Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner will use the Stanley Cup Qualifiers to determine the goalkeeper for the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“My plan is for both boys to play the round robin,” said Vegas coach Peter DeBoer. “I think taking a four-month break to make sure we get everyone up to date, fair and with all the information in the playoffs is the right thing to do. They’ll probably play.” two and two (games each) and then we’ll make some difficult decisions. How long these decisions take is not set in stone. “
Fleury or Lehner start the exhibition game against the Arizona Coyotes in Edmonton, the hub of the Western Conference, on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-A Plus, NHL.TV) and the other goalkeeper starts the first of three rounds -robin- Play in qualification against the Dallas Stars on August 3rd.
“We have some ideas on how to do it,” said DeBoer. “We haven’t made any final decisions yet. I know I’m not a big fan of sharing the goalkeeper half-game. Whoever we start, we plan to end with this game to give them the whole game. ” . “
The Golden Knights changed goalkeepers after taking over Lehner in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks on February 24, before the NHL season was interrupted on March 12 due to corona virus concerns. Lehner was 3-0-0 with a 1.67 GAA and 0.940 percent savings in three games with Vegas.
Fleury, who started all 27 playoff games in the history of the Golden Knights, was 27-16-5 with a GAA of 2.77 and a saving of 0.905 percent, his worst statistic in three seasons. He was 2-2-0 with a 2.51 GAA and 0.894 percent savings after the Lehner acquisition.
“At the end of the day, only winning counts. That’s why we’re all here,” said Fleury this month. “Playoffs come and you have to be selfless and do what is right for the team. I just want to win no matter what it is.”
The Golden Knights (39-24-8, .606 points percent) play the Stars, St. Louis Blues (August 6) and Colorado Avalanche (August 8) in a round robin to sow for the Western Conference in the playoffs . The games are played at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
“Whoever we start with can change very quickly, depending on how the playoffs go, injuries, matchups and the like,” said DeBoer. “We have two people that anyone on the network can help us win. That’s a good problem.”
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