NHL's October MVP...According To Me

Jaroslav Halak is the golden boy for the month, and has St. Louis sitting in first in the Central division

When the Montreal Canadians were presented with last year’s goalie dilemma they were sick of waiting around and debating who their number one guy was. After entering the postseason as the number eight seed and facing Washington all of a sudden Jaroslav Halak, the backup goalie to Carey Price most days, was given the shot to start. He stole the show. It could be argued he was singlehandedly backstopping the Canadians past the President winning Capitals, and the defending champion Penguins. Then Halak was finally outdueled by Michael Leighton, another surprise. So the offseason presented the choice for Habs management: Price, the long deemed franchise goalie that put up decent numbers, or Halak, the game stealing backup who occasionally had terrible games.

Despite the postseason showing, Halak was dealt to St. Louis. St. Louis couldn’t be happier.

The Blues let Chris Mason, their prior starter, walk and Halak became the number one guy. Judging by this season so far Jaroslav Halak has been in my opinion a Hart Memorial candidate for the Blues and as of now would certainly be my pick to win the Vezina for top goaltender. Halak hasn’t been alone in the Blues’ early season success, but he has certainly been the greatest acquisition for any franchise this offseason. St. Louis is 8-1-2, are on a six game winning streak, with Halak going 8-1-1 and being one of the top goalies statistically this season.

But the differences between Halak and other goalies playing phenomenal like Tim Thomas, Mathieu Garon, Brent Johnson, and Jonathan Quick has been how integral Halak has been to his team winning. Six of the eight wins St. Louis has gotten have been within two goals or less. And in only three games this season has Halak allowed more than two goals while the Blues’ offense is ranked 20^th for goals a game.

The defense in front of Halak has been solid, but saying that the team still doesn’t depend on him would be entirely false. The Blues have not been playing bad hockey, but when they do get sloppy they always have Halak to bail them out. Halak in the meantime has no one to bail him out. Thomas has Tuuka Rask, Quick has Jonathan Bernier, Garon is actually the backup to Steve Mason in Columbus, and Brent Johnson is similar in his case with Marc-Andre Fleury in Pittsburgh. No offense to Ty Conklin, who is a dependable backup, but without Halak it is hard to imagine that the Blues would be where they are currently in the standings. And that would be atop the very challenging Central division with 18 points and the least games played of the division, in front of powerhouses Detroit and Chicago.

With Halak playing the way he has the Blues have a chance to win night in and night out

Though the super matchup off St. Louis and Halak vs. Boston and Tim Thomas didn’t fully happen (Rask got the start) the game was intensely close ending in a shootout win for the Blues after playing to a 1 to 1 finish. And Halak was tested in every regard, well deserving of the player of the game honor he earned. Along with his three shutouts in his past five games it is becoming apparent Halak is only getting better. Something the Blues are probably pretty pleased with.

So how is Price working out in Montreal? Not terrible. Price is 7-5-1 with 91.1 save percentage while averaging 2.45 goals against. Is that Halak sort of numbers though? Nope. Was Price the right call? As of now, I’d be taking Halak any day. Because of this so far I would say that Jaroslav Halak has been the first month of the NHL’s MVP.