Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
You are under-rating goaltending IMO.
One save (or lack thereof) is often the difference between winning and losing.
Look at the Flames this season: when their goaltending was solid early, and recently, they have been a confident team. When it faltered, they went on an 5-game skid.
Yes, offense and defense are also important. But to suggest that any decent goalie is interchangeable is silly. Rinne, Price, Rask and Lundqvist are 4 glaring examples of how great goaltending elevates a team.
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I guess my point is to NOT overrate the goalie. When Chicago won the Cup a few years back, they had a choice to make in regards to Niemi. So, they got Crawford. Crawford can do the job, however, they really don't have to depend on Crawford to get the job done. They actually don't have to rely on any top notch goaltending to be in place. You can campare a team like Chicago vs Calgary or even Anaheim vs Calgary. All the action for the opposing team is within the Calgary zone 3-quarter of the time. The Flames currently rely too much on the goalie and defence get them out of a whole whereas the top Cup contending team rely on the offence to win them the games. Games are won in the offensive battles. If you don't build the team to have offensive threat, the team always have to back up in a defensive mode and rely on the coverage in front of the net.
If the Flames have show it this year, they can tie a game up with no goalie in net
Things have to happen in the offensive zone, not in your own end. You can put in the worst goalie in the world for 60 mins and get a shutout if all the action is down on the other end.