Should we be talking about the goalie?

Myt1

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So what are you implying? Not being a wiseass, I'd like to know. Do you think they should trade him and look for a less expensive option? Go with in-house options?

If he's average, we should be able to play Joe Goaltender and not see any drop-off in team performance next year. Do you agree?
The only thing I’m implying other than what I wrote is that part of the post I was responding to was wrong and that it used a lot of words to inaccurately describe a pretty basic reality.

I don’t think the Bruins would get much in a trade for an average goalie who makes above-average salary. I also think that trades are not this management group’s strong suit.

I’m assuming the Joe Goaltender is a replacement-level player, not an average starting goaltender, so you would probably see a drop off in goaltender play and the difference in team performance would depend on how you were able to allocate any savings.

Absent a specific proposal, fucked if I know?
 
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Lose Remerswaal

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Yes, we should be talking about the goalie.

He's a big reason this team is in the NHL Final (Frozen?) Four.

Can't believe we don't have any other threads about Tuukka other than this one questioning if we should be talking about him.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Meh. I'm okay not having a thread for every player we really like.

As far as the relative point brought up last year, Rask is making $7M, both in salary and AAV. The AAV is tied for fourth-highest, behind Price, Lundqvist, and Bobrovsky, and tied with Pekka Rinne. Those four combined have 2 Stanley Cup Finals appearances to their name, so there's something to be said about putting a ton of your cap into goalies. What mitigates that is when your goalie has a .938 Sv% in the playoffs, best in the league with a minimum of 4 games played, and a 2.02 GAA, second behind Robin Lehner's 2.00. At least for this year, he's earned the money.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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I agree on not having threads for everyone we like, but we don't have threads for anyone.

And I wanted to bump this thread showing how any possible questions anyone may have had about Rask have been well answered
 

Over Guapo Grande

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I think Halak deserves a ton of credit for how well Rask is playing this post season. Rask played in 46 games (45 starts), the least since the 12-13 season. Having a backup who didn't poop the bed every third game was a great luxury for this team, and more on point, helped keep Rask fresh for the playoff run. </captainobvious>
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Rask's regular season numbers are down this year from last, though. He's fresh NOW, of course, which is key, but more rest didn't help his regular season numbers:

2017-18: 34-14-5 .917 2.36
2018-19: 27-13-5 .912 2.48

He also played in 53 games in 2017-18, and 46 this year. Not a huge difference. And in both years, there were stretches were his backup (Dobby last year and Halak this year) played longer stretches of games than usual for a backup.

I think honestly the regular season numbers are just noise. He's playing better in this postseason, but they also have Carlo on defense this year, unlike last, and they don't have to face Tampa, which they did last year. Dobby and Halak have very similar numbers this year as backups too.

I think Rask has just found another gear in the postseason this year.
 

TSC

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I think Halak deserves a ton of credit for how well Rask is playing this post season. Rask played in 46 games (45 starts), the least since the 12-13 season. Having a backup who didn't poop the bed every third game was a great luxury for this team, and more on point, helped keep Rask fresh for the playoff run. </captainobvious>
It's a great point.

And compare that to Bobrovsky, who looked tired and worn down in games 5 and 6, who played in 62 games this season.
 

TFP

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That second goal was brutal. Had Rask let that one up, Felger and Mazz would have 6 months' worth of material.
It was a season ending, completely deflating, paper soft goal. Absolutely inexcusable to give up, despite how many ridiculous saves he made earlier in the series.
 

lexrageorge

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Rask's regular season numbers are down this year from last, though. He's fresh NOW, of course, which is key, but more rest didn't help his regular season numbers:

2017-18: 34-14-5 .917 2.36
2018-19: 27-13-5 .912 2.48

He also played in 53 games in 2017-18, and 46 this year. Not a huge difference. And in both years, there were stretches were his backup (Dobby last year and Halak this year) played longer stretches of games than usual for a backup.

I think honestly the regular season numbers are just noise. He's playing better in this postseason, but they also have Carlo on defense this year, unlike last, and they don't have to face Tampa, which they did last year. Dobby and Halak have very similar numbers this year as backups too.

