Pulling the Goalie

Last night, when the Blues went down 2-0 to the Bruins, I posited to a group of friends on a group text that Craig Berube, the Blues' interim head coach, should consider pulling his goalie with about 12 minutes to go in the third period if the Blues were down by two and say with 6 minutes to go if the Blues were down by one.  The reason, a brilliant article in the Wall Street Journal that did the math that suggested that NHL coaches are too conservative and don't give themselves the best chance to win if they only pull their goalies with about 90 seconds to go.  In other words, the conventional wisdom that has evolved over the years is dead wrong.  And one of my friends, a bright guy, posited the same thing -- that it was too risky.

After the Blues went down 2-0 I decided to go to bed, if for no other reason that I thought that the Blues were just unlucky last night, that Tuuka Rask translated from Finnish into mid-American English means "Iron Door on Hockey Goal" and that Berube would do nothing out of the box to try to cut the deficit.  As it turned out, the game turned into a route, and now the Blues are returning to Boston with the series tied at 3 for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.

This by no means is an indictment of the Blues or Berube.  The Blues were hockey's worst team on January 2, and Berube has performed nothing short of a miracle in St. Louis. That said, doing things because, well, "that's always the way things have been done" might help avoid a coach from getting fired for making wild bets with his strategy, but at the same time might prevent him from being a transcending innovator.  Food for thought for hockey -- this is an exciting series.

Oh, and I did not post a hyperlink to the article because there is a paywall.  But look for the article or a scholarly paper or two on the topic -- you will find it compelling.