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Puckbunnies Multiple-Choice Quiz #1 ---  

* GOALIES & STATS *

Instructions: 

Answer each question using the information provided.  Write down your answers as you will receive different scores for different answers.   The correct answers, explanations, and points are provided at the bottom.  (The minimum score you can get is MINUS 30.  The Maximum is +25.)

Good luck! 

10 Questions

Question 1:  Goalie A had a season GAA of 2.57.  Goalie B had a season GAA of 3.16.   Who likely had the better season?

• (a) Goalie A.  Duh.
• (b) Goalie B.  It must be a trick question.
• (c) Not enough information to tell.

Question 2:   Goalie A has a season with SV% of .876.  Goalie B has a season with a SV% of 9.03.   Who likely had the better season?

Question 3:  Goalie C's team wins 5 games in a row 7-5.  That same month, Goalie D's team loses a 5 games in a row 2-1.   Which goalie likely had the better performances over that stretch of games?

Question 4:  It's the end of the 2007-08 season.    Two above-average goalies finish the year with the following stat lines.  Who do feel had the better season?

• (a) Goalie E: 27 Wins, 9 Losses, GAA = 2.09, SV% = 9.14
• (b) Goalie F: 23 Wins, 10 Losses, GAA = 2.34, SV% = 9.34
• (c) Too close to call

Question 5:  It's 2007.  Team G defeats Team H by a final score 1-0.  Goalie G faced 13 shots and earned the shut-out.  Goalie H faced 42 shots in a losing cause.  Which goalie likely had the better game?

Question 6:  It's 2007.  Team G plays Team H.   Team G wins 3-2.  Goalie G gives up 2 goals on 33 shots.  Goalie H gives up 3 goals on 42 shots.  Which goalie had the better game?

Question 7:  It's 2007.   Team I plays Team J.   Team I wins 3-2.   Each goalie faced 27 shots.  Each team had 5 power plays.  Team I scored 1 even-strength goal and 2 PP goals.  Team J scored 2 power play goals.   Which goalie likely had the better game?

• (a) Goalie I.  1 Win.  GAA = 2.00.  SV% = .926
• (b) Goalie J.  1 Loss. GAA = 3.00   SV% = .889
• (c) Too close to call without more info

Question 8:  It's 2007.   Team I plays Team J.   Team I wins 3-2.   The goalies each faced 27 shots in the game.  Team I had 14 power plays scoring on 2 of them (at about the half-way point of the PP each time).  Team J had 3 power plays with 0 PP goals.  Which goalie likely had the better game?

• (a) Goalie I.  1 Win.  GAA = 2.00.  SV% = .926
• (b) Goalie J.  1 Loss. GAA = 3.00   SV% = .889
• (c) Too close to call without more info

Question 9:  It's 2007.   Team I plays Team J in an wide-open offensive game.   After regulation, the teams are tied 6-6.  Each team had 4 PP goals and 2 EV goals.  The goalies each faced 56 shots in the game.  Each team had an even number of minutes on the power play, but goalie I faced 4 more even-strength shots.  Which goalie likely had the better game?

• (a) Goalie I.  1 Tie.  GAA = 6.00.  SV% = .890
• (b) Goalie J.  1 Tie. GAA = 6.00   SV% = .890
• (c) Too close to call without more info

Question 10: Who is the best goalie of all-time?

ANSWERS

Answer 1:  If you answered (a), deduct 1 pt.  It's not that simple.  Give yourself 2 pts if your answer was (c).   The first question you should be asking is "What YEAR(s) are we even discussing here?"   That puts the GAAs into relevant context.  Let's say Goalie A played last year (07-08).  Last year the AVERAGE goalie's GAA was 2.42.   Goalie A fell 13 points short of average.   Now let's say Goalie B's season was 1983-84 - a year the AVERAGE goalie has a GAA of 3.44.  So Goalie B was 28 points BETTER than average.  (By the way, Goalie A is Colorado's mediocre Peter Budaj from last year.  Goalie B is Pete Peeters, a 1984 all-star.  So fine, if you answered (b) give yourself one point.   On some level it was a 'trick'.)  Lesson 1: A GAA of 3.00 is not necessarily good or bad.   It depends how that GAA compares to the league average that season.   (It's similar to a pitcher's ERA.  *ERA+ is a more 'valid' stat.  When comparing goalies from different eras, you need to look at a goalie's *GAA+ stat.)

Answer 2:  If you answered (a), deduct 3 pts.  You aren't paying attention.  The answer again for 2 pts is (c). And yes, we are talking about the same goalies from question 1.   Peeters was three SV% points above the average (.873) in '84.   Budaj was 6 points below average (.911) in '07.    It's only a trick once - so if you guessed (b), deduct 1 point.  Lesson 2:  A SV% of .900 is not necessarily good or bad.  You must compare it to the league average.   When comparing different eras, you need to look at their *SV%+ stat.)

Answer 3:  You may have been tempted to answer (c) again.   If so, I'll give you one point this time (as it would be nice to know how many shots the goalies faced, how many powerplays, etc.).  But LIKELY, Goalie D had the better game.   In general, if you hold your opponent to 2 goal (win or lose), you more than did YOUR job.  If you answered (b), give yourself 2 pts.  If you answered (a), deduct 2 points.   A goalie has no real control over how many goals HIS team scores, so wins are not a very good judge of goalie performance.  Lesson 3:  Just like a MLB pitcher's wins, a goalie's wins are an overrated stat. 

