Let’s take a look at what goalie you want on your team right now from the four remaining conference finalist.
Two clarifications: One, we are only going to look at the main goalie for each teams, since three of them having a rotating door (sorry Flower). Two, we are looking at bubble stats only, not the overall which goalie do you want for your franchise.
Looking at the numbers:
Record:
- Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay) 12-3.
- Lehner (Vegas) 9-4.
- Varlamov (New York) 9-5.
- Kuhdobin (Dallas) 9-6.
A little misleading. Vasilevskiy at 12-3 is clear-cut the best record. Lehner, Varlamov, and Kuhdobin have all played a different amount of games with a similar record. Also, record comes down to more than just the goalie, its also a team stat that gets attached to the goalie.
Goals Against Average (GAA):
- Lehner (Vegas) 1.84
- Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay) 1.86
- Varlamov (New York) 2.21
- Khudobin (Dallas) 2.82
A slight advantage to Lehner and the Knights. However, if you take a look at the fact that Tampa Bay also played two tougher rounds in Columbus and and Boston, and hasn’t had a night off, this may be slightly misleading as well.
Save Percentage:
- Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay) .932
- Lehner (Vegas) .924
- Varlamov (New York) .913
- Khudobin (Dallas) .912
Another advantage for Vasilevskiy. We take a look at save percentage rather than total saves since three of the goalies have split time. The difference between Vasilevskiy and Lehner is clear but isn’t huge. We’ll call it a narrow advantage.
Shut-Outs:
- Lehner (Vegas) 4
- Varlamov (New York) 2
- Khudobin (Dallas) 1
- Vasivleskiy (Tampa Bay) 0
Here is a stat that really jumps off the books if you’re trying to make a case for Robin Lehner being the top goalie left in the bubble. four shut-outs in the playoffs in 13 games. Nearly 1/4th of the games Lehner starts his team has to put the puck in the net just one time. This is especially impressive looking at the fact that Vasivleskiy hasn’t pitched a single shut-out. Granted, we can’t say for sure Lehner would shut-out Columbus and Boston.
Looking at a reverse points system, if you gave four points for being first in a statistic, three for second, and so on, how would these goalies stack up?
- Lehner (Vegas) 14 Points
- Vasivlesky (Tampa bay) 12 Points
- Varlamov (New York) 9 Points
- Khudobin (Dallas) 5 Points
So by our cherry picked stats and created point system, Robin Lehner is the best goalie left in the bubble! Is he actually? probably not. If you ask me who do I want as my goalie, it’s probably Vasivlesky. But no question on the ice and on the stat sheet Robin Lehner is right up there with the best right now.
Side note, Vegas is playing by far the worst goalie left in the Bubble. Let’s put some more pucks in the net, can’t we?
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