Breaking down the Round 3 goaltending matchups in 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs

Credit: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

And then, there were four.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are moving along with three of the four divisional winners advancing to their respective conference finals. That’s a rarity, but it’s always nice to see that the teams that looked the best in the regular season didn’t fizzle out when the game started to truly matter.

There’s some legitimate star power in the crease going forward. Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky and New York’s Igor Shesterkin are Vezina Trophy winners, while Dallas’ Jake Oettinger should be in the conversation for at least the next decade. The big wild card is Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner, but when the Oilers needed him to shine to force Game 7 and eventually eliminate Vancouver, he did just that.

Here’s a look at how the goaltending situations shape up for the four teams vying for a spot to fight for Lord Stanley’s mug:

FLORIDA PANTHERS vs NEW YORK RANGERS

Florida Panthers

Sergei Bobrovsky
2023-24 regular season: 36-17-4, 2.37 GAA, .915 SV%, 6 shutouts
Career playoffs: 37-38, 2.94 GAA, .905 SV%, 1 shutout
2024 playoffs: 8-3, 2.37 GAA, .902 SV%

Anthony Stolarz
2023-24 regular season: 16-7-2, 2.03 GAA, .925 SV%, 2 shutouts
Career playoffs: N/A

New York Rangers

Igor Shesterkin
2023-24 regular season: 36-17-2, 2.58 GAA, .913 SV%, 4 shutouts
Career playoffs: 21-16, 2.43 GAA, .927 SV%, 0 shutouts
2024 playoffs: 8-2, 2.40 GAA, .923 SV%, 0 shutouts

Jonathan Quick
2023-24 regular season: 18-6-2, 2.62 GAA, .911 SV%, 2 shutouts
Career playoffs: 49-43, 2.31 GAA, .921 SV%, 10 shutouts

Louis Domingue
2023-24 regular season: 1-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .962 SV%, 0 shutouts
Career playoffs: 3-3, 3.45 GAA, .902 SV%, 0 shutouts

The top two teams in the Eastern Conference. You love to see it.

Goaltending hasn’t been too much of a hot topic for either of these teams. When you’ve got the depth they have, you expect tight games, and both teams have goaltenders who know how to handle the pressure.

For Florida, Bobrovsky had to be lights out against Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins. Statistically, it was a bit of a struggle for the veteran, who had a .903 SV% and -1.16 GSAA at 5-on-5 through six games, putting him near the bottom of the league in that span. That’s especially crazy given Bobrovsky only allowed more than two goals once in six games – but he also never faced 30 shots in a game, helping to skew the numbers.

Bobrovsky’s playoff even-strength SV% of .916 and GSAA of 0.36 is near the bottom of all goaltenders that made it to at least the second round, but that’ll happen when you allow a goal or two with a defense that good. For the most part, Bobrovsky is giving teams so little room to work with, and weakened stats due to a smaller shot sample shouldn’t hurt him.

The Rangers are the deepest team Florida has had to deal with, so it’s going to be significantly harder to just shut them down to sub-20 shots a game. Fortunately, Florida’s team-first defense has been successful so far with very few signs of weakness, but they’ll need Bobrovsky to stand on his head to win the crease battle here. If he plays like he did in Game 6, he’ll be fine.

Yet again, Shesterkin enters a new playoff round as the most rested goaltender. The Russian keeper looked good against Carolina, finishing with a .923 save percentage and 1.79 goals saved above average at 5-on-5. That was on par with other second-round standouts like Swayman and Oettinger, and his ability to bounce back in a tight series came in so clutch. His playoff numbers have him at .928 SV% and a 3.16 GSAA, good for third in both among goaltenders with at least 10 games played in the postseason.

While the stats are good, he did allow 10 goals over his final three games. Maybe it was fatigue – he stopped 99 of 104 shots in Game 2 and 3 combined, with Shesterkin being the difference in those fights. The good news is that after going down 3-1 in Game 6, Shesterkin just shut things down and played some of his best hockey of the series as Carolina tried to do whatever it took to get back into the lead late.

And if recent history matters to you, how’s this: before the losses in Game 4 and 5, Shesterkin hadn’t lost consecutive games in regulation since Jan. 8 and 11. So the moral of the story is: don’t doubt Shesterkin’s ability to come back big after a loss.

