eastender said:
What about Ray Emery and Evgeni Nabokov? The winner of the Dallas/Vancouver series will have major fatigue problems dow the road.
In looking more closely at the stats of these two players, if I am inclined to admit I overlooked someone it might be Emery. He is very young (24) and untested at this stage of his career, and although his GAA is a bit higher then the the other goalies mentioned above, his regular season save % of .918 is certainly very good. If I am not mistaken, he is also the only black starting goalie in the NHL, correct? I am not counting Kevin Weekes who falls into the journeyman/backup category.
Lundqvist is also young but he has won an Olympic gold medal for Sweden, and as I recall he was absolutely brillant in the Olympics in the big games. Jiggy, Luongo and Miller are also slightly more seasoned goalies than Emery and Lundqvist, with Jiggy having that unbelievable run a few years back when he was named playoff MVP. I gave Lundqvist the nod over Emery due to the gold medal that hangs around his neck.
I don't think Nabokov can get red hot and win a series for San Jose like some of these others guys may be able to do.