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Hall of Famer Brodeur’s take on NHL teams’ new approach to the Position



Hall of Famer Brodeur’s take on NHL teams’ new approach to the Position



by tECHOknology

5 Comments

  1. tECHOknology

    In other articles, they are saying he thinks the league “babies their goalies”. Not sure if that is a spin or a direct quote. It is an interesting take and I gotta wonder if never making a clear distinction on who is **the** guy and **always** shielding them from adversity isn’t great for developing a truly elite goaltender.

  2. Schnevets

    I saw the quote and I have been mulling over it. Goalies with 60+ GP have a higher SV%, but that is a clear survivorship bias. But if you took a durable* 1B and gave them an extra 20 starts, maybe you would see their SV% increase since they’d be more aligned with the system?

    I mean, look at Georgiev and Kuemper with Colorado. They posted their best numbers in seasons with the most games… but they also have Cale Makar in front of them.

    *I understand the word durable is pulling a lot of weight there. Between Blackwood’s heel, Daws’ surgery history, and whatever happened to Vitek, it seems like none of the minders in our stable had that constitution… and we just try to follow the teams that thrived by sharing the load (like Vegas or Boston).

  3. This is another area where I feel like both sides are probably right. With modern goaltending techniques it may be that the ligaments are even more tested; I’m not a doctor so I couldn’t say. But on the mental side, I think uncertainty definitely takes a toll on most of these goalies. Maybe it hurts the European guys even more. They’re good goalies, they could be making close to a million in Europe. They only need to come over to face top competition, prove themselves, and maybe make $5-6 million. So if you’re getting bounced between leagues and only making $1.5 million it might literally drive you crazy to think you never needed to leave home at all. Meanwhile you have no idea who’s starting *tomorrow* because ooo, we all play games with every bullshit piece of info now… it seems unnecessarily cruel. The reason we have “#1” goalies is because we know every game is a crapshoot. Marty had nights where he looked kinda terrible. It happens. Goalies deserve at least five or six starts in a row (not necessarily back to backs but clear undisupted starter time) to feel like they’ve had a *minimal* chance to really show what they can do. We’re over here playing games with peoples’ careers after three or four games.

    I strongly think VV couldn’t handle the stress and to a certain extent we may not have been able to do anything about that. But playing mindgames as if the other team is going to wildly change their strategy because they know who the starter is a whole day early doesn’t do anything for anyone – except management. Mgmt want you to know that you can all be replaced at any time, so don’t sweat it. Just relax and let us handle everything and it doesn’t matter what you did last game, the numbers from *two whole games* in your history say you’re weak vs McDavid so we’re putting in the rookie. I’m sure they will get used to it – people get used to things. But I can’t watch all these goalies very quickly flame out and not think that treating them like waste paper may have something to do with it.

  4. Alert_Indication8966

    It’s not the same but it kind of is with how they baby pitchers. Back in the day pitchers were more durable and pitched a lot more, now they have pitch and inning counts and the analytics to determine when to take them out. These guys are professional athletes with workout routines nutritionists and doctors looking at everything they do to get the most out of them, so you would think they can handle the work load. Of course they are also paying these guys a boat load of money so they want to protect their investment.

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