This Year's Finals Not the Best Series for Goaltending

This year's Stanley Cup Final has had a little bit of everything. Goals, goals and more goals. All sorts of shenanigans involving Chris Pronger (Puck-gate, Pronger in a skirt, Pronger getting annihilated by Dustin Byfuglien). Teammates taking out teammates. Players that were once considered an afterthought becoming impact players. And when all is said and done, one storied franchise is going to end its lengthy Stanley Cup drought.

The only thing we haven't seen much of? Good goaltending.

For most of the season it was the biggest question with these two teams, and a rather large talking point when neither did anything to upgrade its perceived weakness at the trade deadline. In the end, of course, they didn't really need to, as both Antti Niemi and Michael Leighton stepped up for Chicago and Philadelphia respectively, backstopping their teams to this point.

Through the first five games, however, it's appeared to be a goaltending optional series, as the two teams have combined to make this the highest-scoring Finals series in decades.

Blackhawks lead series, 3-2
Blackhawks vs. Flyers Series Page

Prior to this season, for example, you had to go back 18 years just to find the last time two teams combined to score 11 goals in a Stanley Cup Final game ... and these guys have done it twice (Games 1 and 5).

Leighton has already been pulled on two separate occasions in the series, and his .866 save percentage through five games has been a sizable drop from the .947 mark he registered in the opening three rounds. Niemi hasn't been much better, with a .833 mark, down from the .920 he had against Nashville, Vancouver and San Jose.

How does that performance compare to recent Stanley Cup Finals goaltenders? Not very well.

Stanley Cup Final Goaltending Save Percentage Comparison
Player	Previous 3 Rounds	Finals Save %	Difference
Michael Leighton	.947	.866	-.081
Antti Niemi	.920	.833	-.087
Chris Osgood (2009)	.924	.930	+.006
Marc-Andre Fleury (2009)	.906	.912	+.006
Chris Osgood (2008)	.930	.929	-.001
Marc-Andre Fleury (2008)	.938	.923	-.015
Jean-Sebastian Giguere (2007)	.931	.891	-.040
Ray Emery (2007)	.918	.870	-.048
Cam Ward (2006)	.919	.920	+.001

Since the lockout, we haven't seen goalies A) perform this poorly in a Stanley Cup Final or B) have that much of a drop-off from their performance in the opening three rounds. It's certainly made for some exciting hockey, though.