I’m pretty sure most Eastern Conference teams would love to have a Jonathan Quick of their very own… or a Mike Smith, or a Pekka Rinne, or a Brian Elliott. Heck, a nice Cory Schneider would help any of the Eastern Conference teams out in a pinch. Quite frankly, the goaltending coming out of the Eastern Conference quarter-finals so far has been underwhelming at best. The most extreme example of this was the Pittsburgh/Philadelphia series, of course. Each team’s two goalies take up alternating spots in the bottom four of GAAs during the playoffs.
Looking at the GAAs, it’s telling. The Eastern Conference goalies — the ones of the more protracted series going on in the NHL right now — are grouped together with the losing goalies of the Western Conference. Witness:
Name | Team | GP | GS | MIN | W | L | OTL | EGA | GA | GAA | SA | SV | SV% | SO | |||||||||||||
Cory Schneider | VAN | 3 | 3 | 183 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1.31 | 101 | 97 | .960 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Brian Elliott | STL | 4 | 3 | 219 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1.37 | 98 | 93 | .949 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Jonathan Quick | LOS | 5 | 5 | 302 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1.59 | 172 | 164 | .953 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Johan Hedberg | NJD | 1 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.65 | 14 | 13 | .929 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Jaroslav Halak | STL | 2 | 2 | 104 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1.72 | 46 | 43 | .935 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Pekka Rinne | NAS | 5 | 5 | 299 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1.81 | 160 | 151 | .944 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Mike Smith | PHO | 6 | 6 | 398 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1.81 | 241 | 229 | .950 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Henrik Lundqvist | NYR | 6 | 6 | 363 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1.82 | 190 | 179 | .942 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Craig Anderson | OTT | 6 | 6 | 359 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2.00 | 179 | 167 | .933 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Scott Clemmensen | FLA | 2 | 1 | 114 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2.11 | 46 | 42 | .913 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Braden Holtby | WAS | 6 | 6 | 386 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 2.17 | 216 | 202 | .935 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Tim Thomas | BOS | 6 | 6 | 385 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 2.18 | 180 | 166 | .922 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Martin Brodeur | NJD | 5 | 5 | 259 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 2.32 | 119 | 109 | .916 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Antti Niemi | SAN | 5 | 5 | 318 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 2.45 | 151 | 138 | .914 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Corey Crawford | CHI | 6 | 6 | 396 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 2.58 | 159 | 142 | .893 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Jose Theodore | FLA | 4 | 4 | 185 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2.60 | 99 | 91 | .919 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Jimmy Howard | DET | 5 | 5 | 295 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2.64 | 116 | 103 | .888 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Roberto Luongo | VAN | 2 | 2 | 117 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3.59 | 64 | 57 | .891 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Ilya Bryzgalov | PHI | 6 | 6 | 324 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 3.89 | 163 | 142 | .871 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Marc-Andre Fleury | PIT | 6 | 6 | 337 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 26 | 4.63 | 157 | 131 | .834 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Brent Johnson | PIT | 1 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6.00 | 6 | 4 | .667 | 0 | |||||||||||||
Sergei Bobrovsky | PHI | 1 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8.13 | 18 | 13 | .722 | 0 |
You have Johan Hedberg, he of one game, leading the Eastern Conference goaltenders. Frankly, the goaltending numbers don’t get rough until you hit Jose Theodore — that 2.60 GAA is lightened by a shutout. But the stellar, the sharp goaltending, seems to be a monopoly of the Western Conference. It therefore shouldn’t be a shock that every Western Conference series but one has been decided in five games, while the Eastern Conference’s series’ seem to be dragging on a bit longer than expected.
The teams with the stronger goaltenders are putting their opponents away, which means that next series should be tough defensive battles both. Eastern Conference? Who knows?