H2H goalie strategy

[ericdaoust]

League categories in sig...

My current match-up:
GAA: I'm winning 1.00 vs 2.54
Saves: I'm down 55-27
SO: tied 0-0
SPct: I'm winning .964 vs .917
Wins: Tied 1-1

His goalies: Ward, Halak
My goalies: Luongo, Reimer, Sanford

I'm up in GAA and save percentage and these are categories that can go down when a goalie has a bad game. Right now Curtis Sanford is riding his hot streak in my lineup while Luongo and Reimer are out. With the lead that I have in GAA/SPct, should I sit Sanford to ensure that I retain those two categories or should I dress Sanford to go for the kill (and try to get more wins/saves or even a shutout)? Does the reward outweigh the risk in your opinion? What would you do?

Overall I'm up 11-5 in my match-up at the moment.

[blayze]

League categories in sig...

My current match-up:
GAA: I'm winning 1.00 vs 2.54
Saves: I'm down 55-27
SO: tied 0-0
SPct: I'm winning .964 vs .917
Wins: Tied 1-1

His goalies: Ward, Halak
My goalies: Luongo, Reimer, Sanford

I'm up in GAA and save percentage and these are categories that can go down when a goalie has a bad game. Right now Curtis Sanford is riding his hot streak in my lineup while Luongo and Reimer are out. With the lead that I have in GAA/SPct, should I sit Sanford to ensure that I retain those two categories or should I dress Sanford to go for the kill (and try to get more wins/saves or even a shutout)? Does the reward outweigh the risk in your opinion? What would you do?

Overall I'm up 11-5 in my match-up at the moment.

I presume you've only played one goalie game this week based on your save total.

It's a long week, you have to play your goalies otherwise your opponent is going to capture the Wins and Saves categories for sure and possibly SO. By benching your goalies at this point, the best you can hope for is a draw by the end of the week.

The goalie benching strategy typically only comes into play for me by Sunday (or saturday in extreme cases) and I've already got a few categories locked up. It also depends on your opponent's goalie matchups for the rest of the week as well - if they have a tough schedule I'm more likely to gamble for additional category wins, if they have easy schedule on the weekend then I'm more likely to play it safe and lock up what I have.

Definitely keep playing your goalies, ESPECIALLY since Luongo and Reimer are still out, you will need all the goalie games you can get.

I am surprised your league doesn't enforce a minimum amount of goalie games played in a H2H week, mine does.

[Narayan]

If your leagues doesn't have min goalie games I would sit him... If you have the opportunity to split the goalie stats with Sanford vs ward and halak I would say go for it! The odds you would win the W and SV category are already slim to none.

Take the draw and win the week with your skaters.

[DerekReese]

I presume you've only played one goalie game this week based on your save total.

It's a long week, you have to play your goalies otherwise your opponent is going to capture the Wins and Saves categories for sure and possibly SO. By benching your goalies at this point, the best you can hope for is a draw by the end of the week.

The goalie benching strategy typically only comes into play for me by Sunday (or saturday in extreme cases) and I've already got a few categories locked up. It also depends on your opponent's goalie matchups for the rest of the week as well - if they have a tough schedule I'm more likely to gamble for additional category wins, if they have easy schedule on the weekend then I'm more likely to play it safe and lock up what I have.

Definitely keep playing your goalies, ESPECIALLY since Luongo and Reimer are still out, you will need all the goalie games you can get.

I am surprised your league doesn't enforce a minimum amount of goalie games played in a H2H week, mine does.

Great advice! I was going to say the same thing. Even though you are winning the goalie cats now there is no guarantee that you still will be at the end of the week. I know what your thinking, you don't want Sanford to have a bad game and lose those cats for you, but sacrificing the saves, wins and maybe shut outs is not worth it in my opinion. I would play Sanford

[Pengwin7]

Blayze has some great advice.

At the same time, you have to be realistic...
1. Can you win saves? If Lu & Reimer are out - do you even have a chance to catch him? Columbus had 4 games this week (M/W/F/Sun). He already has two goalie starts, a 3rd tonight (Ward) and probably a 4th/5th from Ward alone over F/S/S. Halak will get one or two more starts F/S/S. Both CAR & STL play tonight and twice F/S/S. That's 6 more games possible for his goalies!!!

