Last week on the IllegalCurve.com Radio Show (click here to listen), we had Gus Katsaros of McKeen’s Hockey on to discuss, among other things, which goaltenders to draft and which goaltenders to stay away from in your hockey pool.
Well, needless to say, Gus provided our listeners with a boatload of information. So, I figured I’d pass along a terrific article that Gus has written on the value of goaltenders who play teams on the second half of back-to-back games.
Here is an excerpt:
In 2008-09, the San Jose Sharks held on for a one point President’s Trophy win over the Bruins for regular season dominance. Boston played opponents that had games the night before 16 times sporting a record of 14-2 last season. The two losses could have cost them the President Trophy.
San Jose faced opposition that played the night before in a league high 20 games (tied with Minnesota) sporting a stellar record of 16-2-2 record. The results showed with Evgeni Nabokov (41 wins) and Niklas Backstrom (37 wins) having stellar seasons, playing almost 25% of their season against opposition playing consecutive games.
Last season, Pittsburgh played the second most (19 games) against opposition who played the night before, sporting a record of 12-4-3.
This upcoming season, the Penguins lead the NHL with 17 games played against competition playing games on consecutive nights. This figure includes three games versus the divisional rivals Flyers (which could be the difference between a Division/Conference title).
Read the entire article (it includes a chart containing all of this information) by clicking here.
