Today in the New York Times Slapshot blog Jeff Klein and Stu Hackell wrote that the last five Stanley Cup winning goalies played no more than 62 games in the season they won the Cup.
Fleury, Osgood, Giguere, Ward, Khabibulin – none had played more than 62 games in the regular season for a variety of reasons.
Meanwhile, the game’s biggest workhorse, Martin Brodeur, is done after another first round loss. Today more than ever whether by salary cap demands or coaching desires, number ones are playing more than ever.
While the Times bloggers looked at all the post-season goalies this year who have had busy seasons, they didn’t point out the goalies who could keep this well-rested streak going:
- Semyon Varlamov 26 games played
- Brian Boucher 33 games played
- Anttii Niemi 39 games played
- Tuukka Rask 45 games played
- Jaroslav Halak 45 games played
- Jose Theodore 47 games played
- Pekka Rinne 58 games played
- Jimmy Howard 63 only one over the Times’ limit of 62
There you go folks – the Stanley Cup winner will come from Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, Nashville or Detroit!
The trend is most apparent in the East where only 2 of the 6 remaining teams as of this writing have a goalie who played more than 47 games this year! Marc-Andre Fleury played in 67 games and Ryan Miller 69 (plus a very intense Olympic Tournament).
If this season’s Cup plays out in similar fashion with a well rested goalie leading his team to victory you have to wonder if some of the teams employing workhorse goalies will notice. How as a coach do you balance the difficulty of even making the post-season in this league of parity with the need to be ready to go the distance in the playoffs?
What do you think?
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