Faceoff Factor

The Ultimate guide to Stanley Cup goaltending

Mike Wilson | National Hockey League

May 20, 06:35 PM | Hype this story!

Goaltending has become one of the most important aspects in the NHL after the lockout and it certainly won’t be left unheard from during this 2008 Stanley Cup championship. Below are the notable aspects of goaltending to look for and the list of the goalies who earned respect from the conference finals.

Protection

It seems like it’s only a matter of time until goaltenders are given a lance and shield. In which case might make Red Wing opponents hesitant to even play against Chris Osgood and his “involuntary” arm spasms.

Goalies have everything in their favor right now when it comes to protection. We’ve seen different cases of it as well. In these playoffs alone, especially in the conference finals, we saw all kinds of goalie controversy.

In the Western Conference final game four, Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom was perched in front of the crease as if he read it straight from the textbook. When Pavel Datsyuk’s shot went past Turco, the refs waved it off saying Holmstrom was interfering. The overhead showed he was clearly out of the crease.

Goaltender interference is unreviewable. The goal lives a short life and is taken away from us at a young age…never to be seen in a stat column ever again.

On the other side, Marc-Andre Fleury caught a case of the goal review syndrome in game five of the Eastern Conference finals. Patrick Thoreson had his stick in Fleury’s mask and helped to push his leg (along with the puck) over the red line and into the net. (I wonder if Don Cherry saw that one clearly.)

Yet another angle…Marty Biron gets his stick caught between Malone and the boards during game five. No whistle is blown and the play continues after Biron momentarily pleads his case to no avail.

After skirmishing back to his crease, Biron loses track of the puck and it ends up going from Malkin’s stick to the back of the net.

To review this for you…that’s a goal waved off for no good reason, a goal disallowed for a good reason, and a goal allowed for no good reason all in the same round of the Stanley Cup finals. Any of this making sense? Probably not.

And so, goaltender protection continues to be a touchy issue for teams and their fans. It’s great if the call is for you, but it’s terrible if it’s against you. Let’s hope the refs make up their mind for the next round.

But what happens when a goalie takes the liberty of protecting himself or starts a fight on his own. Does the universe implode? Close. Instead, you get something like Chris Osgood’s stick-to-face tactic.

The NHL issued disclosed amounts of dollars in fines to both Osgood and Mike “the slasher” Ribiero. The last time goaltenders really got into it like that was between Marty Biron (then Buffalo Sabre) and Ray Emery when they duked it out in February of 2007.

If goalies want to play like Jean-Claude Van Damme playing Darren McCord in “Sudden Death” when he assumes the goalie position, they might get into a little trouble from the league (hence the fines).

Besides, let’s see one of the NHL goalies dismantle multiple bombs in the arena while winning the Stanley Cup, and then we’ll see who wants to be a tough-guy goaltender.

Review of conference finals goaltenders

Marty Biron: Going into the playoffs, Biron was treated like dead weight pulling down the Flyers. Between both he and Niittymaki, it looked like the Flyers were done for. But, somehow, Biron stepped up and guided his team to the Eastern Conference finals. Now a beloved figure among the Flyers, Biron proved he should no longer be considered dead weight.

Marty Turco: HURRAY!!! Turco won his first playoff game in Joe Louis Arena for game five of the Western Conference finals. Respect was dished his way by all the big-time analysts for being the center of confidence in Dallas’s underdog playoff run.

Marc-Andre Fleury: Another target for early critics, Fleury has proven that he is a Stanley Cup caliber goaltender. He tops the list of wins in the playoffs (12) and is second in goals against average (1.70). Not to mention, his name is being thrown around at Faceoff-Factor, as well as other establishments, as a prominent candidate for the Conn Smythe.

Chris Osgood: He can be summed up by one word…finally. Now in his late 30’s, Osgood has finally developed into a solid starting goaltender and now plays center stage for the Red Wings. He even managed to oust Dominik Hasek as starter. All in all, he has already accomplished some tall tasks in his quest for the cup.

But now on to the near future.

What do these goaltenders have to win the cup?

It’s old versus new. (Don’t be alarmed, I only used versus as a comparison, not the network. All is well.) Osgood has the classical style of patience and regularity. Fleury’s is the kind that is springy and unorthodox.

But suddenly, we’ve seen both goaltenders adapt to the other style of play. Osgood can now spring into a save just as well as Fleury can now stay patient and make saves standing up. What’s a shooter to do?

This is why in a poll on NHL.com goaltending was voted the most important determining factor for the Stanley Cup. Both teams have the offense, defense, and goaltending necessary to win the cup.

Ok…so now this means the universe will implode upon itself right? Not quite…but getting warmer. This means that these games are going to be very demanding for every player on the ice and possibly go into a longer series.

Each team had a sweep (Pittsburgh in the first round over Ottawa and Detroit in the second round over Colorado) and then won their other two series in the same number of games (Pittsburgh in five and Detroit in six).

Statistically, I haven’t gotten anywhere over this debate. But let’s get a little more detailed. Instead of looking at how the goalies alone react, let’s look at how their teammates help them out.

Neither team allowed a lot of rebound goals in their previous series. Pittsburgh allowed four and Detroit allowed two. So defense controlling big rebounds may be a hidden, yet important factor in this series.

While Osgood has the better goals against average with 1.60, he’s only .10 ahead of Fleury. However, when it comes to shots faced, Fleury leads Osgood by 100 (388 to 288). Fleury also leads in saves 364 to 268.

Even their back-ups are outstanding. Everyone knows Ty Conklin’s and Dominik Hasek’s capabilities. Plus, hasn’t Hasek seen Pittsburgh in this situation before? Oh yeah…way back in 1992 when he was a Chicago Blackhawk. And, as Bob Errey pointed out toward the end of the season, this Penguin team is eerily similar to the ’91 and ’92 Stanley Cup champs.

Lord Stanley has shown us a great playoff year so far, so why shouldn’t the battle for his namesake cup be any different? The stats show this is going to be a good one.

By the way, the universe implodes when the NHL grants full rights to Stanley Cup coverage to VERSUS.