Early 2020-21 goaltending controversies across the NHL
It’s the question on everybody’s mind each game day— which goaltender was off the ice first at morning skate? That, or if there wasn’t a morning skate, which goalie came out first for warm up?
Defenders can sometimes reach another level of play if they have enough confidence in the crease they’re trying to defend. Sometimes coaches just have to ride the hot hands of one goaltender or another.
And sometimes there’s more than enough controversy that swirls around the netminders of one or more teams. This season is like all the others, though the storylines and teams involved might differ from year-to-year.
The most important (Washington Capitals)
The Washington Capitals are off to a hot start sitting atop the MassMutual NHL East Division standings with a 5-0-3 record (13 points) through eight games played heading into Saturday night’s matchup with the 2nd place in the East Division, Boston Bruins.
Prior to testing positive for COVID-19 and entering COVID-19 protocol, in fact, way before the season began, Ilya Samsonov was set to takeover as the starting goaltender for Washington with Braden Holtby having left for the Vancouver Canucks in free agency.
In 26 games played last season (22 starts), Samsonov went 16-6-2 with a 2.55 goals against average, a .913 save percentage and one shutout in that span.
Generally speaking, a good or average backup goaltender has around a 2.50 GAA in that amount of games, so Samsonov was tracking well in his first taste of the National Hockey League.
Then came Holtby’s departure, Henrik Lundqvist’s acquisition via free agency, Lundqvist’s announcement that he would not be able to play in 2020-21 due to a heart condition and finally, rest assured, the very first game of the season for the Capitals with Samsonov in command, Vitek Vanecek ready as his backup and Craig Anderson working on signing his one-year deal off of a PTO.
Not great, Bob
Samsonov’s season debut featured four goals against on 26 shots faced to go with an .846 SV% in the, 6-4, win for Washington on the road in Buffalo on Jan. 14th.
Not great, but maybe it was just nerves, right?
Samsonov’s second start didn’t improve much. He had three goals allowed on 27 shots for an .889 SV% in a, 4-3, shootout loss in Pittsburgh on Jan. 17th.
Two games in, seven goals against, a 3.36 GAA and an .868 SV%— Samsonov didn’t get out of the gate the way Capitals head coach, Peter Laviolette, hoped he would.
Especially not after Vanecek made 30 saves on 31 shots in a, 2-1, victory in Buffalo on Jan. 15th in his NHL debut between Samsonov’s first two games this season.
Prior to his NHL debut last season, Samsonov had taken his time developing in Russia before appearing in 37 games with the Hershey Bears (AHL) in 2018-19, amassing a 2.70 GAA and an .898 SV% in that span.
The 23-year-old is still young, showed flashes of brilliance last season, but almost by default compared to Holtby’s 3.11 GAA and .897 SV% in 48 games in his final season with the Caps.
Victory with Vanecek
Vanecek, on the other hand, is more on track with his goaltending prime (goalies tend to develop slower) as a 25-year-old that was worked into Washington’s minor league affiliates, Hershey (AHL) and the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL) in at least one game dating back to the 2015-16 season.
In six games this season with Washington, Vanecek is 4-0-2 overall with a 2.75 GAA and a .915 SV% in that span. He’s the first and only other Capitals goaltender since Jim Carey in 1994-95 to record at least a point in his first six games.
He’s also faced 200 shots and allowed 17 goals against thus far.
Vanecek’s faced an average of about three more shots on goal per game (33) than Samsonov has (30), which tells that 1) Washington’s defense could do more to suppress their opponent’s offense and 2) that Vanecek is handling heavier workloads better thus far.
It’d be unwise for Laviolette to rush Samsonov back into the starting role after he’s cleared from the COVID protocol without at least letting these two young goaltenders of the future try to outperform each other for more playing time.
Maybe Samsonov’s first two games were just a fluke and Vanecek is the type of goaltender to start on the right foot from year-to-year, then regresses back to the mean.
It’s also still early in the season, so who really knows.
Honorable mention, welcome to New York
Last season witnessed the passing of the torch from Lundqvist to Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev in the crease for the New York Rangers while Lundqvist finished off his last season in “The Big Apple”.
A quick check on how things are going this year reveals some serious problems in New York’s lineup, as well as some shaky confidence in the crease.
Shesterkin’s off to a 1-2-1 start in five games played with a 2.73 GAA and an .894 SV%. Last season he went 10-2-0 in 12 games with a 2.52 GAA and a .932 SV%.
It was a small sample, but the Rangers appeared to find the “it” goaltender for life after Lundqvist.
Perhaps, like Samsonov, Shesterkin’s just bidding his time to build up some rhythm as a 25-year-old starting goaltender.