I think Rask has just found another gear in the postseason this year.
Halak in 2018-19 was inarguably better than Dobby in 2017-18. So I have no issues with the B's moving on from Khudobin; I would not have counted on a season as good as he had this year with the Stars.

I agree that the differences these 2 seasons in terms of the number of games Rask played are minor. Both Halak and Dobby deserve credit for allowing Rask to avoid playing 64, 65, and 70 games during the regular season, which was a problem.
 

Over Guapo Grande

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Rask's regular season numbers are down this year from last, though. He's fresh NOW, of course, which is key, but more rest didn't help his regular season numbers:

2017-18: 34-14-5 .917 2.36
2018-19: 27-13-5 .912 2.48

He also played in 53 games in 2017-18, and 46 this year. Not a huge difference. And in both years, there were stretches were his backup (Dobby last year and Halak this year) played longer stretches of games than usual for a backup.

I think honestly the regular season numbers are just noise. He's playing better in this postseason, but they also have Carlo on defense this year, unlike last, and they don't have to face Tampa, which they did last year. Dobby and Halak have very similar numbers this year as backups too.

I think Rask has just found another gear in the postseason this year.
On a Thomas like run, I hope...
 

TFP

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Halak in 2018-19 was inarguably better than Dobby in 2017-18. So I have no issues with the B's moving on from Khudobin; I would not have counted on a season as good as he had this year with the Stars.
I read this article on The Athletic that went into deeper stats on the goalie performance this season that argued that Halak played on par with the Vezina finalists this year, when accounting for team performance and environment difficulty.

An important eye-test variable that fans and media like to apply to their favourites is the difficulty of a goaltender’s environment. “My goalie,” they argue, “might not have elite numbers, but he’s behind a weaker defence than the other goaltenders.” Fortunately, based on its expected save percentage values, CSA is able to determine which goaltender environments were the easiest and which the most difficult.

Unsurprisingly, of the 42 total goaltenders facing at least 870 shots, Bishop played in the easiest environment in the league. Lehner had the second easiest time of it, while Kuemper ranked fourth. If your eye test was telling you these goalies played within solid defensive structures, your eyes were not deceiving you.

Vasilevskiy, Gibson, Fleury and Andersen were in the uninteresting middle of the pack, casting doubt on the narrative that Andersen’s defence abandoned him often, or that Gibson’s Ducks, while undoubtedly allowing a deluge of shots, allowed an inordinate number of dangerous ones.

Things gets interesting again when we look closer to the bottom of the list. Rinne, who spent most of his career behind a superb Nashville blue line and strangling defensive structure, was surprisingly in the 33rd-ranked environment. Less surprisingly, Price’s environment ranked 36th, and astoundingly, Halak’s was 40th.

Performance above an already high expectation is good, of course, but I believe performance above a very low expectation is even better. When routinely facing higher quality shots, it takes far more precision, game in and game out, to keep bad habits from creeping into your game. When you know you’re going to face only a couple of great chances a game, it’s easier to trust your defence and avoid cheating on odd-man rushes or long lateral plays. When you’re behind a weaker defensive structure, the unpredictability of the shots you’ll face make every save more difficult – once you commit, you’re always worried about the option you aren’t covering. By this criterion, Bishop’s, Lehner’s, and Kuemper’s stock drops significantly, while Halak’s, Rinne’s, and Price’s rises.
More at the link:

https://theathletic.com/945779/2019/04/29/on-the-vezina-using-deeper-data-to-re-evaluate-the-finalists/
 

lexrageorge

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I read this article on The Athletic that went into deeper stats on the goalie performance this season that argued that Halak played on par with the Vezina finalists this year, when accounting for team performance and environment difficulty.



More at the link:

https://theathletic.com/945779/2019/04/29/on-the-vezina-using-deeper-data-to-re-evaluate-the-finalists/
At first, that surprised me, given the B's defense is normally considered stout. Then I recalled that Halak played a lot early in the year (Rask went on a leave for a bit), which coincided with injuries to the B's defense and Bergeron. I remembered the game below (because it was the one game I went to). Bergy, Chara, Carlo, and McAvoy were all injured, and so Kevan Miller played 27 minutes as the team's lead blue-liner:

https://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/201811230BOS.html