Redwings Recover!
After falling down to the 6th seed in the Campbell Conference and being within enough points you could count on your one hand to being out of the playoffs, Redwings stepped up their game. After going 2-8-0 which forced them into this desire position with only 25 games left to spare, Redwings recovered slightly and are now going 5-5-0 in their last 10. Nothing magnificent but enough to rebound them from the 6th seed in the Campbell Conference to 3rd seed and now look to have home ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs if it was to end today.
This was a team effort but most of the glory can be traced back to one person. That one person would be Olaf Kolzig, who is having an award winning season. Olaf Kolzig is posting a 2.59 GAA in 53 games, 3104 minutes total, in which he has that amazing GAA. Not one single other goalie could do that, start 96% of your teams games (53 games of 55 total started) and still be able to post a GAA of 2.59, only one other goalie has a better GAA and they did that in 12 less games played than Olaf Kolzig. Not only does he have a magnificent GAA which ranks 2nd in the league, but he has a .901 SV Pct which ranks 4th in the league along with 3 Assists and 3 Shut-Outs. So it's easy to trace the Redwings success back to Olaf Kolzig, however concern is rising in Detroit as many feel he is being overused. Being the 3rd most used goalie in the league, he is the only one that posts great numbers. However if he was to get injured or start producing not so great, the blame will go right back to the coach for overusing him and eventually leading him to his injured position. But as he continues to produce so greatly, there's really no reason not to bench him not as long as you still need points to stay in the playoff race and climb those rankings.
This was a team effort but most of the glory can be traced back to one person. That one person would be Olaf Kolzig, who is having an award winning season. Olaf Kolzig is posting a 2.59 GAA in 53 games, 3104 minutes total, in which he has that amazing GAA. Not one single other goalie could do that, start 96% of your teams games (53 games of 55 total started) and still be able to post a GAA of 2.59, only one other goalie has a better GAA and they did that in 12 less games played than Olaf Kolzig. Not only does he have a magnificent GAA which ranks 2nd in the league, but he has a .901 SV Pct which ranks 4th in the league along with 3 Assists and 3 Shut-Outs. So it's easy to trace the Redwings success back to Olaf Kolzig, however concern is rising in Detroit as many feel he is being overused. Being the 3rd most used goalie in the league, he is the only one that posts great numbers. However if he was to get injured or start producing not so great, the blame will go right back to the coach for overusing him and eventually leading him to his injured position. But as he continues to produce so greatly, there's really no reason not to bench him not as long as you still need points to stay in the playoff race and climb those rankings.
posted by Keith at 1:50 PM
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