First Half Check-Up Goaltenders

Game #41 against the Penguins was the turnaround point for the season - with all games from now on taking place on the home stretch. Though I missed the ideal time, I still wanted to share some thoughts and LIW gamelogs with you.

To start, the goalies.

Legend:
GP, W, L, OTL, GAA, Sv%: You know already
GS: Games started
ChSv%: Percentage of scoring chances saved

Carey Price

Grade:

A

Easily the surprise of the season to date was Carey Price's dash out of the gates. From Game #1 to Game #30, he didn't miss a dome nod, and you can see from his record that's because he was playing extremely well.

It's been a bit of a dip for Carey the last 11 games or so, but without anything disastrous.

The good thing about Carey this year is that he seems to win when he plays well and only lose really when he doesn't. There have been 5 reversals (2 wins when he played below average, and 3 losses that could have been wins) but this is way down from past seasons.

From here, it will be interesting to see whether his recent upswing is a recovery to early season form or just a blip while we wait for that to happen. It certainly would be great to have the goalie back who saved more than 85% of quality scoring chances (ChSv%) on most occasions. Especially given the prolonged losses of Markov and Gorges will continue to hamper both the defense and the offense by chain reaction.


Alex Auld

Grade:

A

The second big surprise of the season would have to be the lack of games for Auld. I think we all thought he was being brought in to do a job that Cedrick Desjardins couldn't manage. Turns out, he's mostly just here to listen to Joel Bouchard.

In the games he's played, Auld has done able work for the most part. He has yet to post a complete shambles of a game where GAA, Sv% and ChSv% are all to the dogs. For that reason I'd give him top marks. And top marks for pulling that off while weathering what must be a tough pill to swallow - the almost certain end of the road in the NHL.