2. Can you win Wins? CBJ has to play @ NJ, vs. BUF, vs. STL (Sun). There is 1 or 2 wins in there for a total of 2 or 3. Carolina has three very winnable games: Wed vs. MON, Fri vs. WPG, Sun vs. OTT. Do you go chasing this? If you are within one win on Sunday - perhaps you matchup that CBJ vs. STL game because you know it's a possible category win or tie.


I don't know... personally, I'm benching Sanford for the week and counting my blessings that I've won two cats (assuming you only need 1 start).

[ericdaoust]

Thanks everyone!

My feeling about the goalie categories that I'm winning is that I will not lose them. It will be difficult (impossible?) for my opponent to bring his weekly GAA under 1.00 and weekly SPct above .964.

The other variable is the health of Reimer and Luongo. Reimer is rumored to be coming back on Sunday while Luongo will probably get one of the weekend games.

We do have a minimum of 1 GP. Last week I didn't get any starts (I just picked up Sanford this week) and as a result I lost each goalie category.

Still not sure how to attack this problem. I have very little faith in Sanford and Columbus as a go-to option.

[wendelclark17]

Blayze has some great advice.

At the same time, you have to be realistic...
1. Can you win saves? If Lu & Reimer are out - do you even have a chance to catch him? Columbus had 4 games this week (M/W/F/Sun). He already has two goalie starts, a 3rd tonight (Ward) and probably a 4th/5th from Ward alone over F/S/S. Halak will get one or two more starts F/S/S. Both CAR & STL play tonight and twice F/S/S. That's 6 more games possible for his goalies!!!

2. Can you win Wins? CBJ has to play @ NJ, vs. BUF, vs. STL (Sun). There is 1 or 2 wins in there for a total of 2 or 3. Carolina has three very winnable games: Wed vs. MON, Fri vs. WPG, Sun vs. OTT. Do you go chasing this? If you are within one win on Sunday - perhaps you matchup that CBJ vs. STL game because you know it's a possible category win or tie.


I don't know... personally, I'm benching Sanford for the week and counting my blessings that I've won two cats (assuming you only need 1 start).

im with Pengwin7, take the cats you are sure of (assuming no min starts) and sit Sanford. If he gets blown up in one game you could end up losing at 5 cats.

[blayze]

The offset is Luongo may get both weekend games, in which case you would have a reasonable shot at winning the Wins and Saves categories. I wouldn't rule that out since he's had a while to rest.

Columbus is as hot as they've ever been (yes I realize how funny that sounds given they're only on a 2 game streak) and I think they've finally woken up.

Vancouver is a pretty solid bet to win at least 1 of the 2 weekend games.

I wouldn't fault you for throwing in the towel for the rest of the week, but then you're resigning yourself to a draw on goalie cats at best, and you may regret it if CLB continues their streak and Luongo starts and wins a b2b.

On a side note, I find it kind of ridiculous that a H2H league would have a minimum of only 1 goalie game... if you get a shutout on Monday you've basically locked in 3/5 goalie cats.

[keytolife]

Since you are playing vs. me don´t give the guy anymore advice. He doesn´t need it!!!

My advice would be to rest your stars Eric since my team is sucky enough anyway.

Either my skaters don´t show up so far or they post 25 goals weeks. If that happens my goalies post 5,XX goals per game and 0 win performances.

So either way you are going to win

[ericdaoust]

Since you are playing vs. me don´t give the guy anymore advice. He doesn´t need it!!!

My advice would be to rest your stars Eric since my team is sucky enough anyway.

Either my skaters don´t show up so far or they post 25 goals weeks. If that happens my goalies post 5,XX goals per game and 0 win performances.

So either way you are going to win

LOL!

I figured you would find this thread. This is one of the more fascinating decisions I've had to make. A lot of philosophy comes into play here.

[baxpens]

RESPONSE TO - H2H goalie strategy:
Always go for all categories. I would not ever sit a goalie unless maybe last day of the week and you can only lose a category. If you can win something still play for it.

My dilemma....
Fleury, Howard, Smith are my 3 netminders.

Lately Smitty is playing the same day as my main 2 guys. Actually the last week it has happened 3 times and I have sat Smith (3-0-0 and a SHO). What to do tonight?

[ericdaoust]

Well I am going with the prevent defence strategy...