No GAA is not solely against the goalie. That is why I asked how you are rating them. Because it is under the goalies stats.
Huets GAA and S% were a lot higher in the begining of January. He actually had better S% than Niemi at one point but higher GAA by like .25. Niemi had like 1.99 and Huet had like 2.25. There was a stretch that the hawks defense collapsed. That one game against Blue Jackets for example. Thats what destroyed Huets S%.
Niemi has always played more than a normal back up. Just like Huet the year before. I don't know why the hawks do that. That's why Huets GP isn't as high as you would think. But Huet was solid up till Feb and then the defense and goal tending collapsed for a little bit. Quennenville tried to shake things up by playing both goalies but nothing seemed to work. I think ultimatly Q chose Niemi because of things like the media and fans. The players are aware of whats being said about them and if a goalie with such negative press surrounding him is playing that could infect the entire team. That and Niemi did have glorious saves in a few key pionts in games. That reflects with his high shut outs with less games played than other goalies.
And I checked... It was ellis with the close to 2.75 GAA. Thought it was Rinne. Still Huet has 2.50 GAA and a .895 isn't much worse than a .911. with a 2.53 GAA. Huet and Rinne are pretty comparable. Dont let the media get to you. There is no excuse for you to put Crawford before Huet though. And by all means I am not Huet fan. I think he should have played more last year in the playoffs because Khabibulin had a tendancy to get injured and swapping in a goalie who hasn't played in a few months had nothing but bad news written on it. I also believe the media and fans are over critical of the Goalie. Especially the fans. They don't want to blame the entire team for their skid but wanted to take the easy way out and say it was one guy.
