GP | W | L | OTL | Min | GAA | Sv% | |
2013 - Anton Khudobin | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 803 | 2.32 | 0.920 |
Anton Khudobin played in 14 NHL games this season. With him in net, the team went 9-4-1. That is not too shabby. Although he played in less than a third of the team's games, his work was enough to spell Tuukka Rask so Rask could save the heavy-duty work for the playoffs, and in that, Khudobin was largely successful.
Regular Season
Anton Khudobin had a 0.946 SV% in 4-on-5 situations... that's absurd and not happening ever again
— Jeff Veillette (@Jeffler) July 14, 2013
Furthermore, the Bruins scored as many SHG with Khudobin on the ice as they allowed PPG. What an abnormality
— Jeff Veillette (@Jeffler) July 14, 2013
Our buddy Jeffler made this observation a few days ago, and it's a fun one, if totally anomalous. We can't really make judgements on Khudobin's ability based on this, it's really more a judgement of the Bruins' PK - and the fact that it went on that ridiculous stretch of allowing exactly zero PPG. Khudobin was obviously a part of that during the games he played, but he wasn't the sole reason. Anyway, it's a fun stat.
When Khudobin came on the scene at the beginning of this year, he was a relative unknown - a piece acquired two seasons prior from the Minnesota Wild in return for Jeff Penner and Mikko Lehtonen, relative unknowns themselves. At the start of the non-season (thanks, lockout!) he began in the KHL, playing for Atlant Moscow Oblast. He started in 26 games, only 6 of which his team won, all while posting a 2.96 GAA and 0.912 sv%. What we can conclude from his KHL time: he was a serviceable goalie on a really bad team. (Oddly enough, they won half of their remaining games (13/26) and squeaked into the KHL playoffs as the 8 seed in the West, but I digress.)
Put behind a team as good as the Bruins? His numbers improved slightly, his W-L-OTL record improved dramatically. And, given that Boston and Carolina scored at the same exact rate last year (2.65 goals/game), he could see similar success with the Hurricanes if he puts up even his KHL-level numbers. Maybe. Sorta. If Carolina's defense isn't a steaming pile of you know what.
As far as fancystats goes, since I know you all love those: Of goalies with more than 10GP last season, Khudobin ranked 30th in goals allowed/60 in 5v5 situations - 2.35/60mins - right behind Jonathan Quick (2.34/60) and right ahead of Johan Hedberg and Roberto Luongo (2.36 and 2.37, respectively.) Combined with Tuukka Rask, Boston's goalies accounted for a 5v5 0.928 sv% all season - good for fourth best in the league behind Ottawa, Detroit, and the Rangers. If you are interested in more on goalie stats, check this cool thing that Kurt from BSH wrote. You can still see that AK35 is in the top chunk of the league in his breakdown, as well.
Playoffs:
ANTON WAS THE BEST DANG PLAYOFFS BENCH DOOR-OPENER ANYONE COULD ASK FOR, AND IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE YOU ARE W-R-O-N-G WRONG WRONG WRONG
Conclusion: A-
A-. Khudobin wasn't asked to be the starter; he was asked to take a minimal workload and not fuck it up too badly. Compared to other backup goalies leaguewide, and considering he took 19/28 total points out of the games he played, I'd say that exceeded expectations for Khudobin's first year in the league, and for that he gets an A-.