Southeastern Division Goaltending

The Falconer from Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons?. Requested I do a little summary on the goaltenders from the Southeast division. I figured I would post it here for all to see.

Atlanta - Lehtonen

Save %: 0.912, Career Save %: 0.911 Shot Quality Neutral Save %: 0.915 Wins: 34, Wins excluding SOW: 27 Career Wins: 58, Career Games: 110 #2 Pick overall in 2002. Lehtonen has had a great start to what should be a long career. He's young and has a lot of time to improve. Bob Hartley destroyed Lehtonen's confidence by replacing him with Hedberg in game #2 after he allowed 4 goals on almost 40 shots. He was put back into the fire for game #3 allowing 7 goals on 35 shots. I expect him to rebound in the coming season, but I never understood what Hartley was thinking.

Carolina - Ward

Save %: 0.897, Career Save %: 0.892 Shot Quality Neutral Save %: 0.906 Wins: 30, Wins excluding SOW: 30 Career Wins: 44, Career Games: 88 #25 overall in 2002. The only reason Ward become Carolina's starting goaltender was his amazing playoff run. However he has never really impressed me as an outstanding goalie. Ward was able to squeak in a 30 win season, but was limited to only 60 games.

Florida - Vokoun

Save %: 0.920, Career Save %: 0.913 Shot Quality Neutral Save %: 0.921 Wins: 27, Wins excluding SOW: 25 Career Wins: 161, Career Games: 384 Mason played well enough in Nashville to steal his spot leaving Vokoun, a very good goaltender, free for the taking. Many have commented that if Luongo couldn't get Florida into the playoffs, then why should a weaker goalie be able to? Vokoun has missed a lot of important hockey games due to injuries and most importantly the playoffs two years in a row. Florida almost made the playoffs last season, Vokoun should be able to put them over the edge.

Tampa Bay - Denis & Holmqvist

Denis Save %: 0.883, Career Save %: 0.903 Shot Quality Neutral Save %: 0.884 Wins: 17, Wins excluding SOW: 13 Career Wins: 111, Career Games: 338 I commented once that both of Tampa's goaltenders were terrible and was criticized and told it's their defense that's terrible and the goalies are doing the best with what they got. Personally I felt Denis was a big reason Columbus slipped into mediocrity for so many years. Denis made the record for most losses for a goalie two seasons in a row, granted he played the most minutes and saw the most shots. Holmqvist Save %: 0.893, Career Save %: 0.882 Shot Quality Neutral Save %: 0.890 Wins: 27, Wins excluding SOW: 21 Career Wins: 27, Career Games: 52 "Lanky Holmqvist has the size to blot out the majority of the net from shooters and also has good technical ability and reflexes" (The Sports Forecaster 2001-02, p. 101). The one thing I will note of Holmqvist, despite his terrible stats he was able to play close to 50% hockey. Holmqvist doesn't even have a full season of experience to this point and the experience he does have is less than impressive. I don't see all that much positive in his game. John Tortorella choose to use Holmqvist over Denis in the playoffs last season.

Washington - Kolzig

Save %: 0.910, Career Save %: 0.927 Shot Quality Neutral Save %: 0.919 Wins: 22, Wins excluding SOW: 21 Career Wins: 276, Career Games: 657 Kolizg is getting older, but still may be the most important piece of a terrible Washington team. His skills are wasted on such a terrible team. Word on the street is that Washington is getting better, although not much. I think enough people know enough about Kolzig, there isn't much to add.

It would appear that there are three teams with excellent goaltenders (Florida, Atlanta and Washington - note these teams all have terrible defense) and two team's with terrible goaltenders (Tampa Bay and Carolina) with terrible defense as well, but they both have extreme offense to compensate with.