New York Islanders Thomas Greiss Gets All-Star Love
The staff over at the NHL HQ voted for the remainder of the All-Star squad after the Divisional Captains were named on January 2nd. The Isles lone representative is an obvious choice, but our new/old number one got some love in the voting.
In this year’s NHL All-Star game the New York Islanders will be represented by the one-and-only John Tavares. We all knew that’s who the NHL would pick for us. But when the NHL released the list of players that were voted in by the NHL themselves it was a nice surprise to see Thomas Greiss get some love.
We all knew John Tavares was going right? It’s almost a guarantee. All-Star game = John Tavares nod for the Islanders. Although, I’ve got time for someone who wants to make the case for Josh Bailey deserving a nod.
Tavares has been his fantastic self. But Bailey’s been putting on a quite a performance this season. Is Bailey an “All-Star” in terms of the league. Nope. Not at all. In the little microcosm that is the world of the New York Islanders he just might be.
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On Greiss
Outside of a valiant effort by some Isles fans to get Jean-Francois Berube some playing time by creating a John Scott like frenzy with fan voting, Tavares was going to be named and that’s that.
So when you see Tavares’ name listed amongst the 13 players representing the Metropolitan division you nod and think that’s the last time you’ll see the words “New York Islanders” listed. Till you get to the goalies and see Thomas Greiss received a portion of the votes.
Greiss, along with Cam Ward and Cory Schneider were the other three to get votes outside of the top two of Bobrovsky and Holtby. No surprise there. Bobrovsky is putting up another Vezina candidate season with the Blue Jackets, and Holtby’s just being Holtby.
We know Greiss has been good for the Isles, even before he got the crease full-time after Jaroslav Halak was waived. Hearing from the NHL is fantastic.
Further to that. If the Isles had made this decision earlier in the season Greiss might have gotten the nod. Because based on just a cursory look at the stats for the aforementioned goalies Greiss is right at the top.
How He Might Have Made It
I’m not going to consider Sergei Bobrovski in this. His performances for Columbus have been lights out. His 25 wins in 33 starts are untouchable at this point.
But of the other four (Holtby, Ward, Schneider, and Greiss) our new/old number one keeper stands out.
| GP | GS | W | L | OTL | SV% | GAA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braden Holtby | 31 | 31 | 18 | 8 | 4 | .931 | 1.93 |
| Cam Ward | 33 | 33 | 14 | 12 | 6 | .915 | 2.27 |
| Cory Schneider | 31 | 31 | 12 | 13 | 6 | .908 | 2.78 |
| Thomas Greiss | 17 | 16 | 9 | 5 | 2 | .927 | 2.31 |
The only factor keeping Greiss back is his games played. With just over half the body of work that the others on the list have it’s immediately hard to make the case for him.
But, assuming he gets the same number of starts that the other have on this list and Greiss’ number probably stand out even more.
His 0.927 is already second on the list after Holtby’s (it’s even better than Bobrovsky’s .903). His 2.31 GAA would certainly go down a touch with a bigger body of work. In his last five starts, he has a 1.6 GAA.
Greiss is better than the others on this list. He isn’t winning games, but you can’t pin those losses on him. The team in front of him just isn’t scoring enough. Two goals in two games against the worst opposition in the league just wont cut it. Had the Isles given him the crease soon who knows, we might be looking at an All-Star. Heck, maybe even the potential for playoff hockey.
