Crapped-On Goaltenders, Part Deux

Ben Wendorf
June 08 2012 09:12AM

You might remember a little while ago I took a look at goaltenders who had a bit heavier burden in terms of team quality and situations than other goaltenders.  Even though this had little bearing on the goaltender's performance numbers (namely, even-strength save percentage), it does call attention to the varying difficulties at the position.  Rather than just isolating this study in the most recent season, I decided to expand the research to all seasons in the Desjardins Era (beginning in 2007-08 to the present).  Focusing on single seasons this time, let's have a look at some of the toughest (and easiest) team situations in NHL goaltending the past five seasons.

Before looking at the leaders and losers in the composite ranking, I first want to look at the individual categories I used to create the final index - starting with Fenwick On (be fore-warned: there be many tables ahead, yarrr):

Yr NAME Tm Fnwk ON Yr NAME Tm Fnwk ON
07-08 Kari Lehtonen ATL 41.355 11-12 Brian Elliott STL 54.222
07-08 Jason LaBarbera L.A 42.875 07-08 Fredrik Norrena CBJ 54.240
10-11 Niklas Backstrom MIN 43.221 10-11 Antero Niittymaki S.J 54.271
07-08 Ty Conklin PIT 43.226 09-10 Vesa Toskala TOR/CGY 54.300
07-08 Johan Hedberg ATL 43.251 08-09 Jose Theodore WSH 54.429
08-09 Craig Anderson FLA 43.664 11-12 Tuukka Rask BOS 54.500
08-09 Joey MacDonald NYI 43.820 11-12 Jimmy Howard DET 54.509
08-09 Karri Ramo T.B 43.825 07-08 Evgeni Nabokov S.J 54.599
09-10 Scott Clemmensen FLA 43.839 08-09 Martin Brodeur N.J 54.604
10-11 James Reimer TOR 43.896 07-08 Henrik Lundqvist NYR 54.749
08-09 Jaroslav Halak MTL 44.103 09-10 Chris Osgood DET 54.981
07-08 Mathieu Garon EDM 44.342 08-09 Ty Conklin DET 55.159
08-09 Ilya Bryzgalov PHX 44.430 08-09 Brian Boucher S.J 55.918
11-12 Josh Harding MIN 44.548 08-09 Cristobal Huet CHI 56.022
09-10 Ondrej Pavelec ATL 44.659 08-09 Chris Osgood DET 56.274
10-11 Jonas Hiller ANA 44.845 10-11 Ty Conklin STL 56.366
09-10 Jonas Hiller ANA 44.875 09-10 Antti Niemi CHI 56.485
11-12 Niklas Backstrom MIN 45.200 07-08 Chris Osgood DET 57.945
10-11 Jose Theodore MIN 45.251 09-10 Cristobal Huet CHI 59.053
11-12 Pekka Rinne NSH 45.257 07-08 Dominik Hasek DET 60.196

Why hello, Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota Wild goaltenders...

Now, 5v5 team shooting percentage:

Yr NAME Tm 5v5 S% Yr NAME Tm 5v5 S%
11-12 Josh Harding MIN 5.680 07-08 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 11.000
09-10 Chris Osgood DET 5.753 08-09 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 11.000
09-10 Brian Boucher PHI 5.836 08-09 Craig Anderson FLA 11.004
09-10 Tim Thomas BOS 6.107 10-11 Anders Lindback NSH 11.040
08-09 Brian Boucher S.J 6.207 08-09 Manny Legace STL 11.048
11-12 Niklas Backstrom MIN 6.223 07-08 Peter Budaj COL 11.107
10-11 Scott Clemmensen FLA 6.294 09-10 Ondrej Pavelec ATL 11.120
07-08 Alex Auld PHX/BOS 6.466 11-12 Tim Thomas BOS 11.232
07-08 Jonah Hiller ANA 6.601 09-10 Semyon Varlamov WSH 11.277
10-11 Martin Brodeur N.J 6.642 08-09 Manny Fernandez BOS 11.277
07-08 Ilya Bryzgalov PHX 6.715 11-12 Chris Mason WPG 11.284
08-09 Patrick Lalime BUF 6.735 10-11 Ty Conklin STL 11.338
11-12 Curtis Sanford CBJ 6.838 08-09 Brent Johnson WSH 11.364
10-11 Mathieu Garon CBJ 6.929 10-11 James Reimer TOR 11.429
07-08 Wade Dubielewicz NYI 6.960 10-11 Jonathan Bernier L.A 11.700
11-12 Jean-Sebastien Giguere COL 6.996 08-09 Johan Hedberg ATL 11.748
08-09 Peter Budaj COL 7.004 11-12 Sergei Bobrovsky PHI 11.993
08-09 Henrik Lundqvist NYR 7.023 11-12 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 12.351
08-09 Joey MacDonald NYI 7.036 11-12 Jimmy Howard DET 12.358
11-12 Jose Theodore FLA 7.091 09-10 Andrew Raycroft VAN 12.724
        09-10 Jose Theodore WSH 12.862

A little more argument for Marc-Andre Fleury being the benefactor of those very good teams.  Also, a little surprising to see Chris Osgood on the left side of these lists.