The Rangers are the favorites in this one, with the better season to date and the superior goaltending. But we’ve learned not to doubt Bobrovsky – when you think he’s cooked, he’ll shut you down with a 45-save effort. He didn’t have to be too busy against Boston, but that’s about to change.

Goaltending might not have as big of an impact in this series as it will out west, but neither team can afford to have their No. 1 man crack under pressure.

DALLAS STARS vs. EDMONTON OILERS

Dallas Stars

Jake Oettinger
2023-24 regular season: 35-14-4, 2.72 GAA, .905 SV%, 3 shutouts
Career playoffs: 21-18, 2.65 GAA, .918 SV%, 2 shutouts
2024 playoffs: 8-5, 2.05 GAA, .918 SV%, 0 shutouts

Scott Wedgewood
2023-24 regular season: 16-7-5, 2.85 GAA, .899 SV%, 0 shutouts
Career playoffs: 0-0-0, 2.28 GAA, .862 SV%, 0 shutouts

Matt Murray
2023-24 regular season: 1-0-0, 0.00 GAA, 1.000 SV%, 1 shutout
Career playoffs: N/A

Edmonton Oilers

Stuart Skinner
2023-24 regular season: 36-16-5, 2.62 GAA, .905 SV%, 2 shutouts
Career playoffs: 8-7, 3.35 GAA, .893 SV%, 1 shutout
2024 record: 7-3, 2.87 GAA, .881 SV%, 1 shutout

Calvin Pickard
2023-24 regular season: 12-7-1, 2.45 GAA, .909 SV%, 1 shutout
Career playoffs: N/A
2024 record: 1-1, 2.21 GAA, .915 SV%, 0 shutouts

Jack Campbell
2023-24 regular season: 1-4-0, 4.50 GAA, .873 SV%, 0 shutouts
Career playoffs: 7-8, 2.28 GAA, .920 SV%, 2 shutouts

There isn’t a goaltender still in the playoffs that has been as important as Oettinger. Through 13 games, he has a .941 save percentage and 6.96 GSAA at 5-on-5, good for first in both categories. Even with a five-goal game thrown in the mix, Oettinger posted a .938 SV% and 3.44 GSAA in the second round – again, leading the pack.

All of the concerns about whether Oettinger was truly back after a so-so regular season have been fully squashed. The young American only faced 30 shots twice in the six-game stretch, but he won both of them. He had three one-goal games, including that double overtime thriller to close things out.

This is the second consecutive year Oettinger has found himself leading Dallas in the third round of the playoffs. Vegas simply outplayed Dallas last year, while Oettinger battled with consistency issues. It’s a new year, and after beating the two most recent Stanley Cup champions, Oettinger has to be riding a high right now.

No team has a bigger question mark in net than the Oilers, though. Of the eight goalies with at least 10 games played, Skinner’s 5-on-5 SV% of .887 and GSAA of -5.93 are far and away the worst of any goalie in the playoffs. He had a .861 SV% and -1.88 GSAA in the five games he played in the second round, which saw him lose the net to Calvin Pickard for a portion of the series.

If Vancouver had a healthy Thatcher Demko at their disposal, and Brock Boeser wasn’t sidelined for Game 7, there’s a good chance the Canucks wouldn’t have blown their 3-2 series lead and would have moved on instead. And even then, Arturs Silovs was solid, keeping his team in the fight despite being the third goalie.

Skinner needs to be much, much better, no question about it. He lost his one start against the Stars this year, allowing four goals in a 4-3 loss on Nov. 2. That’s basically ancient history right now, and the Oilers are a significantly better team than then. But Skinner’s numbers during the postseason have to be concerning. He only allowed three goals in the final two games, which is good, but he also only faced 32 shots. With a team as deep as Dallas, that number should rise in the next round.

Dallas has a clear advantage in net. Skinner was better in the second half of the NHL season, but Oettinger has been superior when it has really mattered this year. We know Skinner can get hot and steal games, but the reality is that Edmonton is going to need to find a way to crack Oettinger more than the Stars need to figure out Skinner.

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