Thread: Facts on the Fly: Lockout Edition 12/6/2012

Originally Posted by 05/29/93

The Kings having the worst GAA of any Cup finalist is hardly a shock. Defense was not that team's strength, to put it mildly.

For whatever reason, I was surprised about it (or at least surprised to see how bad the team was). I got into hockey and the Kings a couple seasons earlier and always had it in my head that Hrudey was a really good goalie. Maybe it was just that he made a few flashy saves and I was still learning the game. There was a good reason why Jim Rome referred to the Kings defense of the time as "the escort service."

Anyway...

Originally Posted by 05/29/93

Best GAA, well, west of the Mississippi helps narrow things down alot. My guess: 2000 Stars.

You're getting closer. Both of the 2000 finalists were very high on the list. Dallas was #8 with 31 goals allowed in 17 games for an average of 1.8235, and Jersey was #6 with 30 goals allowed in 17 games for an average of 1.7647. In fact, the three New Jersey Cup winners were 4th (03), 5th (95) and 6th (00) on the list.

Originally Posted by jammer06

well at least my best was better than my worst, please don't let it be the ducks

Was that an actual guess, jammer? . . .

Originally Posted by pg1067

Was that an actual guess, jammer? . . .

I forgot how they absolutely strangled the wild in the western finals, 1 ****ing goal

Originally Posted by jammer06

I forgot how they absolutely strangled the wild in the western finals, 1 ****ing goal

I had also. The 2003 version of that other team allowed only a single goal in a 4 game sweep of the Wild, which capped off a 14 game trip to the SCF -- which also included a sweep of defending champs Detroit -- with only 21 goals allowed for a 1.50 average goals allowed per game. As we all know, it took the 2012 Kings the same number of games to reach the SCF, during which the Kings allowed 22 goals.

For anyone interested, here's the top 10 (ignore the use of "GAA," which isn't technically accurate, and sorry that I couldn't get the formatting to make it not all smushed together):

YEAR TEAM GA GP GAA
2003 Anaheim 21 14 1.5000
2012 Los Angeles 22 14 1.5714
2002 Carolina 29 18 1.6111
2003 New Jersey 29 17 1.7059
1995 New Jersey 28 16 1.7500
2000 New Jersey 30 17 1.7647
2004 Tampa Bay 29 16 1.8125
2000 Dallas 31 17 1.8235
1998 Washington 31 17 1.8235

So had I. Isn't that interesting that the best and worst GAA's since 1980 among Cup finalists both came from Southern California.