The next metric, a little Frankenstein's Monster of mine, is a mashup of 5v5, 5v4, and 4v5 time, looking at the percentage of that total time that is consumed by 4v5 time:

Yr NAME Tm 4v5% Yr NAME Tm 4v5%
08-09 Antero Niittymaki PHI 13.842 09-10 Martin Brodeur N.J 8.245
07-08 Dominik Hasek DET 13.641 11-12 Tuukka Rask BOS 8.178
07-08 Wade Dubielewicz NYI 13.589 10-11 Martin Brodeur N.J 8.169
08-09 Dan Ellis NSH 13.228 11-12 Steve Mason CBJ 8.146
08-09 Jean-Sebastien Giguere ANA 13.114 09-10 Alex Auld NYR 8.140
07-08 Antero Niittymaki PHI 13.088 11-12 Ray Emery CHI 8.132
07-08 Martin Gerber OTT 13.045 10-11 Jonas Gustavsson TOR 8.106
08-09 Mike Smith T.B 13.039 09-10 Antti Niemi CHI 8.098
07-08 Nikolai Khabibulin CHI 12.860 09-10 Pekka Rinne NSH 7.955
10-11 Mike Smith T.B 12.836 10-11 Corey Crawford CHI 7.849
07-08 Jean-Sebastien Giguere ANA 12.784 11-12 Cam Ward CAR 7.840
08-09 Jason LaBarbera VAN 12.733 11-12 Pekka Rinne NSH 7.767
08-09 Jonathan Quick L.A 12.719 11-12 Ryan Miller BUF 7.742
09-10 Ty Conklin STL 12.512 11-12 Corey Crawford CHI 7.736
07-08 Miikka Kiprusoff CGY 12.471 09-10 Dan Ellis NSH 7.641
07-08 Mathieu Garon EDM 12.407 11-12 Martin Biron NYR 7.587
07-08 Patrick Lalime CHI 12.328 11-12 Evgeni Nabokov NYI 7.553
08-09 Karri Ramo T.B 12.300 11-12 Antti Niemi S.J 7.199
08-09 Johan Hedberg ATL 12.293 11-12 Jonas Gustavsson TOR 7.069
07-08 Roberto Luongo VAN 12.278 11-12 Scott Clemmensen FLA 6.351

What's really interesting here is the number of players from 2011-12 dominating the right side of this list.  Obviously, there's been a league-wide decrease influencing the numbers.

The final metric is 4v5 Fenwick-Against/60, to give a slight bump (or downgrade) for the volume of shots allowed on the PK:

Yr NAME Tm 4v5 FA/60 Yr NAME Tm 4v5 FA/60
08-09 Craig Anderson FLA 82.8 07-08 Martin Gerber OTT 54.2
11-12 Dwayne Roloson T.B 82.6 09-10 Brent Johnson PIT 53.6
11-12 Ray Emery CHI 82.5 11-12 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 53.4
09-10 Curtis McElhinney ANA 80.7 10-11 Martin Brodeur N.J 53.3
10-11 Cory Schneider VAN 80.2 11-12 Carey Price MTL 53.2
10-11 Ilya Bryzgalov PHX 78.2 11-12 Al Montoya NYI 53.2
11-12 Evgeni Nabokov NYI 77.4 09-10 Martin Brodeur N.J 53.2
07-08 Jason LaBarbera L.A 77.2 08-09 Chris Osgood DET 52.8
09-10 Tomas Vokoun FLA 77.2 09-10 Niklas Backstrom MIN 52.5
08-09 Tomas Vokoun FLA 76.3 09-10 Semyon Varlamov WSH 52.2
09-10 Marty Turco DAL 75.9 11-12 Martin Brodeur N.J 52.1
09-10 Jonas Gustavsson TOR 75.9 10-11 Johan Hedberg N.J 51.9
09-10 Jean-Sebastien Giguere TOR 75.3 11-12 Ilya Bryzgalov PHI 51.6
11-12 Scott Clemmensen FLA 75.3 07-08 Dan Ellis NSH 51.5
09-10 Manny Legace CAR 75.3 07-08 Chris Osgood DET 50.8
09-10 Pascal Leclaire OTT 74.5 10-11 Ty Conklin STL 50.6
10-11 Jonas Hiller ANA 74.5 08-09 Dan Ellis NSH 50.5
10-11 Cam Ward CAR 74.5 08-09 Pekka Rinne NSH 47.6
11-12 Mike Smith PHX 74.2 07-08 Patrick Lalime CHI 46.5
09-10 Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers EDM 73.9 07-08 Dominik Hasek DET 43.1

