Yahoo Sports Blackhawks' Soderblom On Wrong Side of Unfortunate Goalie Stats
Arvid Soderblom has been great for the Chicago Blackhawks this season as he has been part of the solution. The team has struggled to score, but haven't failed to stay in games when Soderblom or Petr Mrazek have started in net. This has been a big help in keeping them competitive even though the Blackhawks are still at the bottom of the standings.
Despite Soderblom's incredible turnaround this season and his stellar numbers, he is on the wrong side of some unfortunate stats.
Soderblom has a 2.36 GAA and .926 SV% through six starts/games this season. His record is 1-4-1. Amongst goalies to play at least six games this season, he ranks just outside the top-10 in GAA while playing on the 32nd place team in the league, and is tied in third for SV%, .001 behind the leaders.
Next to Philipp Grubauer who has a 1-6-0 record, but deservedly so because of his .881 SV%, Soderblom has the worst win-loss record in the league. With how he has turned things around and the performances he has put on this season, he is one of the most deserving goalies to have his record flipped right around.
Soderblom has only allowed 14 goals against in six starts. He has allowed two goals in a game in four of those and just three goals against in the other two. The consistency is very good this season, but I want to once again emphasize that the Blackhawks are dead last in the NHL. We never see numbers like what Soderblom has come from a last place team this far into the season.
Because of Soderblom and Mrazek, the Blackhawks are 13th in the league with 3.00 goals against per game, even with an average penalty kill of 78.7%. The problem lies in the complete lack of scoring while not only Soderblom has been in net, but in general.
Related: Does Pressure Fall on Mrazek for Blackhawks to Win?
It is unfortunate that even after such a turnover in the roster from last season's poor finish, the Blackhawks can still hardly get on the scoresheet. Soderblom has gotten 11 goals of support from Chicago in his six games. That's a fair bit less than even their 2.33 goals per game as a team.
In the four games that Soderblom has played at an elite level, he has recorded a SV% of at least .935 in those games. Only one has been a win. I'm not convinced that the Blackhawks will all of a sudden start to score at a much higher rate, so this may be the season-long struggle for the team's goalies despite very strong play.
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