Not sure if you are paying attention to the St. Louis Blues, but they have just put 4 shutout games together. Well, the credit goes to the goalie, right? The article will start with the goalie's name and then go on about how great he played and won the game for them. After the first three shutouts, that is exactly what was happening. Brian Elliott was geting all-world goalie praise..
The Blues coach, Ken Hitchcock, makes a bold move in the fourth game - he starts the other goalie. And this other goalie goes on to another Blues' shutout. And this shutout was against one of the best teams this season.
Hitchcock has throughout his career found goalies that get more shutouts with his teams than with others. And now he is doing it with two goalies.
Most likely it is the system that Hitchcock puts in place. They play tight positional defense with the forwards committed to own-zone coverages. And it has worked for the goalies everywhere he's gone.
This season Hitchcock has been using both of his goalies, Brian Elliott and Jake Allen. And both are putting up shutouts. For perspective, Ken Hitchcock's two goalies have 10 shutouts - Allen with 6 and Elliott with the other 4. Henrik Lundqvist, the New York Ranger's future Hall of Fame goalie only has 4 shutouts this season. Are both of these goalies really that much better than Lundqvist?
When goalies get praised for shutouts and the coach and his system go unmentioned, I have no choice but to say Goalie are Overrated.
interesting comparison. would not have thought Lundqvist only has 4 shut outs and that Allen, who plays a lot less, would have as many. Good argument that it is the system in place that's beneficial to the goalies. Wonder what Brodeur's numbers would've been playing for someone other than NJ.
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you think Hitchcock will employ both goalies in playoffs? Start Allen for first three then play Elliot for game 4? What has he done in the past. Looks like this season Allen started 43 games and elliot 33.
ReplyDeleteThat always annoyed me with Brodeur - that New Jersey system, instituted throughout their farm teams as well by Lou Lamiorello, was so defensively solid and focused. Little mentioned fact about that team, they were also like top five in scoring during a lot of those years.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting to see how Hitchcock uses those two goalies in the playoffs. The goalies will get the blame if they don't get to the semi-finals, though. I think with that system, they have the deepest defense in the league. They don't have a Keith/Doughty though and that could kill them.