Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
Wolf is and will be the better goaltender.
But he's getting the protected starts.
Vladar's stats are similar, but his deployment isn't which suggests he's actually much better this season than in the past.
He hasn't had to play mostly on the road, against the league's best, and all the back to backs possible.
Markstrom got the tougher starts for two years.
You don't know the bolded.
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It would take a bit of work, but we (or someone) should look at the games and the possession stats of the team during Vladar's starts vs. Wolf's. We are assuming situationally Wolf is getting better starts, which on the surface I don't disagree with. But is the team actually giving up more shots/attempts with Vladar in net, or is he just giving up more.
Their GSAA and xGA for Wolf and Vladar are dramatically different. Although do not account situationally of course.
At 5v5 the numbers skew even further. With Wolf seeing higher xGA but saving dramatically more goals against than Vladar (over 4x more goals saved at evens on nearly the same amount of chances).
It might be easy to say that Wolf is getting the easier starts or that the team is more tired or up against stiffer comp when Vladar is in net, but until that is broken down, I don't think it is as much of a factor as some make it out to be.
Statistically, if Wolf had played those same games as Vladar, the Flames should have almost 2 more wins than they have now. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it would mean they would potentially be solidly in the Wild Card and pushing for a full playoff spot and not on the outside.
I would dig into it if I had time, but I will leave that for smarter people than i.
