Alot is being said about the goaltenders in Montreal in the media. Will one get traded? When? For who/what? Which one?….etc.
This morning I read this great article on The Hockey News site titled “Top Shelf: Re-packaging the 1-2 goalie punch“.
The author (Ryan Dixon) mentions that there is another team doing a very similar thing that is going on with the Habs as of late. That is, each goaltender has played a substantial number of games.
You see, the Nashville Predators have been playing both Pekka Rinne and Dan Ellis a fair bit. Rinne has played 28 games and Ellis 20. Their stats are also quite similar:
Nashville Predators
Pekka Rinne – 28 games – 2.74 GAA – .906 S%
Dan Ellis – 20 games – 2.75 GAA – .910 S%
It’s quite similar to what’s going on in Montreal between Price and Halak statistically:
Montreal Canadiens
Carey Price – 29 games – 2.67 GAA – .915 S%
Jaroslav Halak – 18 games – 2.64 GAA – .922 S%
Just like the article mentions, if we go back to the days of Patrick Roy he played with Brian Hayward alot. In fact in Roy’s first 4 full seasons in Montreal (85-86 to 88-89) he never played more then 48 games.
Alot has changed since those days of course. I’m not sure if all the money might have influenced more of the battle to be a “number 1″ on a team. I mean, I know athletes are competitive but when you lay the chips down hockey is a team sport and if I put my “fan-gm” hat on for a minute…. it’s much better for a team and for an organization to have 2 strong goaltenders instead of having a “number 1″ and a “backup”.
Food for thought this morning.
