Early opinions on Lehner after 10+ games?

[JJFIVEOH]

There was time a month or so into the season when we were talking about the play of Ullmark and Johnson, when I observed that the place where good goaltending can really make a difference is on the PK.

 

A top-notch goalie can make the occasional big save, crawl into the shooter's heads and make them overthink things, and give his teammates confidence to push plays.

 

I have no idea if the numbers will back up my theory, but I find it hard to believe it is a coincidence that in the month since Lehner arrived we have climbed from the bottom five in PK to a team flirting with the top 10.

 

That's a pretty amazing statistical leap. We must be killing at well over 90 per cent in that span.

 

PK 31/32 in Lehner games once he came back.

I'm not concerned with Lehner losing his focus with situations like that. He himself said he plays better when he gets involved in the play and gets physical. I think he might lose focus after a bad goal and/or bad calls by the refs.

 

If he's the kind of goaltender who plays 3-4 lights out games and then bombs a game, I'm OK with it. Because you know there's a pretty good chance you win those 3-4 games whereas if you have a consistently average goaltender, every game is a toss up.