Answer 4:  If you answered (c), deduct one point for being a fence-sitter.  If you answered (a), deduct 2 points.  Wins are overrated so we need to look at the other stats.   SV% is a better measure than GAA for evaluating goalie talent.   A 20 point difference is significant.  So if you answered (b), give yourself 2 points.  (By the way, Goalie E is Detroit's Chris Osgood.  Goalie F is Nashville's Dan Ellis.) Lesson 4:  SV% is a better measure of goalie talent than GAA. 

Answer 5:  No more cop-outs by answering (c).  If you did, deduct one point.  If you answered (a), also deduct one point.  Shut-outs are great for fantasy hockey, but if a goalie only faced 13 shots in a game (when the average shots per game is 27), he had a lot of help and likely faced virtually no quality shots at all.   The answer for 2 points is (b).  Goalie H faced 40 shots and only let in 1.  Either he has a poor defensive team in front of him that allows too many quality opportunities OR his team was on the penalty-kill all night which is the toughest time for a goalie.  Either way, to face 50% more shots than average and only give up 1 goal is fantastic.  Both goalies did their jobs.  Both goalies beat the league averages and expectations that night.  Goalie H's statistical snapshot is more 'valid' (representative of ACTUAL overall performance) given that he faced triple the number of shots (trials).  Lesson 5:  Stats such as GAA and SV% become increasingly valid measures the more trials we have to measure.  (A MLB batter who goes 2 for 5 in the first game of the season isn't going to hit .400 that year.  The more at-bats we see, the more 'valid' all the stats become.  After 40 ABs, we get a much better picture than after 13.) 

Answer 6: If you answered (c), give yourself 3 pts.  Especially since I chastized people for fence-sitting in the last two questions.    If you answered (a) or (b), deduct 1 point.  Each goalie seems to have played very well.  The faced more shots than average and still put up a SV% that is well above league average.  The Win/Loss and the GAA stat is not as important as the SV% stat.   A .929 SV% facing 42 shots in a night is pretty much as good as a .931 facing 33 shots.  So to know which goalie truly had the better game, you'd need more info such as the number of 'quality' shots each faced (on the penalty kill or otherwise). Lesson 6:  Unless one goalie has faced substantially more shots than the other, a 2 pt difference in SV% is probably meaningless.  (But in the case above, both faced more than average number of shots)

Answer 7: If you answered (a), give yourself 2 pts.  Overall shots in the game were even.   The number of powerplays and powerplay goals were even.  The difference is the number of even strength goals.  If you answered (c), deduct 2 points.  If you answered (b), deduct 3 pts.  Lesson 7:  SV% is one of the more 'valid' stats.  A 36 pt difference in this category is significant. 

Answer 8:  The tradtional stat lines for the goalies are exactly the same as in question 7.  This illustrates a problem with just looking at the traditional stats.  When a goalie is on the penalty kill, they usually face more shots AND tougher shots since the opponents can set up tic-tac-toe passes and have the extra man to pick up rebounds.   If you break down the average 2007 goalie's GAA by power-play, even-strength, and short-handed situation GAAs you get averages of PP-GAA (0.42), EV-GAA (2.10), SH-GAA (4.03) you get a MUCH better picture.  It is 85% easier to score on a goalie during a minute of power-play time than a minute of even-strength time.   In this game Goalie I's EV-GAA was actually 4.29 (TWICE as bad as average).  He gave up 2 goals but only had to play 28 minutes of even-strength.  Goalie J by contrast had an EV-GAA of 2.14 (about average) and a SH-GAA of 4.61 (only 15% worse than average).   Goalie J had the better game.  If you answered (b) give yourself 3 points.  If you answered (a), deduct 1 point.  If you answered (c), deduct 1 point for playing Switzerland again.  Lesson 8:  Situational stats often tell a better story than 'standard' stats.  PP-GAA, EV-GAA, SH-GAA give a much more accurate assesment of performance than just GAA.

Answer 9:  The stat lines seem even.  And the .890 SV% seems bad when you know that the average SV% in 2007 is .911.  So situational SV%s must be looked at.  The 2007 situational SV% averages are PP-SV% (.979), EV-SV% (.926), and SH-SV% (.847).  Goalie J was actually BETTER than league average in both EV-SV% and SH-SV%.  Goalie I was below average on SH-SV%.  If you answered (b), give yourself 2 points.  If you answered (c), deduct 1 point.  If you answered (a), deduct 2 points.  Lesson 9:  PP-SV%, EV-SV%, SH-SV% give a much more accurate assesment of performance than just overall SV%.  A goalie faces his toughest task when his team is short-handed. 

Answer 10:  If you answered (d) or (e), deduct 15 points.  If you answered anything else, give youself 5 points as long as you at least thought for a few seconds before you answered.  Lesson 10:  When throwing around stats try to think about exactly what they are measuring.  Don't fall prey to the glamour-stats like Wins and shut-outs when ranking goalies.  Don't blindly compare GAAs or SV%s across different eras.   Know what each stat actually means.  Know what the actual league averages are so that you have a valid baseline for comparison.  Learn the stats that better define actual performance (*SV%+, *GAA+, EV-SV%, SH-SV%, EV-GAA, SH-GAA). 

How did you do?

• -30:  The average hockey puck has a higher IQ than you do
• -29 to -15: Still skating on thin ice on a half-frozen lake
• -14 to -5:  Ready for Peewee hockey practice
• -4 to +5:  Ready for Junior League
• +6 to +10:  Ready to play pro hockey...in Russia
• +11 to +15: Ready for the NHL regular season
• +16 to +20: Ready for the NHL playoffs!
• +21 to +24: Going to the NHL Finals!
• +25: Your name will be engraved on the Stanley Cup!