I said I would have started Holtby but said I could be dead wrong. I feel a team should start their franchise goalie in the playoffs and if he falters make the switch then.
I know Grubauer was on a hot streak but a good portion of his success came against weak teams. He didn't beat many top tier teams. And no one has ever once said anything about him getting a bit lucky. I have seen goalies have great during a game but if you watch the game you would see the goalie really didn't play that well. Grubauer had quite a few games like that this season. He had some games where he was very weak technically. Being out of position and giving up a lot of bad rebounds but was lucky the other team could bury more shots by him. Either missing the net or not being able to jump on a loose puck. A lot of that had to do with some if the teams he played against. He had 3 starts against the Sabres. His best game of the season was late in the season against the Pens. I think that was probably when the decision was made to start him in the playoffs. Sorry guys but I really don't think Grubauer is the answer. I also think Grubauer starting in the playoffs and struggling a bit may have hurt his confidence. It may have also affected his trade value.
You may remember a few years ago when Ottawa started a hot Hammond over Anderson and he shit the bed too. Anderson came in after they were down 2 games to zero and made a series of it but couldn't make the comeback. In 3 seasons since then Hammond has done absolutely nothing. Although he started for Colorado last night and beat Nashville. To get into the lineup he needed injuries to the guys ahead of him. Is the situation with Grubauer a lot different? Both got on a hot streak late in the season in limited games. Is Grubauers career going to head in the same direction?
I think it would have been better for the team and Grubauer if Holtby started the playoffs. If Holtby failed and was replaced by Grubauer he could have been a savior but not the goat. There would have been a lot less pressure on Grubauer if he came in relief. Instead they out pressure on him by starting him for the first 2 games of the series. And now the pressure is on Holtby to bail this team out of a hole.
Sorry for ranting a bit. My opinion on Grubauer is a lot different than most people here. I didn't jump on the bandwagon because I really don't think he is starter material. I never did. I've always compared him to Michael Neuvirth. An adequate backup.
A tiny bit ironic that you compare Grubauer to Neuwirth -- who Philly brought in last night to face the Pens with their season on the line, and shut them down. Think for a moment: Where is the real pressure? Starting at the beginning of the playoffs, or being brought in for an elimination game -- win or go home?
I think if you look at Neuvirth's career stats, they are pretty consistently a notch behind Grubauer's. And I did an evaluation of Grubauer's games this year that showed that overall, he played just slightly less than a "representative" schedule (percent of his games that were against playoff teams versus percent of the Caps' entire schedule that was against playoff teams). This myth that Grubauer played the bulk of his games against lesser teams is just that - a myth. And let's remember that at least at the beginning of the season he was getting the garbage assignments - the back end of back-to-backs. He still was 3/4 of a goal per game better than Holtby for the season. I also said earlier that I was fine with either goalie starting -- I could support the organization whatever they decided.
I suspect that people on this board may think that I am a Grubauer homeboy or a Holtby skeptic. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, when this season started I had latched on to Holtby as my #1 fan interest and hoped-for success this year. Why? Because in the history of the NHL no goalie had ever had 4 consecutive 40-win seasons, and Holtby had the previous 3 under his belt. I figured 40 wins was going to be a tougher slog this year because the team figured to have less success than the previous few years, but I thought he could do it. And he did -- for about 2/3 of the season. At 27/28 wins he was on pace to win more than 40. And then it all came apart, which was my biggest disappointment of the season.
When the playoffs started I was fine with either goalie starting, but I thought there might be one small benefit to starting Grubauer, which had nothing to do with the goaltenders and everything to do with management. And that was, if Grubauer struggled it is an easy switch to revert to your franchise goaltender early; whereas if they started Holtby and he struggled they might go with him longer because of his reputation and give themselves less of a chance to turn things around before being bounced. And so it was: The switch was made after 5 periods, when the Caps still had an excellent chance to win game 2. It turned out that Holtby didn't win that game for them, but he's won the next 2, so here we are, in pretty much the same competitive situation we've been in during many of our playoff series over the last several years. Somehow our series are never clear, decisive affairs -- it's almost always a struggle right to the end. I think the highest-probability outcome for this series is that it goes 7 games once again, which is the same outcome we've seen over and over with Holtby in the net the entire way. It isn't at all clear to me that if Holtby had started the series the situation would have been much different on Saturday, April 21, at noon.
