of the above strengths of schedule.
Average opponent save percentage - the composite save percentage (shots weighted) of goaltenders facing the schedule that the goaltender in question faced.
Top Pct - percentage of games (minutes weighted) played against the top quartile opponents (Boston, Chicago, NY Rangers)
Bot Pct - percentage of games (minutes weighted) played against the bottom quartile opponents (Pittsburgh, Oakland, Los Angeles)
Home Pct - percentage of games (minutes weighted) played at home.

 

[Doctor No]

Same table, but for the 1970 playoffs (for which you'd expect most goaltenders to have above average schedules):

 

[Doctor No]

Game-to-game variation for goaltenders, 1969-70 regular season.

Bel Avg = percentage of games (shots weighted) where their save percentage was at least 0.5 standard deviations below their expected opponent-adjusted save percentage.
Abo Avg = percentage of games (shots weighted) where their save percentage was at least 0.5 standard deviations above their expected opponent-adjusted save percentage.
Average = all other games
Variation = How the goaltender's game-to-game variation compares to league average. A goaltender with 100% has a game-to-game variability that's indistinguishable from random noise. A goaltender lower than 100% is more consistent than if their games were spread out randomly, and a goaltender higher than 100% is less consistent.

 

[Doctor No]

Same table, 1970 Stanley Cup playoffs:

 

[Doctor No]

1969-70 regular season goal support (empty net goals excluded):

 

[Doctor No]

1970 Stanley Cup playoffs goal support (empty net goals excluded):

 

[Killion]

Fern........... Rivard. Man. Theres a name I havent heard in years. 2X All Star in the QJHL...

.... bit of a temper apparently.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtu4u0jjfC8 ... ha?

 

[Doctor No]

Fern Rivard is one of the all-time hockey names. Would have been right at home in the 1920s.

 

[svetovy poharu]

Great work as always, Doctor No. Always enjoy your site.

I was hoping you or someone here on the board may have access to the
Toronto Star archives. I've searched the Boston Globe, Toronto Globe
& Mail, along with a dozen other newspapers (without success) looking
for the exact time of a TOR Bob Pulford penalty shot stopped by BOS Gerry
Cheevers in the Orr - Conacher big brawl game from Nov 5, 1967 at
Boston Garden.

Due to the bench clearing incident, only minor mention was made of
the 2nd period penalty shot. I believe it occurred early on in the period
prior to the brawl at 5:28.

NHL.com has no listing of the penalty shot in the official summary of
the game and none of the newspapers have it listed as well. If it were
not for a small blip in a game article, I wouldn't have known at all
about it.

My interest in this is that I'm cataloging in detail all penalty shots in
the NHL. The league doesn't list the times or the circumstances
surrounding the event so I'm now attempting to fill in the rest of
the story.

Any help with this Nov. 5, 1967 game is very much appreciated.

 

[Doctor No]

Thanks - I appreciate it! I'm interested in the work that you're proposing - the fact that some are missing is likely due to the NHL being a one-man shop for so long in the statistical department. Now, Ron Andrews is a superhuman, but sometimes things slip through.

On the November 5, 1967 game, I need to re-up for both the Star archives and for the premium newspapers.com archives (I usually wait until I have a bunch of questions saved up so that I can blast through things within one month). Working backwards, I found the Star quite good until the mid-1970s or so, but earlier than that, I found their hockey coverage exceptionally undetailed.

Have you asked the Hockey Summary Project group, perchance? (I'm happy to ask on your behalf if not).

 

[svetovy poharu]

I did check the HSP alternative site and their data was the same as
listed in the various newspaper summaries.
www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/ppoboxscore.cgi?H19670064

I was hoping that perhaps someone had access to either the Toronto Star,
Toronto Telegram or Boston Herald archives and maybe one of these 3 papers
might have provided more details in their game recap articles..

 

[Killion]

^^^ Have you tried the Toronto Telegram Doc? They were a major daily in Toronto with a fairly decent & deep Sports Dept, hockey in particular, went head-head with the Star for decades (1876/1971). Owned by the Bassett family, John Sr. on Maple Leaf Gardens Board (Chairman for many years); his son owning the Ottawa Nationals, Toronto Toro's & Birmingham Bulls of the WHA..... Not sure if the Telegrams archives available digitally, but a quick google search suggests at least some if not all of it is.

 

[Doctor No]

There's definitely errors and typos in the HSP database. I was suggesting asking the e-mail group - the collection of which makes for a pretty good hockey research team (with good access to weird newspapers).

K, I'll check out the Telegram - sounds promising!

 

[oldtimegoaler]

Appreciate all your efforts here - great stuff. I collect programs to the games where a goalie first played goal as a Boston Bruin............. and your info helps so much.

 

[Doctor No]

Thanks! And that sounds like an awesome collection - I'm a bit envious!

Is January 10, 1980 a hard to find item in particular?

 

[member 83027]

Great work as always, Doctor No. Always enjoy your site.

I was hoping you or someone here on the board may have access to the
Toronto Star archives. I've searched the Boston Globe, Toronto Globe
& Mail, along with a dozen other newspapers (without success) looking
for the exact time of a TOR Bob Pulford penalty shot stopped by BOS Gerry
Cheevers in the Orr - Conacher big brawl game from Nov 5, 1967 at
Boston Garden.

Due to the bench clearing incident, only minor mention was made of
the 2nd period penalty shot. I believe it occurred early on in the period
prior to the brawl at 5:28.

NHL.com has no listing of the penalty shot in the official summary of
the game and none of the newspapers have it listed as well. If it were
not for a small blip in a game article, I wouldn't have known at all
about it.

My interest in this is that I'm cataloging in detail all penalty shots in
the NHL. The league doesn't list the times or the circumstances
surrounding the event so I'm now attempting to fill in the rest of
the story.

Any help with this Nov. 5, 1967 game is very much appreciated.

Toronto Star does not list the time of the penalty shot. Just states it was in the 2nd period.

As I found out today doing research NHL.COM does not have all penalty shots listed. I found 3 taken that were missing for the St Louis Blues.

12/6/69
2/17/79
11/23/90​

 

[oldtimegoaler]

Thanks! And that sounds like an awesome collection - I'm a bit envious!

Is January 10, 1980 a hard to find item in particular?

I do have a ticket stub to that game and Autographs of both goalies (Stewart and Baron) but have never come across a program. Along with the program, I try to collect a ticket or ticket stub and autograph. I did write to Stewart who graciously signed for me.

 

[svetovy poharu]

Thank you BluesHistory for checking the TorStar.

Unfortunately I'm also discovering numerous glaring errors with the game data
from the 1967-68 summaries on NHL.com. It appears they may have had some
difficulty transcribing the handwritten game reports. I also don't believe that
the NHL checked and compared their reports with the recap articles from the
various local newspapers of that time period. This would have definitely revealed
and helped correct many of the discrepancies.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Game sheets would have the data.

 

[Doctor No]

Thank you BluesHistory for checking the TorStar.

Unfortunately I'm also discovering numerous glaring errors with the game data
from the 1967-68 summaries on NHL.com. It appears they may have had some
difficulty transcribing the handwritten game reports. I also don't believe that
the NHL checked and compared their reports with the recap articles from the
various local newspapers of that time period. This would have definitely revealed
and helped correct many of the discrepancies.

I would agree - there are certainly issues with the 1968-69 game summaries (see my next post) at least.

And to the post above, we'd need to see the original game sheets (not the transcribed ones), and that assumes that 100% of the errors were in the transcription and not in the original source. The NHL game sheets are not infallible.