Capitals making the right move starting Philipp Grubauer in Game 1
By Tre LyDay
Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby is a former Vezina Tropy winner and led the Capitals to back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies. But he has to take a back seat to Philipp Grubauer…at least for one game.
The Washington Capitals were a new-look team this season. They lost some of their guys from last season’s team, whether it was from the expansion draft or free agency (Karl Alzner, Justin Williams, Marcus Johansson).
The Caps were going to have to find different ways to win games — that much was certain.
One of the ways the Caps would have wanted to win games would have beeen for Braden Holtby to be the outstanding goalie he’s been for the last couple years. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been his usual self all season, and now his backup, Philipp Grubauer, is getting the nod in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It’s really a no brainer.
Holtby isn’t being benched, per se. Head coach Barry Trotz said the starter will be named on a game-by-game basis.
Trotz said Grubauer is the starter for Game 1 and the decision will be game by game after that.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) April 10, 2018
The simple fact of the matter is that Grubauer has been on fire lately. Due to injuries to Holtby, and Grubauer’s excellent goaltending, Grubauer started 10 of the Caps’ last 16 games.
In those games, he posted a 7-3 record with a 2.31 goals allowed average and a .925 save percentage. That includes a 36-save performance in a 3-1 victory against the Penguins, against whom Holtby has notoriously struggled.
If you want an even bigger sample size, we can go all the way back to Nov. 1. Since then, Grubauer has posted a league-best .932 save percentage and 2.06 goals allowed average. Grubauer has been nothing short of spectacular, especially given Holtby’s up and down play.
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The Caps have the expectation to win the Stanley Cup, but they’ll have to get past the Penguins, which they can never seem to do. Should they get past Columbus in the first round, maybe Phillipp Grubauer is the missing link to getting to the conference finals.
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