As Nashville is a frequent target of over-counting accusations (not entirely unfounded, thanks to a number of studies), it is interesting to see their penalty-killing in the right column. Evidence that it was a very good kill?  And now for our composite crapped-on index (the results are of 257 goaltender performances, 20+ GP):

Yr NAME Tm Cmp Rk Yr NAME Tm Cmp Rk
11-12 Josh Harding MIN 3.6 08-09 Manny Legace STL 37.9
11-12 Niklas Backstrom MIN 5.8 09-10 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 38.2
08-09 Joey MacDonald NYI 7.0 08-09 Nikolai Khabibulin CHI 38.3
11-12 Curtis Sanford CBJ 8.5 11-12 Martin Biron NYR 38.7
07-08 Wade Dubielewicz NYI 9.0 11-12 Tim Thomas BOS 38.8
11-12 Jhonas Enroth BUF 9.3 11-12 Tuukka Rask BOS 38.9
10-11 Nikolai Khabibulin EDM 10.3 09-10 Ray Emery PHI 39.7
08-09 Karri Ramo T.B 10.8 11-12 Corey Crawford CHI 40.0
09-10 Jean-Sebastien Giguere TOR 10.9 10-11 Jonathan Bernier L.A 40.2
11-12 Cam Ward CAR 11.4 08-09 Brent Johnson WSH 40.8
09-10 Martin Biron NYI 11.5 10-11 Corey Crawford CHI 41.0
09-10 Mathieu Garon CBJ 11.7 11-12 Chris Mason WPG 41.1
09-10 Carey Price MTL 12.2 09-10 Andrew Raycroft VAN 41.1
09-10 Antero Niittymaki T.B 12.4 11-12 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 42.4
11-12 Nikolai Khabibulin EDM 12.6 08-09 Ty Conklin DET 42.6
07-08 Tomas Vokoun FLA 12.7 09-10 Semyon Varlamov WSH 43.5
11-12 Tomas Vokoun WSH 12.9 08-09 Manny Fernandez BOS 43.9
11-12 Miikka Kiprusoff CGY 13.4 11-12 Jimmy Howard DET 44.8
09-10 Tomas Vokoun FLA 13.7 09-10 Antti Niemi CHI 47.7
10-11 Jonas Hiller ANA 13.9 10-11 Ty Conklin STL 51.3

Any question why Tomas Vokoun left Washington for Pittsburgh?

Now for the big one: within each season, I took the composite ranks and ordered them 1 through whatever, I ranked the 5v5 save percentages 1 through whatever, I ranked the 4v5 save percentages 1 through whatever, and I weighted the three 10/8/2 respectively to comprise an overall, crapped-on, performance index.  

Your 25 valiant performances (and 25 all-time boobs) these last five years:

Yr NAME Tm GP Prf Rk Yr NAME Tm GP Prf Rk
08-09 Tomas Vokoun FLA 59 4.5 10-11 Jimmy Howard DET 63 40.3
07-08 Wade Dubielewicz NYI 20 6.6 07-08 Olaf Kolzig WSH 54 40.4
11-12 Niklas Backstrom MIN 46 7.1 10-11 Miikka Kiprusoff CGY 71 40.4
09-10 Tomas Vokoun FLA 63 7.2 07-08 Chris Mason NSH 51 40.5
07-08 Ilya Bryzgalov PHX 64 7.5 08-09 Miikka Kiprusoff CGY 76 40.5
10-11 Jonas Hiller ANA 49 8.5 08-09 Ty Conklin DET 40 41.4
09-10 Jaroslav Halak MTL 45 8.6 09-10 Alex Auld NYR 24 41.7
11-12 Jhonas Enroth BUF 26 9.2 10-11 Antero Niittymaki S.J 24 41.7
07-08 Tomas Vokoun FLA 69 9.5 11-12 Martin Biron NYR 21 41.7
11-12 Mike Smith PHX 67 9.7 11-12 Corey Crawford CHI 57 42.3
07-08 Martin Biron PHI 62 10.0 10-11 Dan Ellis ANA 44 42.4
07-08 Tim Thomas BOS 57 10.2 09-10 Andrew Raycroft VAN 21 43.4
11-12 Tomas Vokoun WSH 48 10.2 09-10 Marc-Andre Fleury PIT 67 43.4
07-08 Jonas Hiller ANA 23 10.3 08-09 Vesa Toskala TOR 53 43.5
08-09 Mike Smith T.B 41 10.3 10-11 Marty Turco CHI 30 44.3
10-11 Semyon Varlamov WSH 27 10.4 08-09 Marty Turco DAL 74 44.7
07-08 Carey Price MTL 41 10.8 11-12 Chris Mason WPG 20 44.8
07-08 Roberto Luongo VAN 73 11.2 09-10 Cristobal Huet CHI 48 45.3
07-08 Niklas Backstrom MIN 58 11.6 07-08 Johan Holmqvist DAL 47 45.6
11-12 Miikka Kiprusoff CGY 70 11.6 07-08 Ray Emery OTT 31 46.4
10-11 Pekka Rinne NSH 64 12.0 09-10 Vesa Toskala TOR/CGY 32 47.1
11-12 Josh Harding MIN 34 12.0 08-09 Chris Osgood DET 46 47.8
08-09 Chris Mason STL 57 12.2 08-09 Manny Legace STL 29 48.4
10-11 Niklas Backstrom MIN 51 12.3 08-09 Curtis Joseph TOR 20 49.5
07-08 Jean-Sebastien Giguere ANA 58 12.4 10-11 Ty Conklin STL 25 52.8

