Sharks-Red Wings: Goaltending Grades

May 15th, 2010 by MJ Kasprzak Leave a reply »
Goaltending for the San Jose Sharks in the second round is a little bit harder to define than the blueline grades .

For instance, Jimmy Howard out-performed the combination of Evgeni Nabokov and Thomas Gress—his save percentage was a respectable .910 and he gave up just three goals per game despite one game going into overtime. Sharks goaltenders combined for a save percentage of .894 and gave up two more goals in the series.

But it was Howard who gave up the softest goal at the most critical time. About 30 percent of the goals Detroit scored came in one blowout loss, and the Sharks' goalies dominated in the most important stat, winning four of five games. Howard also was the only goalie called for a penalty, adding to the stress of the Detroit penalty kill.

Howard played better than one would expect from a rookie facing an elite offensive team in the second round of the playoffs, but serves as no benchmark for grading Nabokov and Greiss like Niklas Lidstrom did for Sharks blueliners.

Nevertheless, I am duty-bound to find a standard to grade the Sharks netminders on, and as always, it involves having higher expectations (and thu ...

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