Anton Khudobin, Ray Emery. Two guys that proved themselves admirably during the regular season yet still cannot manage to secure a start in these playoffs. Not to diminish the success of guys like Tuukka Rask or Cory Crawford but when you look back at the first 3 rounds of the playoffs there are countless instances where you would have a pretty good argument to say, why on earth would a coach be so stubborn as to stick to their "starting" goaltender.
The Pittsburgh, Boston series: now granted at that point their backup (Marc Andre Flurry) wasn't very good but nevertheless, after allowing 9 goals in the first 2 games alone, one would assume that Flurry would be given the right to start game 3. Wrong! Vocoun started both game 3 and 4 as the Penguins went on to be swept out of the playoffs.
The Philadelphia Boston series back in 2009, a series now immortalized as the first time in a long time that a pro sports team came back from a 3-0 series deficit to win in a 7th game. At that point in time, Tuukka Rask was the Bruins starter yet even after winning the first 3 games of that year's semifinal, the Bruins collapsed surrendering 5 goals in game 4 to allow the Flyers to at least for a time stave off elimination. So okay, when you have a 3-0 its not terrible to have an off day yet when Boston was blasted 4-0 in game five then you got to wonder if it was time for a change. Also, just a little addition to that, Tim Thomas was the backup that year. Imagine what could have happened if the Bruins had played Thomas in any of the 4 games in with the Flyers instituted their comeback? Well chances are the Bruins would have snagged that crucial 4th win in that series meaning that they would have moved on to the conference finals to play... the Montreal Canadians who they would beat in the playoffs one year later. Who knows, if the Boston Bruins had deviated from their struggling Tuukka Rask Boston could have gone to the cup in 09, imagine that.
The Philadelphia Boston series back in 2009, a series now immortalized as the first time in a long time that a pro sports team came back from a 3-0 series deficit to win in a 7th game. At that point in time, Tuukka Rask was the Bruins starter yet even after winning the first 3 games of that year's semifinal, the Bruins collapsed surrendering 5 goals in game 4 to allow the Flyers to at least for a time stave off elimination. So okay, when you have a 3-0 its not terrible to have an off day yet when Boston was blasted 4-0 in game five then you got to wonder if it was time for a change. Also, just a little addition to that, Tim Thomas was the backup that year. Imagine what could have happened if the Bruins had played Thomas in any of the 4 games in with the Flyers instituted their comeback? Well chances are the Bruins would have snagged that crucial 4th win in that series meaning that they would have moved on to the conference finals to play... the Montreal Canadians who they would beat in the playoffs one year later. Who knows, if the Boston Bruins had deviated from their struggling Tuukka Rask Boston could have gone to the cup in 09, imagine that.
So the evidence is there that coaches are more stubborn when it comes to playoff starters but why? I mean we have all witnessed the ongoing saga of Luango or Schneider in Vancouver where whenever a guy even loses a single game his job is in jeopardy yet when Tuukka loses his mind in the 2009 2010 playoffs even with a guy who won the Vesna that same year breathing down his neck coach Claude Jullian never pulls him.
So here we are in 2013, Tuukka Rask fresh off perhaps the worst game of his season and Cory Crawford looking to rebound after a almost equally terrible outing you got to wonder is a change in net imminent? Well not for Boston.
You see while Rask did allow on more goal then Crawford did back in game 4 when you look through the 11 tallies in that game all had different themes if you will. All but 1 of the goals scored on Rask were either through intense screens or hopeless 2 on ones while for Crawford, all but the Bergeron goal at the end of the second period were ones where Crawford was square to the shooter and really had no business letting in.
You see while Rask did allow on more goal then Crawford did back in game 4 when you look through the 11 tallies in that game all had different themes if you will. All but 1 of the goals scored on Rask were either through intense screens or hopeless 2 on ones while for Crawford, all but the Bergeron goal at the end of the second period were ones where Crawford was square to the shooter and really had no business letting in.
In addition to that while when you look at regular season stats it is true that the Bruins backup Anton Khudobin is probably not a Stanley Cup caliber goalie, the Hawks bench warmer Ray Emery is. In the 19 games Emery played this season he allowed just 36 goals to complement a 17-1-0 win-loss-OT loss record.
So Emery: a guy who allowed 5 or more goals just once all year, or Crawford: a guy who once allowed 6 goals in back to back games and someone who allowed 5 in game 4 alone. I'd pick Emery.
It's a strange truth that to an outsider is difficult to understand. Nonetheless, when you think about it for some strange reason this strange flood of league wide coaching stubbornness seems to pay off as each of the last 3 Stanley Cup champions have had the same goalie in every single one of their playoff games.
So with that knowledge, let’s all just hope that Ray Emery starts game 5 :)
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