Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Goaltending Problems In March

03/27/2023 at 11:38am EDT

from Travis Yost of TSN,

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb – unless you live in the state of California, or play goaltender in the National Hockey League.

Goalies have had a rough go of it in the past few weeks – scoring rates are once again at blistering levels, and league-wide save percentages are plummeting. In the heightened scoring era we’re living in, goaltenders were barely holding onto a 90.0 per cent stop rate league wide.

We have discussed ad infinitum what is driving scoring to the upside across the league, both at even strength and on the power play. This is a new intra-season wrinkle – attackers are again converting on scoring chances at rates we really haven’t seen before, and all of this is happening with just a dozen or so games remaining on the regular-season schedule.

The old hockey adage of teams sharpening their game defensively as the playoffs inch closer again seems specious at best – doubly so when you look at the teams (and the goalies of those teams) who are struggling so mightily this late in the year.

At first pass, you might be inclined to think the draft lottery teams – those with their eyes on the prize in the form of super prospect Connor Bedard – are the ones driving this mess. After all, the lottery provides an incentive to lose games, and injecting a bunch of skaters and goalies from your farm team is a great way to do that.

But for every draft lottery team that’s giving up goals in spades, you can find a team chasing a playoff berth in a similar position. So, that’s not quite it.

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

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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