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This is something that I've had a hard time with for a while - trying to figure out which goalies are truly the best and how we consider (or ignore) statistics in the discussion...

Often very solid goaltenders are overlooked for statistical reasons I believe.

What are the most important goaltending statistics, and what do we need to watch out for in the sense that #'s may be a little deceptive???

NOTE - I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THE MS. GOALIE CHOICE THIS YEAR, BUT FOR EXAMPLE WHEN CONSIDERING THIS AWARD...

Can you really pick a winner based on this small amount of info. for example? What else is needed?

Goalie A)Posted a 1.63 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in 25 games.

B) Posted a 1.15 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in 12 games.

C) Posted a 1.65 goals-against average and .939 save percentage in 25 games.

D) Posted a 1.85 goals-against average and .917 save percentage in 21 games.

E) Posted a 1.57 goals-against average and .931 save percentage in 25 games.

I think save percentage is a much better indicator of a goalie's performance than GAA, but even save percentage can be misleading. Some teams playing in front of the goalie are obviously much better defensively than others, and rarely give up close in, good angle shots. The shots they do give up are almost alwasy from long distance and/or from the outside, and under these circumstances just about any goalie is going to have good stats, both in save percentage and in GAA. The poor defensive teams and even the more offensive minded/average defensive teams will give up more quality scoring chances and it becomes much more difficout for the goalie to post good stats. Historically the Gophers mens' team has fit this mold - they will outshoot the other team by a huge margin, but they tend to give up almost as many quality scoring chances to the other team as they get themselves. The opposing goalie's save percentage is bound to be better.

So even though these individual goalie stats are objective measures and do mean something over an extended period, I think you have to dig a little deeper and go see them (and their teams) in action. In girls high school hockey it's pretty easy still to separate the real good ones, just in how they move and react, how they stay square to the puck and maintain proper position, how they avoid giving up rebounds, etc. The stats will usually be a confirmation of what you see.

ghshockeyfan wrote:NOTE - I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THE MS. GOALIE CHOICE THIS YEAR, BUT FOR EXAMPLE WHEN CONSIDERING THIS AWARD...

Can you really pick a winner based on this small amount of info. for example? What else is needed?

As one who has done a lot of charting, I concur.

Strength of schedule, wins/losses should figure to some degree. But SHOTS FACED vs. SHOTS TAKEN by the goalie's team is something that should receive more weight. If there was a way to measure SHOT QUALITY/PROXIMITY and ODD-MAN GOALS AGAINST those would be valuable measurements as well.

Of course Ms. Goalie is also measured for a number of other things. But Ms. Goalie seems more like a "lifetime achievement award" than the player's award does. Probably for this very reason.

There are some excellent goalies on some very poor teams who will never show up on the top of the stats pages. Likewise there are several excellent goalies who are overshadowed by a very good team or very average goalies on a very good team whose stats make them appear more dominant than they really are. Just as it's very hard to pick Ms. Hockey unless you see their impact on the ice, the same is true of the goalies. You really need to see them to make a judgement.

Given access to the proper data consistently, I'm sure one could construct a complex formula that might deliver better results than the conventional GAA/SP method.

Well said & agreed 100% re both of the last two posts...

I think team rank & SOS have to play a role, as do QSC vs. shots from outside the blue, etc. I think Team D plays a huge role! And, it would be interesting to see how many ES vs PK Goals allowed.

The other thing I have a hard time with is when a team splits time with goalies. SOS then needs to become G specific in this scenario I think, unless it's truly a straight split, but often one G sees more quality opponents than the other even in a split scenario...