Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
I would assume Markstrom will start the last game of the season either way. He won't want too long a break going into game one.
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3 road games in 4 nights to finish the season (NAS/off/MIN/WPG). I would hope JM only plays 1 of them (ideally MIN on the 28th). Especially since NAS is a very likely rd 1 opponent and might crash the net especially hard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FireGilbert
There is a saying in football that the backup QB is the most popular player in town. A few Flames fans seem to feel this way about the backup goalie.
Markstrom has been excellent and I trust Sutter to manage his workload effectively.
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This has nothing to do with preferring the backup.
Look at Kipper and Quick's gp numbers relative to their team's playoff success.
Quick played 60+ games 6 times (twice pre-Sutter), and only made it out of the 1st rd once (you could actually say 50+ since he never started 50-60 games; of course he did play > 75% games in the lockout season where they went to the CF)
Kipper's even more dramatic: 7 stratight 71gp+ seasons. 0 round wins.
And to be clear, I don't think the relationship is necessarily causal between goalie fatigue and playoff failure, but rather that mediocre teams are propped up by elite goalies playing a ton.
We should also consider Markstrom's history:
60 reg gp + 0
60 reg gp + 0
43 reg gp (COVID stoppage) +14 PO where he was very good..at least for the first 10...before .897 with 15 GA in 4gp against VGK (tbf his team only gave him 5 GF); then Demko allowed 2GA .984 in the last 3 games.
Those playoffs were particularly compressed with a b2b in each series.
COVID breaks or not this year, he's never had to play from October to May (and hopefully June)
Markstrom will blow his 60gp high out of the water this year. Compared to Quick, who had 72+6 and 61+6 in the two years before his 69+20 cup year.