Lehner vs Crawford

[BreadManPanarin]

Glad i called that wrong! Our chances are much better against the Preds with Lehner and Murphy on ice!

[Shift Disturber]

So WTF is going on with Chicago's goaltending? They're in a battle to make the playoffs, Lehner is the superior goalie, yet Colliton continues to start Crawford over Lehner - 4 of the past 6 now. I understand the B2B situation this week, but the recent trend has been to go with Crawford. Anyone heard if Lehner is battling another injury?

[BreadManPanarin]

So WTF is going on with Chicago's goaltending? They're in a battle to make the playoffs, Lehner is the superior goalie, yet Colliton continues to start Crawford over Lehner - 4 of the past 6 now. I understand the B2B situation this week, but the recent trend has been to go with Crawford. Anyone heard if Lehner is battling another injury?

Crawford has 3 wins in a row with .954 save%, so I am not surprised at all that Colliton is riding the hot hand. I doubt it keeps up for very long though, as Lehner is the better goalie at this point in their careers.

[Sitdown]

...and shafting Lehner now with the BOS matchup

[BreadManPanarin]

...and shafting Lehner now with the BOS matchup

You want your better goalie handling the tougher matchup. Sucks for fantasy owners tho.

[gogoayane]

Would you consider dropping Mrazek and add Crawford to handcuff? for Team 2.

[Schneider]

Crawford is still a starter calibre goalie. The differences between the two is largely due to a large discrepancy in pk save %. .934 for Lehner and a .817 for Crawford. For reference, league average is around .875. No one really outplays their pksv% to that much of a degree long term, and Lehner's 3 yr avr is around .890 so his numbers will continue to regress.

No one underperforms their pksv% to such a degree either. Crawford's pksv% the last three seasons prior where .880, .908 and .863. He has one of the worst marks this season with an .817, 2nd worst among regular starters, only behind Rinne. If you adjust these numbers to their career averages, both goalies are at a .915 this season. Crawford actually has a better ev% of .924 vs Lehner's .923, which is important because that's where the majority of the game is played.

So I disagree that Lehner is definitely better than Crawford. It's really a matter of small sample sizes, visuals and personal conjecture. Lehner may be a candidate to be traded, so it also might be the case of managing risk that he's not starting more.

As for the Crawford question above, I might want to handcuff Mrazek instead and pick up Reimer. Carolina has a much better team, Mrazek has been awful this entire season and Reimer has been fantastic. Reimer will get more starts as Carolina is fighting for their playoff lives and will go with the hot hand.