Will inexperienced starting goaltenders struggle in the playoffs?

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss a number of NHL goaltenders who have little to no playoff experience and how they could fare on the sport’s biggest stage.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to talk about inexperience. We just talked about the Columbus Blue Jackets and what they’re doing with a guy named Jet Greaves between the pipes. He’s obviously never played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and he’ll get that chance, this year.

As we head down the stretch and keep playing in these playoff-style games, is inexperience between the pipes going to be a story we keep talking about?

Carter Hutton: I think it’s going to be. I don’t care what you say about the pressure about the NHL and the stretch run of playing all these meaningful games, the playoffs is a different animal. I think there will be on these unproven goalies.

For the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Jet Greaves, or think of Elvis Merzlikins, they’ve only played two playoff games, so it’s not like he’s this wily veteran. For Greaves, I guess there’s less expectations on him. The other guy I think about is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with the Buffalo Sabres. He’s played well down the stretch but doesn’t have any playoff experience. Alex Lyon does have some, but for UPL, he’s the guy who will have to be a difference maker.

Playing in these meaningful games down the stretch are great, but it’s been a 14-year drought for the Sabres. Think about the added pressure when you don’t have that experience. Maybe you advance to the second round and face the Tampa Bay Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has played the most playoff games of any goalie in the league.

Carolina Hurricanes’ Brandon Bussi has no playoff experience, and neither does the Anaheim Ducks’ Lukas Dostal. There’s a lot of storylines of inexperienced goalies heading into this playoff.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…