Illusion of Goaltending

San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov has a wide spectrum of believers.

Some, many of whom are Sharks fans, believe he is an elite goaltender in the NHL. Others believe he is an average goalie; a product of the system who benefits from being surrounded by talented teams.

So far in the postseason, Nabokov hasn’t really been asked to steal any games for the Sharks. Now they face an 0-2 whole in the Western Conference Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks. He needs to steal a game.

Nabokov has let in very stoppable goals in the first two games, while on the other end, Antti Niemi is coming off back-to-back marvelous starts. It’s reminiscent of how Jonas Hiller outplayed Nabokov in the first round last year.

Sometimes people tend to read too much into the statistics. People see the stat sheet from game 1 and see that Nabokov made 38 saves on 40 shots. Then they assume he had a great game and kept the Sharks in it.

The truth is that Nabokov should have never let in that first goal that relinquished a 1-0 lead. Yes he faced 40 shots but most were of the routine variety. Facing a lot of shots doesn’t mean the goalies keeping his team in the game, it also depends on the quality of shots coming through.

Add in the fact that Nabokov didn’t have to face one power-play in game 1 and that just adds to the fact that he didn’t face an abnormal amount of pressure considering he faced 40 shots.

He didn’t fair any better in game 2.

Nabokov is a confident, cocky goal-tender. When his pride gets damaged and he’s not on his game it has a domino effect, especially if the team can’t bail him out and pick up a win in the process.

Not to look too much into it, but Nabokov’s best game of the season probably came on December 22, in Chicago. In the 3-2 win, he finished with 45 saves, and didn’t allow a power-play goal on 7 chances. That was a game he stole and basically won single-handedly.

He needs to repeat that game again in game 3 or this will be a short series.

Solving the Blackhawks Defense

On the other end of the ice, Niemi has had his A-game from opening face-off of the series.

The Blackhawks present a new challenge for the Sharks offense.

In the first round, they faced a hot goalie who was also on top of his game in Craig Anderson. The Sharks persevered and managed to scrounge out wins with the few pucks they got past him.

In the second round, they faced a daunting defense group in the Detroit Red Wings. A group of six that does everything well and are as good in their own end as they are in the opponents.

This round the Sharks are facing both. Niemi will continue to be very difficult to solve and obviously will not be giving up any gifts. He has gotten help on top of that.

Their defense is as good, if not better than the Red Wing’s defense, or any other in the league for that fact.  Add in an efficient shut-down line that is getting under the skin of the Sharks stars and there’s an obvious obstacle for putting the puck in the net.

The Sharks are doing the Hawks a few favors too. As all the players and coaches mentioned in the post-game for game 2, their execution has to be better. They also can’t afford to keep turning the puck over, more so because of the way Nabokov is playing than anything.

It’s not time for a dramatic overhaul on offense but mixing up the lines right now might not be the worst idea. The Hawks are countering the Sharks attack by putting scoring line on scoring line to keep the puck away from the Sharks stars.

Whichever line is having the best night gets the luxury of trying to go on the attack against Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook once they do get the puck. Dave Bolland’s line is thrown into the mix too. That’s layer upon layer of defense strategy to counter the Sharks top-heavy lineup.

When the Sharks struggled to score goals in the regular season, they went to a lineup that broke up the Olympic line onto three separate lines. If they have trouble scoring again in game 3, look for Todd McLellan to perhaps juggle the players again.