Time to wrap up this weekend's trilogy of 2011-12 New York Rangers report card posts with the breakdown of the goaltenders. If you missed the two prior posts in the series, you can read the grades on the forwards here and on the defensemen here.
Players are graded solely on their performance during the regular season, so playoffs are not taken into account. Beginning next week I will be reviewing each player individually, which is when their playoff contributions will be analyzed.
(A = highest possible, D = lowest possible)
Martin Biron - B - Marty Biron got off to an incredible start to the season when backing up Henrik Lundqvist, but midway through began to fall off before things eventually unraveled into somewhat of a disaster. Biron finished the year with a 12-6-2 record, while posting a .904 save percentage and 2.46 GAA in the process. He did his part in that he gave Henrik Lundqvist the amount of rest throughout the regular season that was needed in order for Hank to be charged up down the stretch. And there's nothing wrong with a 12-6-2 record for a back-up goalie, either, but what brought Marty's grade down was the uneasiness sensed when he was in net in the second half of the season. He lost all confidence, was fighting the puck and simply could not be relied on. Remember the Chicago game at MSG? Yeeaaahh.
It should be interesting to see how the Rangers approach the to-be unrestricted free agent over the summer.
Henrik Lundqvist - A - Honestly, what is there to say about Henrik Lundqvist that has not been said already? In what I felt was his best campaign of his seven-year NHL career to this point, King Henrik was superhuman in net for the Rangers. He went 39-18-5 on the year with a .930 save percentage and 1.97 GAA, carried his team to first place in the Eastern Conference and likely will be handed the Vezina Trophy later this month as the League's top goalie in 2011-12. He was a monster in the postseason as well, somehow keeping his GAA under two and save percentage above .931. So his playoff stats were better than his regular season stats, which speaks to the benefit he had of getting more rest throughout the year.
We can only pray for a repeat performance in 2012-13.
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