The Puck Stops Here

When one of your goalies has a Conn Smythe trophy to his credit and played well enough this season that he deserved a spot in the All Star Game but was injured at the time, it should be obvious who you play as your number one goalie come playoff time. However, in Anaheim it's not that simple. Jean-Sebastien Giguere has the Conn Smythe and All Star credentials and was the Anaheim number one goalie most of the season, but he is not being used as the number one goalie come playoff time. Ilya Bryzgalov is. Bryzgalov is no slouch in net either, but he did not have as good a season as Giguere. To his credit, Bryzgalov had a great playoff last year and actually posted a better goals against average (and roughly the same saves percentage) in the 2006 playoff than Giguere did in his 2003 Conn Smythe win. Anaheim has two solid goalies and cannot go wrong with either in net at playoff time.

Nevertheless, most fans were surprised to see Bryzgalov as the number one goalie this year. It appears that Anaheim coach, Randy Carlyle, chose to ride the hot hand. At the end of the season, Giguere had been away attending to the birth of his son, so Bryzgalov played the final three games of the year. He played well in those games posting a .933 saves percentage and a 1.90 GAA in them. So, Randy Carlyle decided to stick with the hot hand in the playoffs. So far it has worked. Anaheim is the first team that has a chance to eliminate their opponents from the post season.

This isn't the first time that Carlyle has chosen to use his nominally backup goalie in playoff time when he is hot. In the 2005 AHL playoffs while coaching the Manitoba Moose, Carlyle used backup goalie Wade Flaherty instead of starter Alex Auld and the team went to the semi-finals.

Anaheim has the best two goalie system in the NHL right now. They are doing very well with Ilya Bryzgalov in goal, but I am surprised that they have not used Jean-Sebastien Giguere.