As frequent San Jose Sharks Bleacher Report readers already know, yours truly has consistently been a critic of the now-former Shark goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.
Now sure, when I was younger (during the early part of Nabokov's career) I would chant Nabby's name when attending Sharks games at the HP Pavilion.
But since beginning to play the game competitively in high school, and now into college, I have become much more analytical about the game and consequently much less of a supporter of Nabokov's game.
While being a fan means hoping for every player wearing the jersey to play well, it was only too easy to be negative-minded when it came to the Sharks' No. 1 netminder.
Despite being consistently dominant from year to year in the regular season over his career, his performances in the playoffs and in international play have been anything but consistent.
To be fair, Nabokov's career post-season marks of a .913 save percentage and 2.29 GAA are smidges better than his career regular season marks of .912 and 2.39; the playoff version of Nabokov was essentially Jeckyll and Hyde.
During the 2001, 2002, 2008, 2009, and ...
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Article written by Andy Bensch
Evgeni Nabokov: For Love of The Game or For Love of The $$$?
July 7th, 2010 by Andy Bensch Leave a reply »
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