Andy Schram

As a token of appreciation to the players that laced them up for the Jenkins Cup Champion Red Army team this late fall and early winter, the blog will be highlighting each player's season and doing a brief recap of a few defining moments that the player made to help Mother Russia dance her way to greatness.

Andy Schram
Regular Season: 11 GP: 8-2-1 Record, 6.34 GAA, .872 SVP
Post Season: 4 GP: 4-0, 3.75 GAA, .913 SVP

It is funny, or rather appropriate, that Schram's name fall last alphabetically among his fellow comrades. Why? Because never in the history of man has the term "save the best for last" been so aptly applied. Make no mistake about it people, Andy Schram was not only the best player for the Red Army in the fall season playoffs, he was the best player in the league.

Let's start with the expectations. With every player on the roster, there were certain things you could expect. Hand and Horton would chip in with 10-20 goals, Hendricks and King would score a majority of the goals, and the defense would provide a solid protective unit for the rookie goalie. But the goalie himself? Well, let's examine three facts:

1) He was a rookie. History dictates that rookie goalies not named Patrick Roy do not perform well in the playoffs. Sure, maybe they can survive a round or two (see: Varlamov, Simeon) but when the pressure mounts, they wilt, and the team dies. The players in front of Schram knew that even though the regular season was great, everything could be dashed with one poor effort handed in by the masked man.

2) Not only was he a rookie, it was also his first season ever playing the position. I could elaborate on this, but I think that sentence adequately surmises the extent of how irrational winning the championship would be.

3) Slow starts. It was no secret that even in the regular season, Schram had a penchant for giving up early goals. Early goals in the playoffs could prove to be lethal.

Okay, reading that, maybe one win in the playoffs could be expected, and even that might be much. But four? And by scores of 5-2, 7-6, 4-3, and 5-4? That's only allowing 15 goals in four games, or 3.75 a game. In the championship series that dropped to a 3.50 goals against average. And yes, people will say the defense was great. It was. And yes, people will say the other teams hit the post twenty times in the playoffs, and that is also true (though the number may be closer to 30). But shots did get through. There were rebounds, and second and third chance opportunities. But there was also Schram: the kid who started his career on defense and had an average stat line of 0G, 0A, 6 PIM per night, ended up being not only the savior of a few games, or a season, but the savior of a franchise.

To that, Andy Schram, Russia is eternally grateful.

Regular Season: A
Post Season Rounds 1 & 2: A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Championship Series: A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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