Obviously, you probably don't want to get too excited about the 20-game performances, though it has some indication of skill. As per usual in stats circles, Vokoun's and Hiller's performances jump out at you, as should Niklas Backstrom's efforts.  And hey look!  It's Vesa Toskala!  Remember him?

Conclusion

Lest I exhaust, I'll save the best total performances and instances of being crapped upon across the last five years for a future post. In the meantime, let me know if you'd like information on other goaltenders' performances or breakdowns of the composite ranks that I've used above.

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Benjamin Wendorf was co-manager of the SB Nation Winnipeg Jets blog Arctic Ice Hockey (formerly Behind the Net); he is currently in the PhD program in Africology at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. You can follow his graph work on Tumblr or his tweets @BenjaminWendorf. He can also be reached at bwendorf84 AT gmail DOT com.
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Reply #1 Corey S. June 08 2012, 11:52AM
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Good stuff. I was actually looking at this last week to see the workload that Cam Ward had over the years and was shocked to see how bad the Thrashers possession metrics were during the 07-08 season. Talk about a bad team.

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Reply #2 jfry June 09 2012, 05:01PM
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i'm a little surprised to see the flames ace place so low twice. can u lay out some thoughts on his placements please? thanks

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Reply #3 Ben Wendorf June 10 2012, 11:03AM
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jfry wrote:

i'm a little surprised to see the flames ace place so low twice. can u lay out some thoughts on his placements please? thanks

The two seasons in question, 2008-09 and 2010-11, are two of three seasons in Kipper's career with the Flames where his performances were notably mediocre (to people in and outside of Calgary). 2007-08 was pretty rough, too, but Calgary was not quite as good of a team, and caused him to face a lot of penalty kills. Anyway, in 08-09 and 10-11 Calgary was a solid team outside of the net (by Fenwick Rating), were fairly good shooters (providing goal support), and didn't saddle Kipper with an unusual amount of 4v5 time. Despite this, Kipper played poorly, turning in a very average 5v5 SV% in 10-11 and one of the worst in 08-09; his 4v5 SV% was flipped, average in 08-09 and poor in 10-11, but I weight performance more towards 5v5 time since it accounts for something like 75% of all ice time.

A person who were more familiar with Kipper's seasons in 08-09 and 10-11 might be able to provide some insight into why he played poorly (injury, style change, equipment change, something psychological), but I'd wager that there was something uniquely different beyond variance and talent for him. Goaltenders who regularly play 70+ game and 4000+ minute seasons (7 years and counting) don't usually swing so wildly in performance. In fact, they rarely get the chance to; a lot of times they lose the job or get traded.

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Reply #4 interesting June 10 2012, 11:05AM
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I would find this page more interesting if the data was sorted in a reasonable manner. As a hockey stat jockey novice, I find your presentation makes it impossible to understand what I am looking at. What is FenwickOn and I wish your column groups had titles so that I can actually understand what I am looking at. Time to flame me, but alas I probably will never read this blog again.

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Reply #5 Ben Wendorf June 10 2012, 10:39PM
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interesting wrote:

I would find this page more interesting if the data was sorted in a reasonable manner. As a hockey stat jockey novice, I find your presentation makes it impossible to understand what I am looking at. What is FenwickOn and I wish your column groups had titles so that I can actually understand what I am looking at. Time to flame me, but alas I probably will never read this blog again.

Google "What is Fenwick", and this is the first result: http://www.matchsticksandgasoline.com/2011/7/29/2290643/understanding-advanced-stats-part-one-corsi-fenwick

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