What is blashill doing with Howard and Mrazek?

[TheOtherOne]

It's pretty simple for me, we've seen the best of Howard and it's not the best of Mrazek. Howard hasn't completed the last two playoff series, I can't imagine he'll be the one taking us to the next level.

Mrazek posted a .925 in a single 7-game playoff stretch. That's great. I'm very excited for him. I hope he can keep it up.

Jimmy had a .923 over 11 games, a **** series, then a .924 over 14 games, then a .931 over 3 games, then a single game .917. His regular season struggles lately, one must admit, have been worrying.

I don't see anything simple or obvious separating Mrazek from Howard. I hope he is better. I really really do. But I still put the onus on him to prove it.

edit: by the way Corey Crawford's .925 in the Finals series of 12/13 was enough to win it

 

[Actual Thought*]

I have been critical of Blashill. But that is neither here nor there, considering how quick to pounce on Blashill regardless of the situation. Again, the pot calling the kettle black.


It rarely is used because teams rarely have two goaltenders capable of playing on a regular basis. I'm not sure why you find it to be a problem when the tandem strategy worked to start the season when the team in front of them was faltering.

Now that Howard has faltered, you blame it on the fact Mrazek got opportunities? That is a load of bunk.



Okay, so explain how Howard's play has deserved the majority of starts for the season.

I already explained it. Read my posts. Howard's career and sample size alone should have given him the starting position to begin the season. It was his to lose.

I wouldn't say Howard has "faltered". He had a couple of bad starts. Given that he doesn't play consistently I would expect that to happen. Mrazek posted a whopping .889 yesterday. Has he "faltered"?

 

[Bench]

Howard's career and sample size alone should have given him the starting position to begin the season. It was his to lose.

"Tie goes to the veteran."

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I already explained it. Read my posts. Howard's career and sample size alone should have given him the starting position to begin the season. It was his to lose.

Goaltending is a fickle position. If you fail to deliver in a short span (see: second half of last season), you lose a lot of the good will you earned, especially when another goalie comes in and starts to show he can play well at the NHL level, regardless of age. Howard's history, contract, and ability gave him the chance to earn the starting position back with splitting starts, and both goalies proved initially they could keep going with it and play well.

I wouldn't say Howard has "faltered". He had a couple of bad starts. Given that he doesn't play consistently I would expect that to happen. Mrazek posted a whopping .889 yesterday. Has he "faltered"?

Howard was pulled twice in a row. On a short term basis, that is faltering. I'm not saying Howard is done and should be relegated to backup role. I wanted to give Howard a chance to come back and keep the even split going after Jersey, but he followed it up with another bad game in which he was pulled. Over the last two games, he played a whopping 48 minutes. That is going to hurt a goalie during the season.

Mrazek as of right now has a chance to redeem himself, just like I thought Howard deserved a chance. If he fails to do so, then Howard gets his chance to start stealing starts.

 

[14ari13]

This is exactly the truth and I don't know why more people don't understand it.

I am not a big fan of Howard right now. But every time Howard falters for a few games and the boards start clamoring for Mrazek to become our permanent starter, he gets blown up once again by some terrible team just like what happened last night.

He has had a lot of good games. He had one good playoff series that he couldn't quite steal. But he hasn't done enough to earn our faith yet.

You realise Mrazek is top 10 in SV%, while Howard is bottom 30? In todays league no team can compensate for that, maybe the Hawks.
Caps, Cats who Are ahead of us in the standings, have had great goaltending.

Mrazek posted a .925 in a single 7-game playoff stretch. That's great. I'm very excited for him. I hope he can keep it up.

Jimmy had a .923 over 11 games, a **** series, then a .924 over 14 games, then a .931 over 3 games, then a single game .917. His regular season struggles lately, one must admit, have been worrying.

