Friday, January 15, 2010

Let's talk about goalies

I got pretty bored at work today, so I read through a bunch of my old posts. One that caught my eye was a post I wrote back in July about free agency.
Quoting directly from the July 2nd post:
"Joining the Blues is Ty Conklin. Snort. Good luck with Howard Detroit; not sure that's gonna pan out too well."
I am prepared to eat my own words here. Howard is now pretty much Detroit's number 1 goaltender.
Comparing stats here:
Howard: Games started: 28, Wins: 17, GAA: 2.17, SV% .928
Osgood: Games started: 18, Wins: 7, GAA: 2.81, SV%: .897
It's clear that Osgood is not the same goalie he used to be. I still really like the guy, but his play this year has been less than impressive. Contrary to what I said, Detroit made a wise choice in putting their eggs in Howard's basket.
Conklin isn't doing bad in St. Louis, but Mason pretty much has a firm grip on the number one position out there.
The Preds, in my opinion, do not have a number one goalie at this point. We have pretty much been rotating between Ellis and Rinne, with Ellis back in net tonight against the Flames.
Stats for our goalies:
Rinne: Games started: 28, Wins: 18, GAA: 2.74, SV%: .907
Ellis: Games started: 19, Wins: 10, GAA: 2.71, SV%: .911
The numbers are pretty close for the two, save the fact that Ellis has a higher winning percentage. Both have about the same number of losses as well. The GAA is inflated due to a few bad blowouts sprinkled throughout the season so far. However, I think both goalies have played fairly well. Ellis has definitely improved on his glove save, likely from watching Rinne. Both need to improve a little on their rebounds, especially when Klein and Hamhuis are on the ice. *insert vomit face here* Both goalies playing well could be bad for the Preds come July. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. I would very much like for Poile & Co. to lock one or both up before the season is over. Potentially losing both come July 1st would be a nightmare scenario. But let's hope it doesn't come to that.

1 comment:

  1. I was always impressed with Howard when I saw him play here in Peoria when he was with Grand Rapids.

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