Anderson Dominating NHL Goaltending Stats

I was not able to watch the Avalanche v. Oilers last night because my DirecTV signal was being jammed by a giant storm cloud dumping 4 inches of snow on us in just a few hours.  So, since I really cannot have an opinion on the team’s performance (other than what is in the highlight video), I thought I would just discuss some of Craig Anderson’s stats after the first 12 games.

Because of the dismal performance of the team last year, there are a lot of “experts” who are very cautious about giving this team any credit for where they are in the standings.  We have added some good players like Quincey, O’Riley, and Duchene, but Craig Anderson is the main reason for the team’s current success.  Here are his impressive numbers after making all 12 starts for the Avalanche:

Stats taken from the NHL.com Goaltending Summary page.

- 9 Wins.  Currently best in the NHL.

- 1.96 Goals Against Average.  This is the best GAA  in the NHL for all goaltenders with more than 2 starts, other than Ryan Miller (on my fantasy team by the way), who has 7 starts and a 1.69 GAA.

- .940 Save Percentage.  This is technically the 5th best S% in the NHL, but positions 1-4 are taken by players who only have 2 appearances for their team.  So, in my opinion, Andy is the true S% leader.

- 399 Shots Faced & 375 Saves.  Anderson has faced the most shots & consequently made the most saves in the NHL by almost 70.  Khabibulin is the next on the list with 330 shots faced.  This is probably something that the team as a whole needs to start working on.  Anderson has been great, but the skaters need to help take the pressure off.

- 2 Shutouts.  14 goaltenders in the league have a shutout this season, but only Ilya Bryzgalov also has 2.  Shutouts are pretty hard to come by in NHL since the lockout, but Andy has had 2 in 12 starts.  It is even more impressive that he has managed to get 2 shutouts while facing (by far) the most shots in the NHL.

- Anderson has managed to stay this consistent even after making back-to-back starts twice this season.  They will need to start getting him some periodic rest at some point soon, but right now he looks very solid, and it is hard to deny him on any given night.

Yes, it is still early, and there is a lot of hockey to be played; but even if Anderson has a few of bad games now and then, I believe he will be a top 5 goaltender when the season is over.  Streaks generally do not last more than a few games, and 12 is a lot more than just a few.  I think it is pretty obvious that we are looking at real ability, and not just a lucky streak.

Side Notes:

The Avalanche play their third back-to-back game of the season tonight when they go up against the Calgary Flames at 7:30pm mtn.  The Flames have been playing good hockey lately, so this will be another tough test for this new look team that is currently 1st in the entire NHL (Wow, that sounds nice).

This is also my first blog post on my brand spanking new MacBook Pro.  I think I am in computer heaven!