[Cage Match Tournament] #4 Kiprusoff vs. #5 Pavelec

[metaldude26]

Check the front page for last week's results. In the meantime, cast your votes for this week's matchups in the opening round of the Hasek Bracket.

Remember that this is for one year leagues only with the following categories:

Wins, Goals Against Average, Save Percentage, Shutouts

Here are the other matchups for this week:

#1 Marc-Andre Fleury vs. #8 Anton Khudobin

#2 Cory Schneider vs. #7 Evgeni Nabokov

#3 Kari Lehtonen vs. #6 Corey Crawford

[DerekReese]

Kipper for me boss.

[bondon]

So badly do I want to go against the grain here and take Pavelec. I mean who knows...Kipper has put up a few clunkers in the past.

Funny enough in my ranking that I gave you I had Kipper just one spot ahead of Pavelec..so I guess I gotta keep my word here hahq

[hockeyrobot]

Pavelec!!!!!!

[Fast Tony DeNiro]

In a one-year league, I'd go with Kipper. He's had his share of so-so seasons, but even a "meh" year from Kipper is a good year for Pavelec at this point. I'm a big Pav fan and in a keeper this is no contest, but for next year I go with Miikka.

[kevinsrangers]

kippers got lots left in the tank.

[ericdaoust]

So badly do I want to go against the grain here and take Pavelec. I mean who knows...Kipper has put up a few clunkers in the past.

Funny enough in my ranking that I gave you I had Kipper just one spot ahead of Pavelec..so I guess I gotta keep my word here hahq

Proven vs unproven... practice what you preach.

[bondon]

Proven vs unproven... practice what you preach.

True, but let's be honest, Pavelec isn't exactly unproven.

RELATIVELY to Kiprusoff, he's unproven yes, but with 187 games under his belt.. At times he carries the Jets and I think he has a lot of room to improve on his numbers. And even Kiprusoff, for all of the praise he gets, has been pretty inconsistent when you toss in %s and don't just focus on the W/SO.

.923, .917, .906, .903, .920, .906, .921.

I have a buddy (actually he's the one who got me into fantasy hockey to begin with), who refers to Kiprusoff as 'Kipper the ratio killer'. Probably because every time he drafted Kiprusoff as one of his goalies, he had one of those sub-.910% years.

[ericdaoust]

True, but let's be honest, Pavelec isn't exactly unproven.

RELATIVELY to Kiprusoff, he's unproven yes, but with 187 games under his belt.. At times he carries the Jets and I think he has a lot of room to improve on his numbers. And even Kiprusoff, for all of the praise he gets, has been pretty inconsistent when you toss in %s and don't just focus on the W/SO.

.923, .917, .906, .903, .920, .906, .921.

I have a buddy (actually he's the one who got me into fantasy hockey to begin with), who refers to Kiprusoff as 'Kipper the ratio killer'. Probably because every time he drafted Kiprusoff as one of his goalies, he had one of those sub-.910% years.

Has Pavelec ever come close to Kipper's level? Like I was saying...

[bondon]

Has Pavelec ever come close to Kipper's level? Like I was saying...

If you look at 2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2010-2011 he has

[ericdaoust]

If you look at 2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2010-2011 he has

This goes back to the Whitney/Doan points-only discussion... if one has his best case scenario and the other has his worst case scenario, then it would still be close.

[havanablast21]

I think this is the year Pavelec Paves the way for a solid Career for himself. He'll out shine the usually poised and consistent Kipper in what proves to be an upset.

[bondon]

This goes back to the Whitney/Doan points-only discussion... if one has his best case scenario and the other has his worst case scenario, then it would still be close.

Whoa I was just kidding with my last post but I can't agree with this, no matter how blasphemous it would be for me to do so

I think Kiprusoff has shown that his worst case scenario can be quite poor (%-wise at least). While at the same time Pavelec has shown the star quality is there...he just needs some consistency. I actually think part of the reason why Pavelec's numbers weren't so great last year could be because he's not used to the large travel schedule yet.

His home/away splits are nuts.
Home: 19-12-4, 2.47, .917%, 3SO
Away: 10-16-5, 3.42, .895%, 1SO

Then again it could simply be adrenaline from playing in the MTS Centre.

Like I said I'd still take Kiprusoff in a one-year, but man it's tight for me.

[ericdaoust]

Whoa I was just kidding with my last post but I can't agree with this, no matter how blasphemous it would be for me to do so

I think Kiprusoff has shown that his worst case scenario can be quite poor (%-wise at least). While at the same time Pavelec has shown the star quality is there...he just needs some consistency. I actually think part of the reason why Pavelec's numbers weren't so great last year could be because he's not used to the large travel schedule yet.

His home/away splits are nuts.
Home: 19-12-4, 2.47, .917%, 3SO
Away: 10-16-5, 3.42, .895%, 1SO

Then again it could simply be adrenaline from playing in the MTS Centre.

Like I said I'd still take Kiprusoff in a one-year, but man it's tight for me.

OK, now I play my Joker card. Look at your track record judging goalies. Maybe Kipper is destined for a down year after all.

[bondon]

OK, now I play my Joker card. Look at your track record judging goalies. Maybe Kipper is destined for a down year after all.

Pfft, not even. It's a new year. Watch...my hit/miss ratio is going to do a complete 180 this year.

(Overlooks the fact that it's a lockout year)