sirwin31

"The opinion of the uninformed"

Calgary, AB • Canada • 24 Years Old • Male

It's A Numbers Game

Every year the NHL has individuals that surpass a milestone, like having scored the most goals on Tuesdays in the month of November … on the road in afternoon games. So let’s look ahead and see what kind of movement we’ll see on the all-time lists going into this season.

Martin Brodeur is often referred to as the best goalie of all time. It’s a valid argument to make. The man has the most wins and shutouts ever. That’s pretty impressive. However, often goalies that win a lot play a lot, and when that happens you lose a lot too (over time obviously). Brodeur has a chance to become the all time losingest (that’s not a word apparently) goalie. Brodeur has 324 career regular season losses and sits in 9th, just 28 behind Curtis Joseph who sits in first. ON the plus side, Brodeur should pass Patrick Roy for total saves made in a career. In the same category, Roberto Luongo should make it past 20,000 career saves this year, which is a large number considering he is entering his 12th NHL season; I guess the Panthers are good for something.

Nikolai Khabibulin should move into the 700 games played list (barring prison time), while Tomas Vokoun will pass the 600 mark plateau, and both JS Giguere and Miikka Kiprusoff should break the 500 game barrier. In addition, Roberto Luongo and Marty Turco should get into the 300+ win level, while Vokoun and Kiprusoff should get to the 250 mark. JS Giguere has an outside shot of moving up the list to the 250 wins total, all depending on how well the Leafs play in front of him this season; he needs 30 wins, it isn’t going to happen.

Young Bruins goalie Tuuka Rask currently has the best save percentage of all time in the NHL at 0.930 (with a minimum of 50 games). We’ll have to see if he can stay the course for this year and keep that lofty status, which I doubt he can. On the flip side, Cory Schneider, the heir apparent in Vancouver has a save percentage of 0.887 over 10 games played; look for that number to increase in the approximately 15 games he plays this year.

Away from the goal crease, the following players have a chance at reaching 1,000 games played and being the center of attention for that silver stick presentation: Wade Redden (6 - if he can stick in the lineup), Sergei Gonchar (9), Craig Conroy (9), Ryan Smyth (13), Mike Grier (13), Jovo Cop (31), Jamie Langenbruner (35), Cory Stillman (40), Patrick Marleau (47), Andrew Burnette (50), Vinny Prospal (51), Todd Bertuzzi (59), Adrian Aucoin (67), and Hal Gill (81 – although he hasn’t played a full season since 2006).

Teemu Selanne could pass Dino Ciccarelli, Bobby Hull, and Joe Sakic for most goals scored all time; Selanne currently sits in 17th place with 606 goals. Mark Recchi and Mike Modano both have a shot at passing Mike Bossy and moving into the top 20 in the same category, needing 11 and 17 goals, respectively. Jarome Iginla would need to have a tremendous season to get to the 500 goal mark, as he sits 59th overall with 441 tallies to date; however, he should pass former Flames Doug Gilmour and Theo Fleury this year.

Lastly, this is Alex Ovechkin's 6th NHL season. He has more than 2,150 shots so far. That's an average of more than 430 shots per year. He is currently 179th overall. By the end of this season, he should be sitting at about 2,590 shots, which should move him into the top 135 all time. That's 6 seasons folks. That's astounding. If he can do that for 5 more years after this season (average 425 shots for 11 seasons) that would currently put him in 8th all time - in just 11 seasons ... simply mind boggling.


**And on a side note …(keeping in mind this was originally written a week ago)


Dear Mr Franzen,

Stop getting hurt. For the love of god, stop getting hurt.

Sincerely,

My fantasy team



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