I don't see anything simple or obvious separating Mrazek from Howard. I hope he is better. I really really do. But I still put the onus on him to prove it.

edit: by the way Corey Crawford's .925 in the Finals series of 12/13 was enough to win it

Actually .925 isn't that great in the playoffs.
The problem discussing goaltending is that many people do not realise that the game has changed so much that many goalies today look far better than Hasek. But they Are not. SV% has increased a lot lately.
You dont see anything separating Howard and Mrazek?
Last playoffs Babcock went with Mrazek.
Season before that Howard played 3 games and then was replaced by Gustavsson.

I already explained it. Read my posts. Howard's career and sample size alone should have given him the starting position to begin the season. It was his to lose.

I wouldn't say Howard has "faltered". He had a couple of bad starts. Given that he doesn't play consistently I would expect that to happen. Mrazek posted a whopping .889 yesterday. Has he "faltered"?

You realise Mrazek is establishing himself in top 10, while Howard 20-30?

 

[DanZ]

Actually .925 isn't that great in the playoffs.

It's pretty good, especially against one of the best offenses in the league.

 

[smurfyeah19]

I will say when Jimmy is on there is almost no other goalie I would have. He just has a gear few do and can totally take a game over with great save after great save

 

[14ari13]

R

I will say when Jimmy is on there is almost no other goalie I would have. He just has a gear few do and can totally take a game over with great save after great save

Did you watch any hockey last 2-3 seasons? Or you still watch 2002 tapes of Hasek? And

 

[HisNoodliness]

I will say when Jimmy is on there is almost no other goalie I would have. He just has a gear few do and can totally take a game over with great save after great save

You misspelled Petr. Haha. But Howard is still a good goalie when he's on it's just the times he plays well are getting fewer and further between.

 

[HockeyinHD]

I already explained it. Read my posts. Howard's career and sample size alone should have given him the starting position to begin the season. It was his to lose.

This exact argument is despised when it is used to suggest a veteran skater starting over a young player with no track record in the NHL.

I wouldn't say Howard has "faltered". He had a couple of bad starts.

I wouldn't say Howard has faltered either.

In 2014 he went 21-19-11 in 50 starts with a 2.66 and a .910.
In 2015 he went 23-13-11 in 50 starts with a 2.44 and a .910.
In 2016 he is 07-05-04 in 17 starts with a 2.66 and a .910.

That's metronomic consistency on a statistical level that's almost impossible to see, usually.

 

[HockeyinHD]

Actually .925 isn't that great in the playoffs.

It would be better than the Cup winning goalie last year, the guy he beat, another of the semi finalists, and 3 more of the quarter finalists.

In 2014 it would have been 3rd best among goalies who got out of round 1.

We're not talking about Conn Smythe levels of great, no, but if you tell me I'm going to get .925 between the pipes for the next 5 playoff years I'm thrilled.

 

[joe89]

Sv% in the playoffs depends so much on what team(s) you play and how many series. If you only play one or two series one trashing can totally skew the percentages. Two goalies can be even for 10 games, then one trashing happens and they suddenly differ 2% because of the small sample. And perhaps(even likely) it wasn't the goalie's fault.

.925 can be rather mediocre if you go out in the first round. But it can also be a very good number if you go all the way and play 25 games. By then, you've had both the highs and lows.

Because of that I value regular season sv% sample size a lot more in determining the better goalie.

 

[14ari13]

It would be better than the Cup winning goalie last year, the guy he beat, another of the semi finalists, and 3 more of the quarter finalists.

In 2014 it would have been 3rd best among goalies who got out of round 1.

We're not talking about Conn Smythe levels of great, no, but if you tell me I'm going to get .925 between the pipes for the next 5 playoff years I'm thrilled.

He had 2 SOs in that series, which I value more than .925 in this case.
But it was not my point. My point was that SV% has become better and better for very year and it has to be seen as a part of the bigger picture.
Mrazek almost stole that series. He was great.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

Trade Howard...it's as simple as that. Save his salary, and get a quality backup like we had with Gus for many years.

