Canadiens Final Report Card: Mike Condon

When Canadiens MVP Carey Price suffered a long-term knee injury, Mike Condon was thrust into an uncomfortable position as Price’s injury replacement.

Due to an unfortunate knee injury to Canadiens MVP Carey Price, Mike Condon was forced into a lose-lose situation. Not only did he have to live to the impossible task of filling the shoes of the reigning NHL MVP and Vezina winner, Condon had to do so while playing in Montreal. The city of Montreal has earned a reputation that rivals Philadelphia when it comes to their expectations and treatment of goaltenders.

Mike Condon – Goaltender

Games Played: 55

Record: 21-25-6

GAA & SV%: 2.71 and .903%

2015-16 began on a very high note for Mike Condon. He beat out Dustin Tokarski as the Canadiens backup and looked poised to learn from the very best in the NHL. It was a dream scenario for a 25 year old former college free agent.

Condon carried his training camp momentum into the regular season, where he won 6 of his first 7 NHL starts. In fact, in those starts, Condon posted an otherworldly 1.58 GAA and .940 SV%. The momentum train was on such a torrid pace, that 5 of those 7 starts came when after Price’s initial injury.

More from A Winning Habit

The initial honeymoon and hot streak came to a quick halt. Condon’s initial run as Canadiens starter gave more than enough video for opposing teams to find weaknesses and exploit them. After November 7th, Condon strung together back to back victories just three times for the duration of the season.

On the surface, Mike Condon proved overwhelmed as the Canadiens starting goalie. In some aspects, he really was but he continues to face a lot of the blame for the Canadiens fortunes after Price went down. In reality, the moment Price went down and it was revealed he would miss an extended period of time, expectations should have gone out the window.

Unfortunately for Condon and the Canadiens brass, the team came out of the gates on a scorching hot streak that set impossible expectations, especially for a goalie who was only a year removed from playing in the East Coast Hockey League.

With all of that said, Condon was not really the reason for Montreal’s collapse. In Condon’s final 48 games of the season, the Canadiens scored only 102 goals which averaged out to a measly 2.12 goals per game. Even Carey Price, who had a 2.06 GAA in his 12 starts, would have had problems winning games for the Canadiens if he had such little goal support.

Despite not being the sole reason for Montreal’s collapse, he didn’t exactly prove to be the solution either. Condon struggled at times and did put forth a valiant effort most nights but he posted subpar Even Strength Save Percentage(.912) and really struggled when the team was shorthanded(.860).

Condon also posted the 2nd worst Goals Saved Above Average in the entire NHL at -16.86, finishing ahead of only Jonas Hiller(-23.32). For those who are unaware of what GSAA is or what it means, it essentially measures how many goals a goalie saves his team or how many goals a goalie costs his team. For a full breakdown, I highly recommend reading this article by Greg Balloch at In Goal Mag.

Next: Canadiens Final Report Card: Paul Byron

For a completely unfair comparison, Carey Price’s GSAA in his MVP season was 36.70 and was 7.08 in his 12 starts this season.

Condon was what he was this season, a below-average starting goaltender. However, he certainly can grow and be a very good NHL backup, similar to ex-Canadiens backup Peter Budaj. A goalie who is capable of filling in for Price on occasion and post strong numbers over a limited amount of games.

Condon will enter next season as the Canadiens default backup goalie but he’ll have to hold off Charlie Lindgren, a recent NCAA free agent signing.

Final Grade: C

Home/Editorials