Monday Morning Ramblings featuring Olympic goalies and their NHL statistics.

The NHL has kicked back into gear after a multi-week hiatus for the best on best (minus Russia) Olympic tournament. Although they were outshot and outchanced, the Americans survived to lay claim to the gold medal.

When the golden goal was scored, Canada was icing its 3 best players (McDavid, Mackinnon, and Makar), as well as the NHL's worst goalie (0.745%) on the penalty kill (lowest save percentage amongst goalies that have played more than 5 games).

Interesting to note that at 3v3 this season, Binnington (0.700%) has a better save percentage than Hellebuyck (0.682%).  Hellebuyck has allowed a league worst 7 goals at 3v3.

In his first game back from the Olympics representing Latvia, Arturs Silovs closed the door completely for 60 minutes registering a shutout against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Silovs has put up a 0.900+ save percentage in his last 6 games. This 6th round pick of the Canucks went 1-2 with a 0.873 save percentage at the Olympics, his upset win coming on Valentine's Day against Germany.

The Golden Knights have been going with a 5 forward power play, leaving Olympians Shea Theodore and Rasmus Andersson as the two defensemen on the 2nd power play unit.

Anthony Mantha is the big winner with Crosby on the shelf for 4 weeks. The timeline puts Crosby back in the lineup for the Penguins lucrative 5 game week (March 30 to April 5) in the fantasy head to head playoffs.

In what feels like a lifetime ago, Mantha scored 38 points in 43 games for the Red Wings in 2019-20. Mantha has moved up to the top power play, and could be a sneaky pickup. 

The other impressive Sunday night goalie performance was by undrafted Swede Arvid Soderblom who picked up his first ever NHL shutout making 22 saves. He has only 4 starts in 2026, and was winless in those games before the March 1st blanking of the Utah Mammoth.

The Blackhawks now have 3 shutouts in 2026 with 3 different goalies. Soderblom vs Utah (3-0, 22 saves), Knight vs Winnipeg (2-0, 32 saves), and Commesso vs Nashville (3-0, 36 saves).

Although the sample size is quite small (10 games) Belarussian goaltender Nikita Tolopilo has posted an outstanding 0.925 save percentage at 5v5. German goalie Philipp Grubauer has been one of the best at 5v5 (0.930), neck and neck with Russian star Igor Shesterkin (0.931).

Swiss tender Akira Schmid stands out on the Vegas Golden Knights with a 0.909 5v5 save percentage.

His teammates in the crease have been horrendous at 5v5: Hill (0.870%), Lindbolm (0.870%), and Hart (0.855%) all rank amongst the bottom 5 in the entire league amongst goalies that have played at least 8 games.

Silver medallist Binnington (0.736%) and Bronze medallist Lankinen (0.764%) have really struggled at 4v5 this season. Opposing power plays have been racking up the points when these two have been in nets. 

Czech goalie Dave Rittich had been flying high over the first part of the season but in his last ten games he has allowed 31 goals. Only in 2 of those 10 games has he been able to save greater than 90% of the shots he faced.

He had a great December (0.937%), but faltered in January (0.838%) and February (0.875%). 

His fellow countryman Lukas Dostal has 11 wins in his last 12 games! Dostal is pretty much the undisputed starter at this point, playing in 17 of Anaheim's last 20 games.

The Ducks have won eight consecutive games on home ice, and have been on the winning end of all seven of their games that have gone into a shootout this season.