 

[Frk It]

Trade Howard...it's as simple as that. Save his salary, and get a quality backup like we had with Gus for many years.

Off-season/the draft is the best time for all this.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

Off-season/the draft is the best time for all this.

And lose more valuable points for late in the season, in the meantime???

 

[Frk It]

And lose more valuable points for late in the season, in the meantime???

Ok... So who's going to be our backup right now?

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

Ok... So who's going to be our backup right now?

For right now, again, I'd say swing a trade, see who's on Free Agency, anything really. I just don't want Howard to keep costing this team simple points that they should be getting and it hurting later on in the season, anymore.

 

[Frk It]

For right now, again, I'd say swing a trade, see who's on Free Agency, anything really. I just don't want Howard to keep costing this team simple points that they should be getting and it hurting later on in the season, anymore.

Problem is:

Howard's trade value is low, right now. Trading him wouldn't bring in much of an asset, and obviously whatever goalie we would get back would be worse. Anyone still on free agency is going to be much worse. Anyone we could pull up from GR is going to be much worse. And Mrazek can't play every game. So trading Howard really only makes sense to me in the off-season.

 

[HisNoodliness]

So regarding the goalies Howard is essentially a pricey backup at this point and with Mrazek being so young that's fine. I like having Jimmy in case Petr falters. He's still a kid and Howard has been a near top 10 goalie for stretches.

We need to let him find his game again, get lots of rest and hope he can put up respectable numbers then flip him at the draft while signing a cheaper less-skilled backup. We need an experienced good backup for now because goalies are so unpredictable and there's no way Holland trusts Mrazek just yet...soon though Howard will be very expensive ave very obsolete.

Despite that I would not expect to see Jimmy Howard in another jersey anytime soon.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Problem is:

Howard's trade value is low, right now. Trading him wouldn't bring in much of an asset, and obviously whatever goalie we would get back would be worse. Anyone still on free agency is going to be much worse. Anyone we could pull up from GR is going to be much worse. And Mrazek can't play every game. So trading Howard really only makes sense to me in the off-season.

Either way you aren't getting a lot. I'm fine with just making a dump if you can at least get a pick out of it.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Problem is:

Howard's trade value is low, right now. Trading him wouldn't bring in much of an asset, and obviously whatever goalie we would get back would be worse. Anyone still on free agency is going to be much worse. Anyone we could pull up from GR is going to be much worse. And Mrazek can't play every game. So trading Howard really only makes sense to me in the off-season.

Yeah it could be a sticky situation trying to move Howard, Moving him at the draft might be our best option. The only problem trying to move him would be moving him to a team on his trade list the needs a Starting Goalie maybe Buffalo could be a possibility. At best if we can get a 2nd or 3rd for him we should be happy.

 

[Flowah]

Everyone talking about trade now, who's our backup?

 

[14ari13]

So regarding the goalies Howard is essentially a pricey backup at this point and with Mrazek being so young that's fine. I like having Jimmy in case Petr falters. He's still a kid and Howard has been a near top 10 goalie for stretches.

We need to let him find his game again, get lots of rest and hope he can put up respectable numbers then flip him at the draft while signing a cheaper less-skilled backup. We need an experienced good backup for now because goalies are so unpredictable and there's no way Holland trusts Mrazek just yet...soon though Howard will be very expensive ave very obsolete.

Despite that I would not expect to see Jimmy Howard in another jersey anytime soon.

We have had this situation many times before.
Vernon and Osgood.
Osgood and Legace.
Hasek, Osgood, Legace.
Joseph, Hasek, Legace

It happens. I would keep Howard around. Mrazek is not ready yet. Mrazek just got hottish, while Howard cold. Howard will find his game.

 

[SoupNazi]

Trade Howard...it's as simple as that. Save his salary, and get a quality backup like we had with Gus for many years.

Gustavsson? You mean when he was healthy, right?