Colorado Avalanche, The Right Goaltender Is Crucial
By Will Radke
The Colorado Avalanche have always relied on their goaltenders for spectacular play to win games. This means as the season winds down Roy needs to simply play the best goaltender.
The Colorado Avalanche’s goaltending problems have been discussed a lot on this site this season, and for good reason. On a team that readily trades chances, the Avs need good, if not great, goaltending to be competitors. I don’t particularly like that the team or the systems are built that way, but it’s certainly not going to change in the last 11 games of the season.
That is why in a year when Semyon Varlamov has been incredibly inconsistent, the Colorado Avalanche cannot afford to let themselves win and lose games by Varly’s confidence.
Earlier this week we examined adjusted save percentage, and why I believe it’s the stat for comparing the Avs goaltenders. Likewise, in today’s post we will only use 5 on 5 save percentage (so they will differ from the numbers found on NHL.com), and we will focus on adjusted save percentage as our primary guide. Specifically, we’ll compare the goaltenders save percentages from different danger zones. For review the danger zones are below.
There are three goaltenders the Colorado Avalanche can give a shot to get them into the post season. Let’s take a quick look at how each has performed this year. And more importantly, let’s look at who is the best candidate to potentially to try and carry the Avs into the playoffs.
Next: Semyon Varlamov