Debunking the 'Bobrovsky is Better than Mason' Myth

[ASquared]

Don't let the headline fool you. These two are a lot closer than you may think. Give it a look and feel free to jump in on discussion.

http://goo.gl/aXReTm

[mounD]

No offense, but you totally cherrypicked stats to make a ridiculous argument, in my estimation. 3-year average from 2011-2014, Bobrovsky posted a .9318 SV% at 5v5, whereas Mason posted a mere .918 at evens. Among goaltenders who played >or= 1000 minutes (5v5) over that period, Bobrovsky ranked 8th and Mason ranked 42nd.

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rati...t&sortdir=DESC

There is no comparison. Bobrovsky is elite; Mason is average. He's having a good start to this year, but he's an average goaltender.

[ASquared]

No offense, but you totally cherrypicked stats to make a ridiculous argument, in my estimation. 3-year average from 2011-2014, Bobrovsky posted a .9318 SV% at 5v5, whereas Mason posted a mere .918 at evens. Among goaltenders who played >or= 1000 minutes (5v5) over that period, Bobrovsky ranked 8th and Mason ranked 42nd.

http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/rati...t&sortdir=DESC

There is no comparison. Bobrovsky is elite; Mason is average. He's having a good start to this year, but he's an average goaltender.

No offense taken. I welcome your input. I guess you could say any situation is cherry-picked, though. It's much easier to post better numbers behind a better team.

[Axeman33]

Philadelphia would trade three Steve Mason's to get Bobrovsky back. Meanwhile, go ask Columbus if they would consider trading Bobrovsky to bring back Steve Mason.

Vezina aside, I think that alone tells you just how far apart they are.

[ztking]

This year Mason has been playing better than his career average. Keeping this in mind, with the disaster CLB has been on the injury front (only three players have played every game), Bob has won 10/19, with a .919SV% and 2.67GAA. Mason has won 5/18 with .917SV% and 2.69GAA. So even with an absolutely bare bones roster, Bob is playing better, albeit slightly, than Mason and he'll only get better as the team gets healthier.

[mounD]

Plus, Bobrovsky will become unbeatable once March rolls around, as he is wont to do on a yearly basis.

[LakeSoup]

Pretty much until their winning streak started, CLS was fielding an AHL team. Granted, a Calder-level AHL team, but they were marginally more organized than the Oilers.

Philly has been Philly the entire way through. Mason is league-average, no 2 ways about it.
If you want to base performances off this season, let's talk Pavelec - Jets are doing better than expected and he's been pretty decent.

Does that mean he's not one of the worst goaltenders in the league? No.

[Instant Karma]

I'd grant that Mason may be on the verge of overcoming his dumpster-fire reputation, but I'd agree with the others that Columbus won that trade big-time, and that if Philly could have a Mulligan on that one, no question they'd take it. But, your article might make them feel a little better about it.

I also don't see Mason representing his country in the Olympics anytime soon.

[ASquared]

Great feedback, folks. When writing this, I knew it would would be heavily challenged - and that's fine. I welcome that. I love to spark up discussion.