Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire
I think Vladar is bit overrated by some. He's a good backup but not the guy you replace one of the top goalies in the NHL during a playoff series. He's not a veteran with a lot of NHL experience. Vladar wasn't winning that series for the Flames.
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This logic doesn't check out at all because Markstrom wasn't playing like a top goalie, in fact his performance would've been subpar for a backup too.
Don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Vladar could muster .900, which would've been better than Marky's .850 and a few less goals against (potentially changing the outcome of one or two games).
Plenty of goalies have drawn in and shut down a specific team in relief, even if they wouldn't do as well against a plethora of opponents. We didn't try. We should have. Worst case - same result. With your season on the line, exhaust all options IMO.
It's stubborn thinking to me to think that regular season performance and accolades should give a goalie immunity from being yanked in favour of someone else when he is severely underperforming.
Its clear from the larger body of work that the Oilers are Markstrom's Achilles heel (and arguably a few Canadian teams, idk why).
Sutter's stubbornness exhausted him of a lifeline he could have used and could have helped him but he refused to explore that option to see if it could.