Quote:
Originally Posted by fredr123
I enjoyed Simmer's comment on the broadcast last night. The camera was trained on Joey MacDonald standing on the Flames' bench. The extra attacker was on the ice for a face off in the last minute or so of the game in Dallas.
Simmer, taking a break from his usual comments on feet moving, says "[MacDonald] has done his job tonight". The graphic at the top of the screen clearly shows a 4-spot next to the Dallas Stars.
Look where the Flames' goalies are at, right now, in terms of even strength save percentage (out of 79 goalies who have made an appearance this year):
59. Danny Taylor 2 GP ESS .905
62. Joey MacDonald 10 GP ESS .897
64. Mikka Kiprusoff 12 GP ESS .895
71. Leland Irving 6 GP ESS .884
Is it team defence? Is it the lack of a single goaltender (no offence to Danny Taylor) who can consistently save at least 9/10 shots he faces at evens?
If the Flames even had an NHL replacement level goaltender, forget about an average to good goalie, how many goals against could that have prevented? That's important in a short season because even with how terrible the team has played, they are still only 4 points out of the playoffs with games in hand. An extra win or two, maybe an occasional extra point in the shootout, and this team is sitting 6,7,8,9 in the conference.
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I don't believe this theory for one second.
The Flames give up high quality scoring chances. The defence backs in because the forwards hardly back check hard and when they do, they do it without a purpose.
Macdonald played great last night and still ended up with a lousy save percentage.
3 of the 4 goals he had no chance on and 2 were tap-ins. That's been happening all year. The goalies haven't been great, but they also haven't been the reason we're in 14th place.
Take a look at the fourth goal from last night. Glencross taps his stick on the ice to make the Stars' player think he's being pressured but then he turns away leaving Eriksson wide open for a tap-in.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...,2,424&lang=en