How The Pesky Senators Are Getting It Done!

The Senators are decimated by injuries this season.

They keep on winning.

How?

Goaltending!

The Sens are just finding ways to, “get it done”, even if it’s the hard way. A huge portion of their recent wins has been to amazing goaltending. Through March 24th, Ottawa is 17-9-6.

And even there the Sens have had to rely on their backup, Ben Bishop, and even a surprising call up, Robin Lehner.

But take a look at the numbers here (as of March 25, 2013):

Anderson

15 GP

8 W

4 L

2 O

2 SO

1.49 GAA

.952 S%

Bishop

10 GP

6 W

4 L

0 O

0 SO

2.62 GAA

.921 S%

Lehner

8 GP

3 W

1 L

4 O

0 SO

2.05 GAA

.940 S%

Okay, Anderson is leading the league in GAA and S%, but has been sidelined since Feb 21, with a sprained right ankle. Too bad, since he was working on his third shutout on the season (Anderson is tied with 11 other goaltenders with 2 shutouts).

Bishop and Lehner have been on their own since.

But what performances on their part.

Bishop may have a high GAA, but his S% is good enough for 8^th. You really have to hand it to him, but in doing so you have to look up at him, as at 6’7, he is the tallest goaltender in the NHL, ever!

Lehner has been jinxed by shootout losses, plus an overtime loss to the Bruins. But even there, he is tied for 5^th with Carey Price, Jimmy Howard and Ryan Miller with 4. That is, most OT and shootout losses.

Having played just 8 games so far (as of March 24^th) he is not eligible for a spot among the leaders in S%. Although, with Anderson out, he will soon have enough games.

But notice that, the .940 S% is also the Ottawa Senator’s team S%. Yeah, that’s right, 3 different goalies, giving you a chance to win.

Let’s put the .940 number into perspective. Imagine, with all those injures, the Sens are outshot 35 to, whatever:

.94 * 35 = 32.9

Yeah, that’s pretty much just two goals allowed, even if you give up 35 shots.

Oh, yeah, what about that stat I came up with 2 posts ago? Tolgbats?

Anderson has one in all 15 games he’s played this year, including the game he left, 2/21/13.

Bishop has 9 in the games he’s been eligible for (9). In his other appearance, in relief of Anderson (2/21/13 against the Rangers) he ended up winning the game.

Lehner (I should say at this point that he is really short compared to Bishop. Robin is only 6’4) has 8 in all 8 games played.


References

Official Site of the National Hockey League | NHL.com. National Hockey League. Web. 26 Mar. 2103. <https://www.nhl.com>.

Sports Reference LLC.  Hockey-Reference.com - Hockey Statistics and History. Web. http://www.hockey-reference.com/. Web.  26 Mar. 2103.