With the 2013-14 NHL preseason only two weeks away, many roster spots on every team around the league will be up for grabs over the next month leading to opening day puck drop on October 3. One position that the Pittsburgh Penguins seem to have locked in is their puck swallowing duo between the pipes at goaltender. Marc-Andre Fleury, 28, and Tomas Vokoun, 37, hope to improve their performance over a lack luster post season.
Fleury, an "elite goaltender" who led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup victory in 2009, was named earlier this week to the top goaltender spot. This front office decision has taken a lot of scrutiny from Penguins commentators and analysts in the recent days due to Fleury's lack of a post season presence. Thats not to say that Marc-Andre didn't play in the post season last summer, in fact, Fleury played in five games, winning two, allowing in 17 goals with a goals against average of 3.52 That number is way too high for an elite NHL goaltender. To contrast, Vokoun's 11 starts yielded 6 wins and only 23 goals against with a goals against average of 2.01.
By all accounts the two Penguin goaltenders should be middle of the field players, but the Penguins have an outlier that most teams don't, unrivaled offensive force. One could argue that the Penguins trip into the deep post season last year was almost entirely driven by their offense. With super stars like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Pascal Dupres, James Neal and late season acquisition Jarome Iginla (now a Boston Bruin) The Penguins scored more points in the first two rounds of the post season than any other two teams in the Eastern conference put together.
Ranked 16th and 17th goaltenders overall by NHL.com's stat monkeys, both Penguins net-minders have stated that they are focused this offseason, and seeking to better their performance. The front office decided to give them some help by promoting Mike Bales, of the Penguins Minor League AHL affiliate the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Penguins. Bales was the head goaltending coach in Wilkes-Barre, his work with minor league goaltenders Jeff Zatkoff and Brad Thiessen yielded a collective goals against average of 1.93 per game, the lowest in the AHL.
Bales, who dressed for 23 games between 1992-97, never quite had what it took to maintain in the NHL, but after two years coaching in the farm system at Wilkes-Barre, the Penguins General Manager Ray Shero has given Bales a chance to bring the missing piece in the Pittsburgh puzzle to the table, solid goaltending.
Not only did Bales help the two Baby Penguins' goaltenders improve last season, but his scouting of amateurs was also taken into account this summer as the Penguins have signed three amateur goaltenders over the last two years, Tristan Jarry (44th overall in 2013), Matt Murray (83rd overall in 2012), and Eric Hartzell (undrafted free agent). Hartzell was a 2013 Hobey Baker Award finalist and a USA Hockey College Player of the Year.
What lies over the horizon for the Penguins is still up in the air, but one thing is for sure, a focus on defense. With a salary cap crushing offensive lineup, one can only wonder how 2012-13 GM of the year Shero can hold it all together.
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