Hockey is a team-oriented sport where every player is important for its success. However, the one position that can make or break your team is the goalie. NHL teams are learning this thanks to an injury outbreak.
In the NHL, if you do not have a solid goaltender, that can ruin your team. There are so many cases where a team is great up front but can’t stop a puck to save its life.
It’s no shock that teams with poor save percentages aren’t doing well in the standings. As of right now, the last place teams in the league are the LA Kings (.898 save percentage), Vegas Golden Knights (.893 save percentage), and the Pittsburgh Penguins (.906 save percentage). Teams who don’t have reliable goaltending don’t get anywhere in the modern-day NHL. Even if they have one, it is not always enough due to injury.
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The Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, and Arizona Coyotes are all dealing with this problem.
The LA Kings have not experienced the success they expected to have and this is in large part due to their goaltending issues. Their starting goalie Jonathan Quick was placed on long-term injury reserve after tearing his meniscus (knee) and their backup (who was actually really impressive) Jack Campbell was put on injured reserve with the same injury. For a team that has trouble scoring, losing your two star goaltenders is a huge issue.
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning have lost their Vezina finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy to a fractured foot. He will be out indefinitely and backup Louis Domingue will take his place. Vasilevskiy’s 9-3 record and .927 save percentage is a massive reason why the Lightning is such a dominant team and his loss will be felt.
The Washington Capitals have lost Braden Holtby to an “upper body” injury and he is currently day-to-day. Even though he wasn’t having the best season (5-5-2 record, .900 sv%), he is known to turn up his game and dominate for periods of time.
The first game they played without Holtby was a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. They’re 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. If they want to take advantage of a pretty weak Eastern Conference, they will need Holtby to be back in action soon. For the Capitals’ sake, hopefully, he will not be out for long.
Ever since the Arizona Coyotes lost Antti Raanta to injury, their record has been 1-2-1, with their most recent game being a beatdown at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings, 6-1. Raanta has looked phenomenal ever since the second half of the 2017-18 season and was the biggest factor in the Coyotes’ end-of-the-season playoff push.
With him gone, the Coyotes have begun to slip down the standings as they’re not the highest scoring team. Clayton Keller currently leads them in points and he only has 12 (5 goals and 7 assists). When your team is struggling this hard to score, losing your key goaltender is a tough pill to swallow.
These teams have lost some critical goaltenders and unless they can find some magic the way the Vegas Golden Knights did last season, they’re in for a rough ride.