Penguins Goaltending: The Chicken or the Egg?
I was casting about this morning, pondering what I could possibly write about when I was reminded of a recent conversation with Other Rick regarding the state of the Penguins’ goaltending. Which dovetails with an overarching question that’s been on my mind.
Namely, was our poor goaltending a direct result of our watery defense (third-most goals allowed in the league)? Or did porous netminding (13 first-shot goals against) sabotage the team’s chances?
A classic case of the chicken or the egg conundrum.
Thanks to a host of advanced metrics displayed on MoneyPuck, we may have an answer.
First, the basics. Going strictly by the boxcars (goals against average and save percentage), none of our three goalies from last season, veterans Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic and rookie Joel Blomqvist, performed particularly well. The rankings in the following tables are out of the 66 NHL goalies who appeared in at least 15 games, which excludes newcomer Arturs Silovs.
Goals Against Average & Save Percentage
Goalie
GAA
Rank
SV%
Rank
Nedeljkovic
3.12
48
.894
45
Jarry
3.12
48
.892
50
Blomqvist
3.81
66
.885
56
Yikes.