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Did the Tampa Bay Lightning Give Evgeni Nabokov A Fair Shot?

By Dan Herrejon

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Dec 11, 2014; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Evgeni Nabokov (20) makes a save against the Carolina Hurricanes during the first period at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Written by Tasha St. Pierre

This is a very difficult question to answer as I see things from many different aspects. Was Evgeni Nabokov given a fair shot here by the Tampa Bay Lightning? If I had to choose one or the other, I would say probably not.

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Evgeni Nabokov was brought here for two reasons; 1) The Lightning needed a backup goaltender that they could depend on in the event that something horrible were to happen to Ben Bishop, and 2) Because the team needed someone who could allow Bishop to sit every once in a while and recharge his batteries.

Unfortunately, when push came to shove, Nabokov just wasn’t able to pull the trigger and get the job done. Does this make him a bad goaltender? Absolutely not, Evgeni Nabokov is far from a bad goaltender.

As I have mentioned before, Evgeni Nabokov holds nearly every goaltending record for the San Jose Sharks franchise; including, games played (563), wins (293), saves (13,463), save percentage (.912), and shutouts (50).

Unfortunately, in the eleven games he played with the Lightning this season, Nabokov was only able to convert for a win in three encounters, leaving six games to losses and two games to overtime losses.

The thirty nine year old Kazakh goaltender maintained a Goals Allowed Average of 3.15 and a Save Percentage of .882 while he was still in Lightning blue. These are not exactly the kind of numbers that you write home about; however, how indicative is this of his ability and how much of this lies on the shoulders of the rest of the team?

Five of the eleven games that Nabokov played in were on the back half of a back-to-back series; some of which had two back-to-back games in the same week. In each of these games, the players in front of the net were just as responsible, if not more so, than the player between the pipes.

Four of the eleven games were made in the front half of a back-to-back series. These encounters played out much the same as the ones that came on the back half of the back-to-back series. The players in front of the ice were not only sluggish, which comes with good reason based on the amount of back-to-backs the Lightning have played this season, but they were making rookie mistakes that ended up costing them big.

On the other hand, the goaltender is ultimately the last line of defense between the puck and the back of the net. While I am never one to jump on the “blame the goaltender” bandwagon, there is a certain amount of personal responsibility that comes into play when it comes to making the save.

The unfortunate thing here is that hockey is so much more than a sport. Hockey is also a business, and sometimes in business difficult decisions need to be made. If the Tampa Bay Lightning wants to continue to win games and maintain the position atop the Eastern Conference, then they need a solid backup for Bishop that can help alleviate some of the pressure and not burn him out before the post season even begins.

When it comes to his time here in Tampa Bay, there is a good possibility that Nabokov was given the short end of the stick. Should Nabokov have the ability to close out games and make things happen in those tough situations? Yeah, he probably should have; however, given the circumstances he was presented with, I almost feel as if he put his best foot forward and in most cases had it lobbed off by the players on the ice in front of him.

The one good thing to come out of this is that the trade has allowed Nabokov to officially end his National Hockey League career in the place that not only gave him his start in the NHL, but where he spent ten successful seasons.

When all is said and done, Nabokov will more than likely have his jersey retired by the Sharks organization at some point and time and his legacy will remain one of the solid, game-winning goaltender that he was for so many years in San Jose.

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