Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Grading Gustavsson

12/29/2010 at 11:42am EST

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

“It’s tough right now to judge (him) on wins and losses, because sometimes Jonas has played relatively good and he doesn’t win,” said Maple Leafs goalie guru, Francois Allaire. “We have to keep working, working, working. To make sure one day we can reach the consistency we need as a team.”

Slight translation: Until the Leafs get better, score more, tighten up defensively, the complete picture of Gustavsson as an NHL goalie will not emerge.

He is 62 games into his NHL career and even his coach isn’t completely certain of what to make of him. Sixty-two games should be enough to develop a book of some kind, but this story is incomplete and the final chapters, really, could go either way.

“For me, goalie wise, we’re going in the right direction,” Allaire said. “We see some progress. We see something better than last year. But we’re not able to show good stats yet.”

The statistics, unfortunately, are not good at all. Gustavsson is 40th among NHL goalies in wins, 39th in the very important save percentage category and 35th in goals against average. Right now, that is more Monstrosity than Monster. That would be fine if Gustavsson was a kid, but he’s not. He’s not Carey Price. He’s 26 years old. He has played his share of pro hockey.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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