Then again, Georgiev is 1-2-0 in three games played with a 2.66 GAA, an .896 SV% and one shutout this season. Could this be another controversy!?!
New York sits in 8th place (last) in the MassMutual East Division currently with a 2-4-1 record (five points) overall.
All around me are familiar faces (Vancouver Canucks)
The Vancouver Canucks signed Braden Holtby in the offseason to a two-year contract worth $4.300 million per season after Canucks GM Jim Benning let Jacob Markstrom walk to the Calgary Flames.
Holtby provides some stability at a cheap price with Vancouver tight against the cap and pending-restricted free agent goaltender, Thatcher Demko, to re-sign in the offseason.
Oh and the 2021 Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft is around the corner in July too. One goaltender must be protected by Vancouver, but that’s a topic for another day.
Instead, Holtby earned the starting nod to kickoff the season, but is 3-2-0 in five games thus far with a 3.17 GAA and a .906 SV%.
While his save percentage is better than last season’s .897 in 48 games, Holtby’s allowed 16 goals on 171 shots faced and has looked rather pedestrian in his attempt to spur a career-resurgence at 31-years-old.
Meanwhile, Demko is 25-years-old and is 2-3-0 in five games with a 3.65 GAA and a .909 SV%.
Demko’s also faced 198 shots against already and allowed 18 goals this season and is averaging about 39 shots against per game. Holtby, on the other hand, is facing about 34 shots per game.
At some point efficiency might work itself out here and lend a hand in forcing Canucks head coach Travis Green’s hand in playing Demko over Holtby more often. The rest of the team will have to step up and follow.
Take a walk on the wild side (Minnesota Wild)
Sitting in 3rd place in the Honda NHL West Division, the Minnesota Wild are 5-3-0 so far this season with Cam Talbot and Kaapo Kähkönen having taken to the ice as Wild goaltenders.
Talbot is in the first of his new three-year deal with Minnesota worth $3.667 million per season, joining the organization via free agency after spending last season with the Calgary Flames.
Kähkönen made his league debut late last season and is entering this season with the objective of remaining the Wild’s backup, if not competing for the starting with Talbot in the duration of Talbot’s tenure.
33-year-old Talbot has posted a 2-1-0 record in four games with a 2.34 GAA and a .925 SV% thus far, which is quite remarkable given his career slide to more of a backup role since he played 67 games as the Edmonton Oilers starter in 2017-18.
With an even split, there’s a chance for a career resurgence as he enters the twilight years of a goaltender’s prime.
Meanwhile, 24-year-old Kähkönen is considered one of the better young goaltenders poised for potential superstardom in the crease.
In five games last season, he went 3-1-1 with a 2.96 GAA and a .913 SV%. In five games this season, he has a 3-2-0 record with a 2.40 GAA and a .917 SV% in that span. Though he faced more shots (40 more shots, to be exact) in his five-game stint last season compared to this season, Kähkönen looks sharp, locked in and ready for a wild ride.
Minnesota’s net is Kähkönen’s in the long term, but depending on how Talbot bounces back from his latest injury, the two goaltenders might make it hard for Wild head coach, Dean Evason, to pick a starter from night-to-night.
Raining cats and dogs (Florida Panthers)
None of the teams in the Discover NHL Central Division really have that much controversy over the amount of time each club is splitting among their goaltenders.
Well, none of the teams except for the Florida Panthers, that is.
This one is less controversy and more of a statement of the obvious, but if Sergei Bobrovsky can’t get going at a satisfactory level, the Panthers might need to rely on Chris Driedger out of both necessity and because of the fact that Driedger is making a serious case for being the starting netminder in Florida this season.
Driedger bounced around in the minors for quite a while before, during and after his brief stints in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators from the 2014-15 season through the 2016-17 season before reappearing with Florida last season in 12 games.
He had a 7-2-1 record alone with a 2.05 GAA, a .938 SV% and one shutout in that span as the Panthers’ contingency plan.
This season, he’s 1-0-1 in two games played with a 1.92 GAA and a .934 SV%, whereas Bobrovsky is 2-0-0 in two games with a 3.35 GAA and an .879 SV%.
Driedger’s given up four goals on 61 shots faced. Bobrovsky has allowed seven goals on 58 total shots thus far.
Though Bobrovsky currently holds a better record, he needs to find a rhythm and maintain stability. His 23-19-6 record in 50 games last season with a 3.23 GAA, a .900 SV% and one shutout was not up to par with his $10.000 million cap hit per season over seven years.
Especially considering he put up a 37-24-1 record in 62 games with a 2.58 GAA, a .913 SV% and a league-leading nine shutouts in his final season with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2018-19.
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— Nick Lanciani (@lanci53)