How important is goaltending?

[doniceage]

We all know the importance of quality goaltending to a team’s ultimate success, but how do you measure a netminder’s net effect on a team’s overall performance? After applying layers of various detailed analysis, wins and losses usually define a goaltender’s standing.
That’s interesting because – as my Dad always told me – a goalie can’t win a game without goals being score by his teammates. Even if you play perfectly and turn in a shutout, if your team is unable to come up with a goal, the best you can do is tie. Obviously my Dad bestowed this fatherly advice years ago -- long before the advent of the shootout and the abolition of the notion of a tied game -- but you get the point.


NHL.com - Community

[koolmaniac]

i sure think its a team game...the goalies cant win without their D and forwards...or even the assistant coaches...and vice-versa. so i personally think everyone on the team each plays a role thats just as important as each others

[selby56]

I think goalies are very important, but like the post before mine stated, each player and position has something to do that determines the outcome of a game. If the Forwards don't score, it really doesn't do much good if you have the best goalie in the world that can stop everything. But if the goalies don't do their part then it doesn't matter if you have a strong offense. If the defense doesn't do their part, then the goalies will have to stop more shots and it just goes on and on about the importance of every position.

[doniceage]

I like what you two guys say but let me ask you this. Why do goalies take all the heat. As look at Legace play against the OILER's he kept them in every game but one that was totally out of whack. A lot of 1 goal games and yet when it came to the deicison he was the one who took the HEAT. He was let go and he got roasted by every media outlet as being the weaklink. I just didnt' see it as that as I could point to scoring but none of them got walkign papers.

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[chljoe]

Goalies catch the heat just like pitchers do in baseball. Ultimately, I think teams rely on their goalies a little more than they should, but of course the goalie's responsibility to stop the puck.

[selby56]

The goalies do get alot of pressure and get alot of the blame for the losses. Some people say the only reason the Oilers lost the Stanley Cup is because Roloson was injured, but if you rely on your goalie that much to where you think you lost cause he wasn't there, then you shouldn't have been in the Stanley Cup. Hockey isn't a one man game, you need goalies to make the saves when he has to, you need defense to help the goalie out so he isn't constantly shot at, and you need your offense to score goals to win games. And if you feel you lost just because of your star goalie being injured, that doesn't say much for the defense or the offense. That just my opinion though.

[kurri17]

Iinteresting discussion, Don. My two cents. I will start with a baseball analogy. The difference between a .250 and a .300 hitter over the course of an entire season is one ( 1 ) hit per week. Amazing, isn't it. Season is roughly 6 months, call it 25 weeks long. At 500 at bats (it takes 501 to qualify for the batting title), 125 hits makes you a .250 hitter and 150 hits makes you a .300 hitter. Twenty-five hits spread over 25 weeks, one per week. I say this to make a point that among goaltenders that are established starter-type goalies, there is not a great deal of statistical difference. I would venture to say that if you took the mid '80s Oilers, or the Red Wings and Avalanche of more recent times, you could have put, oh, say, Jeff Hackett in goal for the duration of the REGULAR season and they would have had great records. So, in that light, goaltending is not much different than any other position, if he is doing a starter quality job statistically, the team will perform at their overall level. Now, how important is goaltending in the playoffs? I think that is another animal, to a certain extent. The goalie who can rise to the mental challenge of handling the pressure, giving up few/no poor goals, save their team a few goals with outstanding saves on sure goals, and bounce back from the inevitable losses that will occur even in a successful Cup run, will seperate themselves from the pack i.e. Brodeur, Roy. So, my answer, for the ridiculously little anyone would possibly care, is that overall, goaltending holds much the same importance and the other positions on the team (I don't mean individuals i.e. a fourth-line winger, I mean a teams D performance, a team's center performance, etc), but, goaltending rises in importance in the playoffs as those teams possessing goalies who do those things I listed above will have a better chance to win. I'll shut up now.

[doniceage]

Rob,
Don't shut up as it open to discussion. The the nature of the beast can't have a deabte without looking at various sides of the issue. Rob, I love analogy as when I coached girls basketball I told them one thing "TAKE CARE OF THE D AND YOU CAN'T BE BEAT". As if they didn't allow a basket how could they be beat as the opponent score would be zero.

There so many angles we can attack but let look at this (NO FACTS so correct me if I am wrong going with what I seen over the years).

Goals do go down during the Playoffs compared to the regular season. Thus is this is true that only makes the goalie that much more important as your stating Rob. Of course a defense minded team should get credit for helping the goalie with shots faced, blocked shots by d men, and all the other stats but it a GOALIES become a key ingredient. As we say scoring goes down not up.

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