The Florida Panthers are coming off of back-to-back 1-0 victories, beating the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum on Sunday and the Bruins in Boston on Tuesday. This marks the first time in NHL history that a team has posted consecutive 1-0 wins, both on the road.Surprisingly, Florida chose to start back up goalie Craig Anderson over regular Tomas Vokoun to accomplish this feat. Anderson set an NHL record on Sunday by making 53 saves in a shutout versus the Islanders, the most saves by any goalie earning a shutout. He followed that with a 40-save shutout last night in Boston. Anderson thus set another NHL record by facing 93 shots over a two-game span without allowing a goal. The old mark was held by Dominik Hasek, who faced 75 shots over consecutive games without allowing a goal in December 1997.
Anderson's feat is pretty impressive, especially given that he is a career back up. In many ways he represents the fact that quality of NHL goaltending has never been better in history. Guys like Anderson, Brian Boucher, Patrick Lalime, Roman Cechmanek and Antero Niitymaki can show moments of brilliance and be gone and forgotten just as quick.
This is a results oriented business, and once a goalie slips up even a little, there are many other goalies who can step into the crease.
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