Goalies on the Hot Seat: Blues

Continuing a feature we’re going to look at frequently this year, which goalies are getting the majority of starts and who’s job is in jeopardy? Green means the goalie’s job appears safe, yellow would mean they are yielding more starts to their competitor than normal, red means the starting job appears to be more dependent on performance or a rotation.

Here’s what we know:

Chris Mason – 9-10-4 in 23 starts, 2.58 GAA, .911 SV%, 67% owned

Ty Conklin – 6-4-1 in 11 starts, 2.27 GAA, .932 SV%, 2 SO, 28% owned

At the beginning of the season, Andy Murray assured poolies that Chris Mason was the team’s starter and Ty Conklin was only brought in as an insurance policy to help Mason handle a full workload.  Conklin comes highly regarded after having a career year in Detroit last season but nobody was sure if he could handle a full starter’s workload.  Much of that criticism is going Mason’s way now as he only started a career-high 51 games last season and there’s doubt if he can handle a full workload.  Speculation is that these goalies could platoon for the remainder of the season if the wins keep coming.

After only starting 2 games in November, Conklin has started 5 games this month and 4 of the last 6 games for the Blues, going 2-2 with a 2.29 GAA and a SO during that stretch.  Mason, on the other hand, is 1-1 with a 4.05 GAA during the same stretch.  In fact, Mason hasn’t allowed less than 3 goals in 6 consecutive starts, not boding well for him.

Andy Murray backed up Conklin’s excellent 3-1 win in Vancouver last night with the following:

“I know we haven’t provided them with the offense on most nights and tonight he was good and we found a way to, you know, when you get three goals on the road, you should win, that’s the way to look at it.” ~ Morning Skate

The main point is that the Blues are getting a better chance to win with Conklin in net of late and while Murray might not come out and say it, Conklin should see a good share of starts going forward despite Mason still being the “number 1 goalie”.  If you need a good spot starter to offset a Steve Mason or Ray Emery, Ty Conklin should be your guy.