Nabokov On Pace For 71 Starts

Maybe play a little bit less, but I think Nabby needs to stay sharp and get a lot of games. Nabby’s currently on a role and I think it’s due to the fact that he’s been getting consistent playing time.

It will be like having a new meaner goalie that we’ve never seen before.

If Nabby feels like he needs to get a lot of time on the ice so he can be confident in himself then I think he should, though he should not push himself just to ‘test his limits’. I’d like to see Greisser play more so we as fans and the coaching staff can kinda gauge where he’s at perhaps build his confidence in case…ya know..i’m not going to say it. 71 games is a lot though.

Not only for Nabby to get rest, but to see if he is a valid option in goal in the coming years.

I’m fine with the amount of games Nabokov is playing as far as HE is concerned. He’s Russian and they don’t get tired, saw it on Oprah. Nabokov has been so good of late, you almost can’t help but put him in net each night. At the same time I’d like to see what Spazzy McFlinchpants is capable of for a few games. So enough riding the fence. Put Griess in against the Hawks and let him roll out a couple of games in a row before the Olympic break.

i say give him a break before the playoffs start. maybe during the last 15 or so games, alternate nabby and greiss, that way he gets some starts in to keep him from getting rusty and he gets some rest.

Then I stopped caring. He’s been playing great and to be honest, I don’t even see why he should be “rested.”

I’ve never been a goaltender, I’ve never even played ice hockey, so I can’t really say how much stress it puts on a player, but Nabakov seems to be handling it and maybe having a lot of starts is a good thing for him. It will keep him on his game. I don’t know.

I trust Nabby, I think he’s gonna get sh*t done.

The two years that Nabby has had very good playoff seasons was when he played less than 60 games each year..

He is having his best year now and he has been playing great, but with the pressure of the olympics and then end of the season and playoffs, if he doesn’t get rest and then bombs in the playoffs again(remember the deadly five hole last year), where does it leave this franchise??

They already have all of this negatve scar tissue from past failures and now the press all over north america is on their case about being the biggest playoff chokers ever..

DW and Coach are setting themselves up for serious second guessing from every hockey corner of the world if Nabby and the Sharks do another playoff face plant..

PLAY GREISS IN AT LEAST HALF OF THE GAMES AFTER THE OLMYPICS END, PLEASE!!!

I was concerned about this, but my girlfriend is trying to be zen about it. She’s hasn’t been a hockey fan for too long and she asked me, “Does it matter how many games he starts in the regular season if we win the Cup?”
Similar to what everybody did when the Colts threw the last 2 games of the regular season, I’ll reserve judgement on whether Nabby had too many starts when the playoffs are over.

I would have been concerned if he looked like he did when Sharks had Toskala…Seemed like there was an attitude/ego/confidence thing happening…and frankly he looks great now.

If the forwards show, sharks win in the playoffs. Captain Marleau aside, the rest need to make a splash and support Nabby, not hang him out to dry.

Yes. Captain.

he is the best leader they have on the ice. and has been, and still is. so there.

go sharks.

I really don’t think Nabokov getting a few more days off will make that big of a difference for the Sharks in the end. The Sharks will live and die by Nabby in the playoffs, and if it makes him more comfortable to start this number of games, so be it.

By the way, Brodeur Is A Fraud is one of my favorite sites.

“Does it matter how many games he starts in the regular season if we win the Cup?"

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Continuing on the above Colts reference, I understand it’s hard not to run a horse when he’s been as good as Nabby has shown us this whole year, but all of these games are for the regular season. I’m sure we don’t need the 2 banners hanging in HP Pavilion to remind us all that Regular Season Champ is a poor consolation prize for a deep cup run. It’s like that horse-racing game they used to have at Wonderpark, you don’t keep whipping it in the beginning because you’re gonna have nothing left for the final stretch.
He needs to rest more for the time when they’ll need him the most in the months-that-shall-not-be-named as so been eloquently stated here in the past. Especially considering that he’s expected to play for a gold medal contender, that’s just that much more starts that don’t count for SJ in the long run. He’s got plenty of starts in already, he’s definitely still going to see more in Vancouver and after the break, AND he will start every playoff game anyway. Throw Greiss in there – it’s not as if the Sharks throw in the towel every time he starts – he’s shown that he can play from the small sample we’ve seen, and has arguably kept the team in the game in some of his starts.

I say “Too many,” rest him more, final answer.

I’m less worried about Nabby’s workload, and more worried about Greiss’s lack of a workload. He needs NHL experience. Nabby won’t be around forever (and hell, he may not even be aorund next year), and we’ll need someone who’s ready to step between the pipes when he finally does take off for newer pastures.

I’d be ok with starting Nabby for a stretch the week or two right before the playoffs…let him get in a groove. But before that, Greiss needs more starts. Now, we’re running out of games in which to get him starts and still get Nabby in a groove, but thats what happens when you don’t plan ahead.

