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Five goalie stats you may find interesting

Chicago Blackhawks vs Buffalo Sabres

BUFFALO, NY - DECEMBER 19: Corey Crawford #50 of the Chicago Blackhawks skates around in between whistles at the First Niagara Center on December 19, 2015 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Tom Brenner/ Getty Images)

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6 -- Shutouts for Corey Crawford. That’s the most in the NHL this season. He got his sixth yesterday versus Ottawa, helping his save percentage to improve to .925, the sixth highest among goalies with at least 20 starts. In Crawford’s career, the 31-year-old has won two Stanley Cups and has a save percentage of .921 in 76 playoff games. Among active goalies, only Henrik Lundqvist and Marc-Andre Fleury have played more postseason games than he has. Yet Crawford often gets left off the list of “elite” goalies. Which doesn’t seem fair, really.

.923 -- The Islanders’ team save percentage, fourth highest in the NHL. That’s a significant improvement over previous seasons. The Isles ranked 26th in 2014-15 (.903) and 30th in 2013-14 (.894). As PHT has noted so many times in the past, the back-up goalie is an important member of the team, and can be the difference between making and missing the playoffs. Though he’s struggled in recent outings, Thomas Greiss has been excellent for the Isles overall. The 29-year-old is 12-6-2 with a .928 save percentage. Those numbers are actually better than Jaroslav Halak’s (10-6-3, .923).

.907 -- Kari Lehtonen’s save percentage for the Dallas Stars. Which isn’t very good. In fact, among netminders with at least 15 starts, it ranks tied for 31st out of 36. This is why GM Jim Nill went out and got Antti Niemi, who’s 16-6-4 with a .918 save percentage. It’s not always easy playing goal for the run-and-gun Dallas Stars, but thanks in large part to Niemi, their team save percentage has improved from 29th last year (.896) -- when Lehtonen didn’t have a reliable backup -- to 13th (.915) this year.

.899 -- The San Jose Sharks’ team save percentage, 26th in the NHL. Which is to say, GM Doug Wilson’s gamble on the inexperienced tandem of Martin Jones and Alex Stalock isn’t really paying off. Jones is 16-12-2 with a .910 save percentage, while Stalock is 2-5-0 with an .893 save percentage. Yesterday, Stalock was assigned to the AHL for conditioning purposes.

.909 -- Pekka Rinne’s save percentage. Far lower than what we’re used to seeing from the Predators’ number one. Nashville doesn’t have a very reliable backup, either; Carter Hutton has only appeared in five games and has a .895 save percentage. So, how have the Preds managed to go 19-13-7 and build a 6-point playoff cushion? Easy: they’re only giving up 26.9 shots per game, the second fewest in the NHL after Carolina (26.1).