Photo credit: Jonathan Kozub
Braden Holtby‘s 35-stop afternoon in Manitoba puts him in a three-way tie in shutouts (3) alongside Nashville’s Pekka Rinne and Phoenix’s Mike Smith.
I guess the first thing I should say is that shutouts, while awesome, are kind of a silly way to evaluate a goalie. Goalies don’t control the number of shots they face, just the percentage of that number they stop. That in mind, I thought we’d do a quick comparison of how these guys came to be the league’s shutout leaders.
Games Played
| Goalie | GP |
| Rinne | 19 |
| Smith | 16 |
| Holtby | 14 |
Shots Faced in Shutouts
| Goalie | SA |
| Rinne | 76 |
| Smith | 80 |
| Holtby | 95 |
So Holtby faced (and stopped) more shots in his three shutouts, and he earned them in fewer games than his elite competition. Now I’m not saying Braden Holtby is Superman; I’m just saying I’ve never seen the two of them in the same place at the same time.
NOTE: I had Rinne’s shots against wrong in an earlier version of this post.
