Consistency is Worth Its Weight in Goal
In today’s blog post, Don Ehrenhaft of HockeyInsight.com takes a stab at the critics of the Blackhawks’ goal-tending — whether Huet or Niemi — arguing that they should get some perspective. He admonishes:
It is always easy to point out a weak goal and base judgment on that particular event, but I would like to compare the Chicago goalies to the other so-called stars this season…
Ehrenhaft goes on to say that,
Cristobal Huet has had some weak moments this season, but his Goals Against Average is a respectable 2.24. His save percentage is under fire though at .899. Let me run down the list of ‘star’ goalies who have been lauded for their contributions so far this season. Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings, has been praised and given credit for the resurgence of the franchise, but his goals against average is 2.69 and his save percentage .898. Craig Anderson has been heralded as the second coming of Patrick Roy and his GAA is 2.32. Marc-Andre Fleury won the cup last year and the Penguins are flying high so far, despite the mediocre play of the goalie and a 2.52 GAA. It helps when your team scores 4 goals a game. Perennial star goalies Brodeur, Lundquist, and the goalie captain Luongo have GAA’s of 2.35, 2.52, and a whopping 2.79, respectively. No one has panicked yet over their failures.
This is why I try not to put too much emphasis on stats. Statistics lie, or at the very least, they don’t tell the whole truth. For instance, Patrick Kane was -9 in the playoffs last season. Supporters argued his +/- rating did not accurately reflect Kane’s true talent. They say he was still nursing a mid-season injury, he was young and inexperienced in post-season play, and he supposedly had the flu at one point. So if this can be said of Kane, then why can’t the opposite be true for Huet? Why can’t we say that while Huet’s numbers are comparable to other goalies, they don’t tell the whole story? The rest of the story is that Huet is wildly inconsistent and therefore unreliable, and that is the real problem. (As for Niemi, it’s still too soon to tell.)
If pundits and fans are lashing out this season it’s because Huet has had a year now to get it right, and he’s still hit-or-miss. That’s what has fans’ and pundits’ hackles up. So to those who are still inexplicably supporting Huet, make sure you get Huet critics’ criticisms right.