I'm sitting at home watching the Red Wings play the Blue Jackets in Columbus, and I couldn't help but notice NBC play-by-play voice Mike Emrick (one of my favorites) sing the praises of Red Wings goalie Dominik Hasek. I'm paraphrasing, but Emrick seemed to indicate that he was impressed by both Hasek's win total (36) as well as his GAA, a league-leading 2.10.But when I take a look at Hasek's stat line, the number that stands out is save percentage, in his case .909, identical to the number posted by Olie Kolzig of the Washington Capitals. Of course, when you look closer, you'll also notice that though the two goalies have played approximately the same amount of minutes this year, that Kolzig has faced almost 500 more shots.
I wonder what Kolzig's numbers would look like playing behind that Detroit defense.
What does that tell us? For one thing, it's clear that a huge part of Detroit's success is keeping the shot count down and keeping the sight lines open so your goalie can see what's happening. But if you disrupt that in just the same way that the Edmonton Oilers managed to in the first round of last season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, the whole shooting match may very well come apart. And with things looking thin on the Detroit blue line, you've got to wonder if head coach Mike Babcock isn't experiencing some sleepless nights headed into the last week of the season.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. This seems ill-timed given the number of saves Hasek made tonight.
Hasek's been strong this season, certainly good enough to take the Red Wings deep in the postseason. Even when he last played for them in the playoffs during their 2002 Stanley Cup run, Hasek faced few shots — but that's besides the point.
Posted at 9:09PM on Apr 1st 2007 by James Mirtle