Thank you Deron!  I knew that there had to more to this than goals scored
vs. goalie!  I figured that there must have been some mysticism involved
with this curse!  :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: The Maine Hockey Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Deron Treadwell
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 10:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The curse of Jimmy Howard

In 2003 Frank had 5 more wins than Jimmy, and 4 of those were earned against
the likes of Dartmouth, Vermont, Merrimack and Sacred Heart over Christmas
when Jimmy was hurt/on the junior team.

The "Frank Doyle offensive machine" also managed to lose to Notre Dame 4-2
and to Ohio State 1-0 during that same stretch.  Jimmy Howard wasn't even on
the team and they didn't pop in the goals.  This speaks to a basic level of
inconsistency which is more the problem than some mystical Jimmy Howard
curse on the offense.

Jimmy stepped out of the rotation and into a solo role in the NCAA's.  As
you correctly point out, Maine came back against Harvard with Frank in net,
but Jimmy played Wisconsin, BC and Denver, which is much more difficult
competition than the competition Frank played during Jimmy's absense.  Jimmy
won 2 of those games, lost 1 and no decision in the Harvard game.

I ran my own numbers.  Maine scored 2.27 gpg with Jimmy and 3.91 with Frank,
which is similar to what you were saying.  However, the numbers bear out
that Jimmy played more difficult competition.  The average number of wins a
team Jimmy faced was 17.455, while Frank's competition averaged 16.217 wins.

As is so often the case with stats, they are just food for banter.  Yeah,
the team scored more goals for Frank, but it was against lesser competition.

I think I feel the need to defend Jimmy Howard constantly because I don't
think you can ask for anymore from a guy who set the NCAA single-season
Goals Against Average record last year with a 1.19 GAA.  I know you
constantly say that you are not blaming him, but I just can't help defending
the guy.  He is doing his job and Matt Lundin also looks very promising.

-Deron