Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
I am not that energetic, but I am willing to project from the FACT that an overwhelming majority of NHL goalies undergo time management to limit them to around 65 regular season games to argue that I am likely correct.
You have yet to explain why it is that so many NHL teams in the past decade have seen fit to set these sorts of limits on their starting goalies. If playing 70 games in a season is no problem for a NHL goalie, then why does it not occur more frequently?
To put this another way: between 1995–2006 there were 36 individual campaigns in which goalies played at least 70 games. That is a 3.6 per year average. Since then there have been 31, for an average of 2.82. But in the past five full seasons there have been only seven, with three of those occurring together in 2011–12. Like it or not, there is an irrefutable trend towards fewer games for starting goalies. Do you honestly believe that this is just a random occurrence? I am betting that NHL coaches and managers are convinced that a goalie's workload is a matter of critical importance.
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I think it has more to do with back to backs and 3 in 4 nights than total number of games.
Teams average around 15 back to backs per season, and stats clearly show that a goaltenders stats sag in the second game of a back to back.
I'm not sure if this is team related or not. The stats never seem to go deep enough for my wants.
I would imagine that coaches are into this though and aren't starting goalies in back to back games anymore which limits a starting goalie to around 65 games.
So I'd say it's more a worry about condensed schedules than it would be about total games.
I wish reporters would ask questions like this instead of the standard stock questions they repeat over and over.