STRAIGHT SHOOTERS

 

Wow, talk about a big miss from us in the preseason. While we hit on one here or there, our top 10 got diced up fairly good. We had Hrudey at 1, Hasek at 2, McLean at 3, Vanbiesbrouck at 4.

Some of them had good seasons, but maybe not to their norms, while others (Hasek) had a really rough season.

One guy who didn’t even make the top 10 list was Patrick Roy of the Florida Panthers.  The guy who started in St. Louis, went to New York, then Quebec, finally landed in Florida and found a home. Under his goaltending, the Panthers went on a massive run to end the season, and a lot of it was due to Roy’s play. They finished with a run of 21-4-2 down the stretch with Roy playing most of the games. Roy would win the Golden Glove Trophy with a .896 SV PCT, better then .06 of his nearest competitors. He was also the only goalie to get on the 3 Star points list, finishing with 66, good enough for 9th in the league and 1st on the Panthers. Playing with the teams he did early, he was still able to get his GAA down to 2.97, which was 6th in the league. His 32 wins were his 7th season of over 30 wins for his career.

Don Beaupre put together a solid season for the #1 team in 1995. His 43 wins lead the league, as did his 2.74 GAA. His .890 SVPCT (2nd place) was a solid increase from his previous season of .867. While Roy had 66 3-Star points, Beaupre was 3rd on his team with a close 59-star points. The Whalers enter the playoffs on a 7-game winning streak, and a lot of that is due to Don’s performance.

Martin Brodeur for the Minnesota North Stars had a breakout season for the Stars and helped push them to a 5th overall record in the standings. They increased from 96 points to 106 points this season, and a lot was because of Martin’s play. His .888 SV PCT was 3rd in the league behind Roy and Beaupre. His wins total of 36 was also tied for 3rd in the league. Meanwhile his GAA of 2.92 was, yes 3rd in the league. Brodeur total Star Points were 48 on the season, and 3rd on the North Stars team.

Lastly, Allan Bester also helped his Jets to a top Campbell Conference seed. His 40 wins were 2nd in the league, and giving him back to back 40+ win seasons. His GAA of 2.93 was good enough for 4th place in the league, while his SVPCT of .883 was good enough for 7th place. He finished 3rd on the Jets in Star points with 43 total.

After looking at this we feel at Straight Shooters that Patrick Roy will win the Vezina. It will be a close call, but we do believe it’s a 2 man race, with many others grabbing votes.

PREDICTION

Patrick Roy – 12  1st place votes

Don Beaupre – 8  1st place votes

Martin Brodeur – 4  1st place votes

Allan Bester – 2  1st place votes

STRAIGHT SHOOTERS