And who knows, maybe McLellan is a goaltending workload mastermind, and Nabby will throw up Zeroes in the playoffs.

Why should we believe that McClellan is deciding who starts in net, when Nabby is obviously calling the shots again! He’s about 34 and will have to be amazing in the playoffs, right? So why or how does it benefit SJ to have him overworked come playoff time? Isn’t this what has happened in the past, whereby he’s gone into the playoffs tired? I know he wants to win the MVP for best goalie, but the playoffs s/b way more important in McClellan’s mind. Greiss could use the work and experience, although not tomorrow night.

As a goalie myself, heir to all the slings and arrows of outrageous madness and ritual that goalies as a group collectively are, I say let him start ’em. 65-70 games seems about right.

I have to applaud you, by the way, for avoiding using GAA as a metric for evaluating gpaltenders, as it’s mostly a team defense stat.

Success in the position goaltending is 98.5% a mental state. Nabby, as much as I love him, plays a somewhat inefficient style as compared to your average butterfly-dominant goaltender. His style is mostly athletic and reflexive, (more reminescient of Kipper or Brodeur, than say your purely positional Huet or Giguere/Hiller) but the main hallmark of Nabokov’s game has always been confidence. How many times have we seen him 4-6 feet out of the crease challenging a shooter?

That confidence in net, at least for Nabby, has been a function of his status of being an ironman – more workhorse than stallion. I feel like it’s telling that Doug Wilson decided to trade defensive depth (Erhoff and Lukowich, and to a lesser extent Michalek) for Heatley, who is not by most accounts a great two-way player, as well as not signing a veteran backup in maybe a Biron or any of the other NHL goalies capable of starting 30 games or so.

This is, by my reasoning, Nabby’s last year in teal, and I think as long as his body stays healthy, Nabby feels like he could start all 82 plus the Olympic and still be playing a career year. There is life after Nabokov, and even if we do hit a bump in the months that shall not be named, we will be rebuilding more in the mode of the Red Wings who have traditionally had playoff success with mediocre to bad goalies.

Always remember, the difference between the worst goalies and the best averages to one goal every game. I wish I could work some stats into this, but I’m posting from an iPhone in philosophy.

Go Sharks.

Some of the past playoff teams with overworked goalies did not fare well, but I would question whether some of those were marginal playoff teams riding their goalie into the playoffs (a la Irbe).
Nabby seems to be the workhorse because he wants to be, not because the team has no other choice. All our eggs are in one basket, so we better pray he stays healthy, but I’m not worried about his abilities.

From yesterday’s DP article re: Time Management of Olympians

One Olympian who isn’t likely to see much reduction in playing time is goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who has competed in 45 of the Sharks’ 53 games.

“For Nabby not to skate Sunday and for Nabby to have the day off Monday, that’s all Nabby needs,” McLellan said of this week’s schedule. "In the long run, it could come back and people could say ‘Why didn’t they rest him more?’ But right now this is what we’re doing.

“Last year we cut him back, and we didn’t get what we wanted, so we’re not going that route again,” the coach added. “We’re trying something different.”

I will defer to TMac’s judgment – there’s a reason he’s the coach – but I respectfully submit my…

We all think Nabby will start at the Olympics, yet nowhere have I read any indication of that from people that matter the most – Coach Bykov and GM Tretiak. I’ll venture to say that Bryzgalov is good enough this season that if Nabby has an off game (like Bryzgalov did when Russia lost to Slovakia four years ago), he won’t hesitate for bench him in favor of Bryzgalov.

What happens if Nabby gets hurt(it is a physical game) and can’t play in the playoffs?? Wouldn’t it be nice if Greiss had some experience playing a few games in a row, so the team could learn how he plays and he could learn about how his teammates play..

You can learn only so much in practice..

Most of them have a reduced number of starts because they were injured at some point during the year, not a result of a coaching decision to “save” them for the playoffs.

Every other playoff contending team this year with an outright #1 netminder (who also has been healthy all year) has played their goalie virtually just as much as Nabby.

If he’s healthy, let him play as much as he wants. Now you might be saying, lets rest him more so that he DOESNT get hurt, but as anyone who’s played competitive sports can tell you, playing to prevent injury almost always results in one.

I’m also not worried about the “grueling” Olympic schedule. Even IF Nabby plays EVERY game for Russia (which I doubt) at MOST its 7-8 games over 2 weeks. Heck, the Sharks have tougher stretches than that in the reg season. On top of that, I assure you some of the opponents Team Russia faces in the Olympics will be so overmatched that Nabby could take a lounge chair out to the crease and have a cocktail all game.

In fact, I would venture to say that I’m GLAD Nabby gets to continue to play world-class competition for those two weeks and stays on top of his game, whereas non-Olympian goalies will be at home on the couch for a 2 week vacation.