There were moves a plenty in Connecticut’s capitol. Coming up to Hartford are goaltender Matt Zaba along with forward Chris Chappell, Ryan Garlock and Derek Couture. Heading back to Charlotte is netminder Miika Wiikman and Ryan Hillier.
The logic behind sending down Wiikman and not Chad Johnson is confusing. Johnson has not nearly been as good as Wiikman. The only possible logic is playing time in that Zaba is going to play the vast majority of games and that they want Wiikman to play rather than sit. But even that is faulty because Johnson would probably benefit more from the playing time in Charlotte than Wiikman , who has proven that he can play at this level.
Looking at the numbers, Wiikman has played in four games with the Wolf Pack and posted a 2-2-0 record with a 3.27 GAA and an .888 save percentage. Johnson has a 2-3-0 record with a 3.66 GAA and a .871 save percentage. Johnson has allowed 18 goals while Wiikman only 11.
This is an interesting stat that I just made up, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. Wiikman has 202 minutes in four games. That translates into a goal every 18.36 minutes played. Meanwhile Johnson, in six games has coughed one up every 16.44 over the 296 he’s protecting the net. Just to contrast that, Rangers starter Henrik Lundqvist in 13 games played has seen the lamp lit behind him 33 times in 738 minutes. Meaning his rate of surrender is a goal every 22.36.
In terms of Matt Zaba, he’s 0-1-0 with a 4.84 GAA and a .846 save percentage. Zaba has allowed 8 goals in 99 minutes of action over the 3 games he’s been a part of. His time between goals allowed is 12.375. If you add in his time in Charlotte, that’s another 185 minutes, 11 and goals in three games that would put him at 14.947…not exactly the kind of numbers you want to see. Zaba is a VERY talented netminder and perhaps he can rediscover the zip that was in his game last season when he went 25-10-0 with a 2.33 GAA, a .922 save percentage and a rate of 25.70 goals between minutes played.
