Goaltending wins hockey games. It's often as simple as that, but not every team can have a Roberto Luongo in net. For the rest of the league, goaltending is a shakier proposition. Some teams have their own institutions, like the New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur or the New York Rangers' Henrik Lundquist.
Others, like the Colorado Avalanche and the Ottawa Senators, throw the Andrew Raycrofts of the world at the wall and hope that they stick -- they usually don't.
Every franchise, despite its goaltending situation, lives in constant fear of failure or injury. The Devils found this out the hard way last week when Brodeur went down with a torn biceps tendon. He will miss the next several months due to rehab, leaving Kevin Weekes to take his place. Brodeur is certainly a tough loss to overcome for a team that is built from the back.
Similarly, St. Louis Blues' netminder Manny Legace injured himself by tripping on a carpet put in place for ex-vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin's visit to the Scottrade Center. Raycroft didn't end up sticking for the Avalanche, and neither did Peter Budaj. The Columbus Blues' Pascal Leclaire is notoriously fragile.
The Boston Bruins are one of the few teams with an excess of goaltending capability. Bruins coach Claude Julien has said he is happy to have two excellent goaltending options.
"We've got two good goaltenders, and we shouldn't be picking [between them]," Julien said. "We should be looking at the fact that we've got a position of strength, and we need to use it."
Primary starter Tim Thomas and backup Manny Fernandez have both been outstanding for the Bruins. The priority situation is interesting, as it is exactly the opposite of what the team expected when they traded for Fernandez in 2007.
Fernandez was brought to Beantown to be the top goalie of the present and the future since management was not confident that Thomas was a legitimate No. 1 starter. In his last two seasons with the Minnesota Wild, Fernandez posted a 2.28 GAA and a .916 save percentage. Thomas was a quintessential journeyman goaltender who starred for University of Vermont in the mid-1990s before bouncing around the ECHL, AHL and both the Finnish and Swedish Elite Leagues.
Fernandez, however, started just four games before being injured in 2007, allowing Thomas to step up and fill the void -- he was even being named to the NHL East All-Star team.
Thomas has also played exceptionally well this season; his .944 save percentage leads the league, and his 1.85 GAA is second overall -- by one one-hundredth of a point. In limited duty, a healthy Fernandez has also played well, posting four wins and one overtime loss.
But that's not to say that Fernandez's limited playing time hasn't been a struggle for him. Adjusting to the role of a backup has been mentally and physically taxing, but he has done his job quite well without complaint.
"When you haven't played in a while, to sort of guess where the puck is going is a little harder," Fernandez said after his most recent start, a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. "I try to work my end of the deal and when that day comes [when I start] like today, I try to be as sharp as I can. [Julien] had to throw me in there ... he had to throw me in there eventually."
While Fernandez has the makings of a No. 1 goaltender rather than a reserve just tossed into the game to get his reps in, it's unlikely that he will get that opportunity in Boston and a trade could be in order. Colorado has the room to absorb Fernandez's contract and a terrible goaltending situation that will give him the opportunity to start around 50 games for the remainder of the season.
The Bruins could get back either Budaj or Raycroft, who are overmatched as starters but would be capable of shouldering a limited workload. Having one of the two start 25 games in place of Thomas would likely not damage the Bruins' playoff aspirations.
A moderate pick thrown in by the Aves could seal the deal and would free up cap space for the Bruins. Cap space has been a problem, as the team was forced to buy out Glenn Murray in the offseason, and the nearly $4 million that would be freed up by trading Fernandez would prove useful this season.
The Bruins are built to contend in the here and now, and they could use that money to pay for a rental player acquired in trade at the deadline (think an Ilya Kovalchuk-type) or acquire a useful unrestricted free agent like Brendan Shanahan.
Although Fernandez currently represents a nice piece of value for the Bruins, he is far more valuable for other squads, and with Thomas' play, Fernandez has been rendered a relatively extraneous and expensive piece. The Bruins can better leverage his cap space in their quest for some mid-May ice time, as Fernandez won't be getting the opportunity to carve out his own spot as a No. 1 goalie.
On the Bruins, that spot probably belongs to Tim Thomas.
