Best Goaltending Season Ever?

With a week and a half to go in the 2011/12 NHL season, there are now five goaltenders with Goals Against Averages under 2.00. All five of these have played enough games to qualify for the league lead although it's goin to be near impossible to catch Brian Elliott's 1.48 average. The other four goalies are Jaro Halak 1.90, Henrik Lundqvist 1.93, Jonathan Quick 1.93 and Cory Schneider 1.97. How rare is it that five guys are under 2.00? In a word extremely.

It almost happened in 1998/99 when four goalies (Tugnutt, Hasek, Belfour and Dafoe) were under 2.00 and Roman Turek at 2.08 came close.  However, you have to go all the way back to 1930/31 to find a year with five back-stops under 2.00.

81 years ago, Roy Worters topped the NHL at 1.61, Charlie Gardiner was at 1.73, John Ross Roach had a 1.89 average, George Hainsworth was 1.95 and Tiny Thompson 1.98. All are in the Hall of Fame except Roach.


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