Welcome back to your ECHL weekly review! Taking a look back at last weeks post, we spoke about some of the teams that you might not think to look at when just looking at the standings. Those teams being the Brampton Beast and the Rapid City Rush. The Brampton Beast seemed to be the team out of the two to actually show up last week. Brampton went an impressive 5-1-3 to secure 13 out of a possible 18 points, dominantly won their "toughest game" against the Mariners, and won over their matchup against the Rush 4-2. They now only sit 2 points back from a playoff spot. On the flip side, the Rush went in the total other direction. With a 2-5-2 record they now sit 4 points back and have a tough schedule this week, playing 5 of the top 4 teams in each division. This week, I'd like to give some insight into the goalies. After reviewing some of the matchups this week and the results from last week, there has been some tightly contested games where the G's have kept their team in it, or have straight up stolen a game. To set some parameters, the cutoff will be for starting G's since Week 1 only (minimum 9 games played) and one goalie from each conference (Eastern North/South and Western Central/Mountain). The two key pieces of information we will be utilizing from @Fleury l8l 's spreadsheet are WAR (Wins Above Replacement. If you were to take an average player and put them in your shoes they would earn 0 WAR. What you do above or below that number is your WAR.) and SOS (SOS - Strength of Schedule. A very complex model that accounts for your opponent and their own strength of schedule to calculate a composite SOS value.) I also want to give credit to @Darse for the idea of goalie breakdowns utilizing the spreadsheet in the AHL last season. EASTERN SOUTH @brokendragon7 10-5-1 | .851 SV% | 2.56 GAA | 3 SO WAR - 86% | SOS - 47% After putting together possibly the worst stretch of his career (starting the season 1-5), brokendragon has gone 9-1-1 on a team that is 14-12-1. Really impressive stats after that start and Norfolk can lean on him as the season progresses. EASTERN NORTH @TheGIW603 7-3-2 | .852 SV% | 2.84 GAA | 1 SO WAR - 95% | SOS - 91% While you could argue this could go to @StrawHatBen- who has a disgusting 1.92 GAA and .872 SV%, the road getting there has been much easier with a 5% SOS. That being said, both of these goalies have been amazing for Newfoundland. GIW boasts a crazy 95% WAR along with a 91% SOS. From looking at the data, I haven't been able to find a G that comes close to both of these statistics and if the SOS is high, usually that means the WAR is abysmal. Not GIW's. WESTERN CENTRAL @Swish054 7-6-2 | .837 SV% | 2.51 GAA | 2 SO WAR - 72% | SOS - 70% Swish has had a great year so far even after a bad Week 2. While he is in the middle of the pack in most statistics, he has had some of the toughest competition while still maintaining reputable numbers. In games against the top 4 teams in each division he is 2-2-1 posting a .863 SV% and 2 GAA. WESTERN MOUNTAIN I mean take your pick for G in this division because it is STACKED. Tulsa, Idaho, Wichita, and Kansas City have some studs in net. But there is one team and a one two punch that sticks out above the rest. @DreamzVIL 8-2-2 | .882 SV% | 1.69 GAA | 2 SO WAR - 97% | SOS - 53% Dreamz is the best goalie in the entire ECHL when it comes to SV% and GAA percentile. His WAR card is lit up across the board for 5on5 action and is a main reason why Tulsa is the top team in the ECHL right now. What is more impressive is that Tulsa seems to be evenly splitting their games in net with @l Careen l who has very comparable stats with Dreamz but is lacking in the SOS category at 17%. @Swish054 @brokendragon7 @TheGIW603 @DreamzVIL
