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Dallas Stars Daily Links: Ondrej Pavelec Gets Hot at the Worst Time

I didn’t link to this article the other day when it came out, but man oh man is it applicable after last night. Let’s just dump it here and we’ll get to the less painful stuff:

But while all goalies are inconsistent to some degree, there are some that take their inconsistencies to an entirely different level of frustration. And that is what I wanted to look at here: Which goalies are the most maddening in the league — the guys that more often than not steal a game for their team or give them no chance, with no middle ground.

The NHL’s most volatile goalies: 2014-15 Regular Season
Player Total Starts Great Starts No Chance Starts Volatile Starts Volatile Start Percentage Great Start Percentage No Chance Percentage
Ondrej Pavelec 22 8 9 17 77.2 36.3 40.9
Braden Holtby 32 13 10 23 71.8 40.6 31.2
Ryan Miller 27 9 10 19 70.3 33.3 37.4
Sergei Bobrovsky 23 8 8 16 69.5 34.7 34.7
Marc-Andre Fleury 29 12 8 20 68.9 41.3 27.5
Jonathan Quick 30 8 12 20 66.7 26.7 40.0
Jonathan Bernier 26 11 6 17 65.3 42.3 23.0
Cory Schneider 34 13 8 21 61.7 38.2 23.5
Steve Mason 26 7 9 16 61.5 26.9 34.6
Semyon Varlamov 20 5 7 12 60.0 25.0 35.0

Ondrej Pavelec, ladies and gentlemen: The most maddening goalie in the NHL. Just look at that guy. He is incredible. A nonstop human highlight reel. For both teams.

Pavelec is amazing here because so many of his starts are either a spectacular work of art or a complete dumpster fire, and most of his career is exactly like this (though not quite to this extreme).

[CBS Sports]

There’s more stuff in that article about the least volatile goalies and blah blah blah, but good gracious me, why did Hyper Pavelec have to show up last night? Oh, that’s right, because this is the year that hockey is scientifically extracting tears from Dallas Stars fans drop by precious drop in a concerted effort to establish the heartbreak tolerance of sports fans through the cruelest means imaginable. Hockey and science are the worst. They’re like the opposite of peanut butter and chocolate.

(Yeah, I know; it also would have been nice if the Stars could have actually hit the net even more than they did, and the power play really needs to get it done when nothing else is working. Yeah, we know all that. But last night, Pavelec was clearly doing something stupid and magical. I hope I never see that again.)

* * * * *

For today, why don’t you all tell me about your least favorite link that I’ve ever put here. I hope you have enough passion about links to give me at least one hundred examples.

I don’t want to talk about the game any more. [Stars]

Power Rankings are basically like crack for sports fans. Wait, no, that’s a bad analogy for the kids (also everyone). How about Power Rankings are like the Facebook app on your phone? You’ll check it every chance you get even though you know there’s very little there worth looking at. Yeah, let’s go with that. Anyway, the Stars are ranked right behind the Sharks! You would usually think that is a good thing! [SportsNet]

Razor is one of four hockey people answering questions about the NHL for Justin Bourne. Mr. Reaugh is not enamored with Leafs speculation, to put it mildly. [The Score]

Another Dallas Stars report card? Don’t worry, this one grades the Defense, Offense and Goaltending as units. No need to get all worked up over the Travis Moen C- this time around! [Along the Boards]

Pekka Rinne will miss the next 3-5 weeks with a sprained knee. [Tennessean]

The Jets are actually for real, really, says Mirtle. [Globe and Mail]

If you think the Wild just needed a new goalie, well, you might be right. But then again, it was Buffalo, so a 7-0 victory is really more like a 3-2 OT loss against a good team. Dubnyk with the shutout in his Minny debut. [Hockey Wilderness]

“What’s the deal with the Pacific Division?” Jerry Seinfeld, probably. This time, actually, it’s Sean McIndoe. But he probably says that with the JS voice. [Grantland]

Ilya Bryzgalov talks about things. That alone merits a click, but let me just tell you that he talks about the state of the Russian economy. For the record, though, I think this is a bit of a patronizing article. [Toronto Star]

Logan Couture wrote a cool little piece with a buncha GIFs that talks about what makes the great centers special. I recommend that you read this. [Players Tribune]

The formerly indignant Brad Marchand kind of totally slew-footed Derick Brassard last night. No penalty on this play, of course. [Puck Daddy]

Toronto needs to just start over, say people in Canada. [SportsNet]

What kind of a record generally presages a coach’s firing? Related: the Stars have never fired a coach mid-season unless I’m forgetting someone like Ken Hitchcock. [Another Stupid Penalty]

Are you psyched up about the NHL All-Star game, no, you are not (good), but how about the Skills Challenge thing? Yeah, I thought you might like that. [Sporting News]

Finally, Pavel Datsyuk scored the OT winner with 2.3 seconds remaining to salvage a game in which Detroit blew a two-goal lead in the third period:

Talking Points