MINNEAPOLIS — If there's a case to be made for a goalie rotation in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it's been weakened by the Minnesota Wild.
To wit, Filip Gustavsson got the start in Game 1 and stopped 51 of 53 shots to win a double overtime thriller over the Dallas Stars.
The Wild came back with Marc-Andre Fleury in net for Game 2, and he allowed seven goals on 31 shots in a 7-3 loss.
That's a save percentage of .962 for Gustavsson compared to .774 for Fleury.
The Wild alternated starts between the two during the regular season, so the thinking was to maintain that rotation and rythmn, especially with Gustavsson carrying a very heavy load in Game 1.
It backfired, though, and Fleury was particularly hard on himself.
"Oh man, embarrassing on my part giving up seven goals like that in the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs," said Fleury, per Tracey Meyers of NHL.com.
"You know, I want to come in and give a chance to my team to stay in the game and win, and that's not what I did. I gave up too many goals. I think we had to open up to try to come back in the game and we gave up more chances, but bottom line, I didn't make any good key saves in the game."
Seth Toupal of the Locked on Wild podcast called the decision a self-inflicted error, but no one could have foreseen that poor of a performance from Fleury.
"It's easy to nitpick the decision because the Wild lost," Toupal said. "There's no telling how Gustavsson would have played, but we have to confront the truth of what happened on the ice."
It's come up in Boston as well, where Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman played off each other brilliantly all season.
With the Bruins losing Game 2 of their series with the Florida Panthers, it's something Jim Montgomery could ponder as well.
However, it seems he's sticking with his guy for now.
In recent memory, the only team that successfully pulled off a goalie rotation that wasn't made necessary due to injury was the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010. They made it to the Stanley Cup Finals with Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher splitting starts through the playoffs.
At any rate, it's safe to say Gustavsson will be back in the pipes for Game 3.