Goaltending this season in the NHL has been a hot topic, with many fans noticing the decline in save percentage, teams like the Penguins and Oilers making goaltender trades, others like the Sabres and Kraken sharing the crease evenly. Ottawa Senators goaltender, Linus Ullmark even took a leave of absence due to mental health, leading them to signing free agent James Reimer.
Since the Olympic break, goalies have been sharing the crease a lot more, with 7 playoff spots already clinched, there might be some hard decisions to be made by organizations on officially deciding what goalie they should give the nod to start for them this post-season. Let's take a look at these playoff teams and how their goaltending stands now.
1. Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche's goaltending have been among the best tandems this season, but many fans think this is also due to a great defense holding them up. With playoff hockey coming, will this tandem be able to stand on their heads for their team?
Scott Wedgewood has seen more starts this season but Mackenzie Blackwood also spent the beginning of the season on injured reserve. Blackwood was the Avalanche's starter last post-season when the fell in round 1 to the Stars in game 7. Wedgewood might be the better option for the Avalanche this post-season though with his .918 save percentage to Blackwood's .899 in the regular season.
2. Minnesota Wild
Jesper Wallstedt has made plenty of waves this season coming in as a the official backup for the Wild following Marc-Andre Fleury's retirement last season. Wild fans quick to nickname him "the Wall of St. Paul". Unfortunately for Wallstedt who the Wild have given ample starts this season for him to put up a .914 save percentage in his 32 games he's played in this season, the playoff starter will need to go to Filip Gustavsson. Experience matters here and with Gustavsson's .917 save percentage record in the post-season, he will most certainly get the call here.
3. Dallas Stars
This team is among those that don't have a hard choice to make this postseason. Jake Oettinger's 30 post-season wins and .913 save percentage will get him another chance this year to try and help lead the Stars to their second cup in franchise history.
4. Carolina Hurricanes
The Hurricanes thought they struck gold earlier this season when they gave Brandon Bussi the call-up. Bussi who was undrafted and spent plenty of time in the AHL for the Bruins organization and then eventually spent time in the Panther's, was never given a chance in the NHL. That was until the Hurricanes claimed him off of waivers right before this season was set to start.
Bussi started the season on incredibly and the Hurricanes were giving him the most starts among Pyotr Kochetkov and Frederik Andersen who are NHL vets now. After Kochetkov hit injured reserve, Bussi also started to decline and post-olympic break, Andersen has now been seeing more starts than he was given at the beginning of the season.
Most likely due to the fact the Hurricanes have realized Andersen will need to be prepared for the playoffs with his .914 save percentage in the post season and 46-35 record. Experience matters once again and with Bussi's declining save percentage this season, Andersen will likely see the post-season once again, but Bussi could see some time if things go south due to Anderen's measly .870 save percentage this season so far.
5. Tampa Bay Lightning
Another team here with no debate on who gets the start, Jonas Johansson has backed up Andrei Vasilevskiy these past 3 seasons, but has never seen playoff time due to Vasilevskiy's always stellar performances. Vasilevskiy's post-season record of 67-50 with a .918 save percentage, not to mention he's already lead this team to 2 cups and is in talks to win his second Vezina trophy this season.
6. Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres goalies have had an interesting season, while 3 have regularly seen the pipes and getting starts. Although, Colten Ellis surely won't get the start as much promise as he's shown. The real toss up here is between Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon who have a .910 and .907 save percentage respectively this regular season and are only 4 games played apart (Luukkonen's 32 to Lyon's 36). With the Sabres seeing their first post-season in 14 years, these goalies don't want to be their downfall.
The Sabres issue here is experience, while both have had a great regular season, Luukkonen has no playoff experience and Lyon has a 1-2 record and .888 save percentage in the post-season. It seems like Lyon will most likely get the starts first in the playoffs, but he will need to prove himself quickly, if he doesn't Luukkonen is sure to take things over.
7. Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens No. 1 struggle this regular season has been goaltending. With them now officially punching their ticket to the playoffs defense is going to need to be strong. Samuel Montembeault was pushed out of net this season, coming in expecting to be the starter, he's now spent plenty of games in the press box scratched with his .872 save percentage due to Jacob Fowler being called up. Fowler is the Canadiens only goalie with a save percentage over .900 this season with only his 16 games games.
Although Dobes has played in 3 post-season games, he's got a measly .881 post-season save percentage. The Canadiens will likely give Dobes another crack at it this season, but it wouldn't be a big shock if they give Fowler a start. It's whoever can prove themselves here.