Just wanted to get the discussion started. It may be a bit early to pile on him yet, but his play has been lacking so far this year. I do not want this to be a bashing thread, so I will try to post most of the negative stuff myself, and we can move on from there.
Stat line after 5 games:
GP|GS|Min|W|L|OTL|EGA|GA|GAA|SA|SV|SV%|SO
5|5|275|1|3|1|0|18|3.93|137|119|.869|0
He has had one great game, one fair game, and three bad ones.
His play has exhibited some tendencies both old and new that are troubling. His puck tracking is off, his rebound control is bad, his glove hand is weak, he is not sealing the 5-hole, he cannot handle the puck and his positioning is inconsistent. There may be other issues that more goaltender focused observers can identify.
His stats are scary. Someone said in a recent GDT that his play is not Vezina caliber this year. I feel it could be argued that his play has not been NHL caliber. A 0.869 Sv% is terrible.
Even with the small sample size, we can extrapolate how being various levels better would be:
.900 (IMO minimum for an NHL caliber goalie) = 4 fewer goals (actually .898),
.920 (mid way between his career average and last year) = 7 fewer goals
.927 (nearest whole number to his best year) = 8 fewer goals.
.934 (nearest whole number to Vezina winners avg last 5 years) = half as many goals.
To combat the overall negative tone to this, let me say I fully expect him to turn it around. I do not want Berra to be the starter. I do not want Picks called up to platoon. I do feel that Berra could take a bit more of the load until Varly is back on top of his game. But even that concerns me, due to trust issues.
And, yes, we can blame some of it on the defense. But the defense this year is NOT any worse than last year, or the year before. Same number of shots, same distribution...just more goals.
As I said, it is early, but this thread was going to come up eventually, so may as well get it started. Now I would like to get some suggestions on how he could do better.
I have said my piece, discuss.
(Hey, an excuse to quit bashing Duchene)
Stat line after 5 games:
5|5|275|1|3|1|0|18|3.93|137|119|.869|0
He has had one great game, one fair game, and three bad ones.
His play has exhibited some tendencies both old and new that are troubling. His puck tracking is off, his rebound control is bad, his glove hand is weak, he is not sealing the 5-hole, he cannot handle the puck and his positioning is inconsistent. There may be other issues that more goaltender focused observers can identify.
His stats are scary. Someone said in a recent GDT that his play is not Vezina caliber this year. I feel it could be argued that his play has not been NHL caliber. A 0.869 Sv% is terrible.
Even with the small sample size, we can extrapolate how being various levels better would be:
.900 (IMO minimum for an NHL caliber goalie) = 4 fewer goals (actually .898),
.920 (mid way between his career average and last year) = 7 fewer goals
.927 (nearest whole number to his best year) = 8 fewer goals.
.934 (nearest whole number to Vezina winners avg last 5 years) = half as many goals.
To combat the overall negative tone to this, let me say I fully expect him to turn it around. I do not want Berra to be the starter. I do not want Picks called up to platoon. I do feel that Berra could take a bit more of the load until Varly is back on top of his game. But even that concerns me, due to trust issues.
And, yes, we can blame some of it on the defense. But the defense this year is NOT any worse than last year, or the year before. Same number of shots, same distribution...just more goals.
As I said, it is early, but this thread was going to come up eventually, so may as well get it started. Now I would like to get some suggestions on how he could do better.
I have said my piece, discuss.
(Hey, an excuse to quit bashing Duchene)