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This week I’m going to provide some food for thought around the critical element of goaltending in the league. It’s next to impossible to ultimately win the Champion’s Cup without excellent goaltending, so let’s take a look at how some teams stack up in this department for the run to the Cup.

If you look at the NLL goaltender stats on Pointstreak.com, the goaltenders are primarily ranked according to their goals against average (GAA).

I prefer to rank them primarily according to their save percentage (SV%). A team with a weak defense can give up a lot of shots and ultimately a high number of goals. But even though the GAA number may be high, a goaltender can still have a very good SV% which, to me, is a more relevant indicator of the quality of the goalie.

Of the goalies who have played a significant number of minutes, Ken Montour of the Buffalo Bandits is easily the best tender to date in the league. He sports a spectacular .819 SV%, which is 41 percentage points better than his next closest competitor. His main goaltending partner Mike Thompson sits around 17^th in this group at .742 but Daniel Sams has tossed in 60 minutes of action at an unbelievable .882 clip. Buffalo has a good defense so if Montour continues to perform at his current pace, the Bandits should continue to flourish.

Continuing with those goalies that have played considerable minutes, Bob Watson and Anthony Cosmo are tied for second in SV% at .778. Interestingly enough, the Stealth and Rock have identical records at 5-4. Taking a look at the backup goalie situation with both of these teams provides some interesting insight as to how things will progress from here. In San Jose, Aaron Bold has played 97 minutes and his SV% is the same as Montour’s at .819. In Toronto, Mike Poulin has played only 44 minutes but his SV% is a healthy .791.

On Friday night at home versus the Titans, Watson wasn’t having one of his better nights and finished with a poor .666 SV%. I know it’s easy to second guess after the fact, but it might have been wise to insert Poulin at some point in that game given that even the best goaltenders in the game are susceptible to off-nights. Bold, in San Jose, has provided some key performances for the Stealth that takes some of the pressure off Cosmo.

In Edmonton, Bob Hamley seems to have handed the No. 1 spot to Curtis Palidwor and Pali has responded in spades. The Rush played most of the first half of the season splitting time between Matt Disher and Pali but neither seemed to be taking the bull by the horns. Palidwor’s sparkling .773 SV% now sits him 4^th amongst high minute goalies and the Rush are on the move. And having the experienced Disher sitting in the wings for those occasional times when your starter needs to be replaced will maintain the confidence of the Rush players.

Perhaps one of the best examples of analyzing GAA versus SV% to rate the quality of goaltending came in the Chicago versus Minnesota game on Friday night. Minnesota defeated Chicago 13-9 with the Swarm’s last goal being an empty netter. So, Shamrox newcomer Matt Roik yielded 12 goals against while Nick Patterson allowed only 9. But, if you take a look at the save percentages on the night, Roik was outstanding with a .796 SV% given he had 59 shots fired at him. Patterson was a respectable .763 having faced only 38 shots but that’s 7 percentage points under his average. Looking at the GAA as the prime ranking factor of the goalies, Patterson blew Roik away by 4 goals. But if you look at SV% as the prime ranking factor, the better goalie on this night was clearly Matt Roik.

One more interesting team to look at with respect to goaltending is Philadelphia. Rob Blasdell has played all but 7 minutes or so of the entire season so far and the Wings are best in the East at 7-1. His numbers must be great you say. Not so, actually. His GAA of 12.93 ranks him 18^th and his SV% of .754 puts him at 14^th. How do you explain the success of the Wings then if their goaltending is ranked so low? Well, for one, the Wings have that explosive offense that is averaging 15.6 goals per game. Come playoff time though, things usually tighten up a bit so, besides the fact Blazer is a Sting rental player, perhaps that’s why Philadelphia recently traded for Brandon Miller from Chicago.

I could go on with some more analyses, but I think you get the idea. As a fan, take at look at your team’s goaltending situation. Do you have a clear No. 1 and a clear backup or do you have some other mix of goaltenders? What are their respective SV%’s? Are you confident with the present situation? Do you think your goaltending is strong enough to win you a Cup or do you think your team needs to try to bolster their position before the trade deadline?

Somewhere along the playoff road, you’re going to need great goaltending if you expect to win the Cup.

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