from Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Jounal,
If your tried-and-true No. 1 goalie gets hurt for not days or weeks but months or has an injury that nags all season, you’re hooped. Mike Smith (groin) is hurt again in Arizona, and while Louis Domingue was good last year for a good stretch, not so this year.
In Boston, the Bruins had to play Malcolm Subban and Zane McIntyre the other day with starter Tuukka Rask and backup Anton Khudobin out.
Only a few NHL clubs have the luxury or the good fortune of withstanding a major injury to the starter, because they’ve got a No. 1 and a No. 1A.
Like Pittsburgh with Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray.
Like Tampa with Ben Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
To a lesser degree, Jaro Halak and Thomas Greiss are an interchangeable pair with the New York Islanders. It’s much the same story for the Dallas Stars with Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi, although both have struggled. Perhaps the Detroit Red Wings, too, with Petr Mrazek and Jimmy Howard, but it’s a short list.
The Penguins and the Lightning could have dealt Fleury and Bishop at the draft after the strong play of Murray, who took Pittsburgh to the Cup, and Vasilevskiy, who got the Lightning to the third round, but they didn’t and they’re happy they’ve got both, even if they’re going to lose one of them to Las Vegas in the expansion draft — barring a trade.
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