Hello All,
The Washington Capitals play game one against the Florida Panthers tonight. The biggest question mark looming for Washington is the goaltending situation. Who is going to step up and rise to the occasion this series? Both Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek have given us inconsistent stretches of hockey throughout the entire season. As a result, neither player has seized the true number one spot in net. If you are not a Caps fan reading this blog, I will try to explain the difference between the two players in one sentence. Ilya Samsonov makes the saves, not the stops. Vitek Vanecek makes the stops, not the saves. That description has circulated amongst various Caps media so I can not take credit for it but it is certainly an accurate portrayal of the state of the goaltending.
Let's look at some head-to-head goaltending statistics as provided my moneypuck.com. I took a couple screen shots of the data and added some comments for things that jumped out to me. At the bottom of today's post is the poll. Lets jump into it:
*To see full images, you will have to click the image. I embedded the screen snips*
-Vitek Vanecek has a 2.67 GAA average. This ranks 21st in the NHL for goalies who have played a minimum of 10 games. For referencve, a guy like Juuse Saros who is getting Vezina Trophy consideration is ranked 18th with a 2.64 GAA.
-Ilya Samsonov goales saved above expected or GSAx is significantly worse than Vanecek's. Both are not great to be clear. Vanecek's "-5.4" ranks 43rd in the league, and Samsonov's "-12.1" ranks 58th of 68 eligible goalies who played a minimum of 10 games.
-Ilya Samsonov gives up more rebounds on average
-Vitek Vanecek has a better "wins above replacement"
-Vitek Vanecek had 20.63% of all shot attempts faced this season blocked by teammates. This is 9th best in the league. Samsonov had 20.07% of shots blocks by teammates. That is good for 9th and 16th best in the league respectively. The Caps defenders block shots but by whatever odds, they have done it at a slightly better rate in front of Vanecek.
-Samsonov has a significantly higher save percentage on high danger unblocked shot attempts.
-Vanecek and Samsonov are tied at .877 for xMedium danger shot attempt save %. Vanecek does hold a slight advantage with .879 medium danger unblocked save percentage.
The data seems to prove the point that Samsonov makes the saves, not the stops. Vanecek makes the stops and not the saves.
Here is the poll:
Quizwiz
My Vote: Vitek Vanecek. Ilya Samsonov started all three games against Florida earlier this season and was even pulled in one of the games. Give Vanecek the game one nod and throw Samsonov in for laters games if it doesn't pan out. Rely on the high ceiling player like Samsonov in the later more desperate games.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. As always, thanks for reading and GO CAPS!
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Stats/Facts/Video Clips Provided By:
moneypuck.com <---almost all of today's blog from data provided by this website
nhl.com/stats
hockey-reference.com
naturalstattrick.com
hockeyfights.com
@CapitalsPR Twitter page
@Capitals Twitter page
@HerseyBears Twitter page
>>>Follow me on Twitter @HB_Capitals<<<
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Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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