All GAA values in this post are approximate, quick and dirty calculations. They aren't perfect because I intentionally used only minutes for TOI and ignored seconds altogether, so in most cases the GAAs given here will be somewhat higher than actual. They will never be too low. Also, all numbers are as of noon on May 9, 2010.
Much has been made this playoffs, and indeed this entire season of Marc-Andre Fleury's ability to bounce back after a loss. Indeed, the stats seem to bear this out in the postseason, as Fleury has a 1.21 GAA with a .951 SV% following a loss.
This got me to wondering whether he was an unusual case this year. Small--minuscule, actually--sample size caveats apply. Data after the jump.
First the GAA data:
| Name | Team | GAA after loss | GAA after win | Win - Loss |
| Niemi | CHI | 0.67 | 3.87 | 3.20 |
| Bryzgalov | PHX | 2.36 | 5.08 | 2.73 |
| Miller | BUF | 1.75 | 4.17 | 2.43 |
| Leclaire | OTT | 1.68 | 3.48 | 1.80 |
| Fleury | PIT | 1.21 | 2.82 | 1.61 |
| Anderson | COL | 2.47 | 3.56 | 1.08 |
| Howard | DET | 2.31 | 3.29 | 0.97 |
| Quick | LAK | 3.51 | 4.07 | 0.56 |
| Nabokov | SJS | 2.16 | 2.64 | 0.48 |
| Halak | MTL | 2.45 | 2.82 | 0.37 |
| Boucher | PHI | 2.85 | 2.39 | -0.46 |
| Varlamov | WSH | 2.56 | 2.03 | -0.53 |
| Brodeur | NJD | 3.43 | 2.86 | -0.57 |
| Rinne | NSH | 3.30 | 2.63 | -0.67 |
| Rask | BOS | 3.00 | 2.29 | -0.71 |
| Luongo | VAN | 5.40 | 2.16 | -3.25 |
| Elliott | OTT | 5.78 | 2.07 | -3.71 |
And now the SV% data:
| Name | Team | SV% after loss | SV% after win | Loss - Win |
| Niemi | CHI | 0.976 | 0.872 | 0.104 |
| Miller | BUF | 0.942 | 0.871 | 0.071 |
| Fleury | PIT | 0.951 | 0.890 | 0.061 |
| Bryzgalov | PHX | 0.924 | 0.878 | 0.046 |
| Leclaire | OTT | 0.949 | 0.907 | 0.042 |
| Howard | DET | 0.930 | 0.895 | 0.035 |
| Nabokov | SJS | 0.922 | 0.894 | 0.028 |
| Anderson | COL | 0.940 | 0.918 | 0.022 |
| Halak | MTL | 0.931 | 0.921 | 0.010 |
| Quick | LAK | 0.863 | 0.875 | -0.012 |
| Rask | BOS | 0.898 | 0.923 | -0.024 |
| Rinne | NSH | 0.889 | 0.921 | -0.032 |
| Brodeur | NJD | 0.872 | 0.912 | -0.040 |
| Boucher | PHI | 0.882 | 0.927 | -0.045 |
| Varlamov | WSH | 0.865 | 0.936 | -0.071 |
| Luongo | VAN | 0.827 | 0.931 | -0.104 |
| Elliott | OTT | 0.814 | 0.935 | -0.122 |
Both of Ottawa's goalies get listed here because they essentially split time almost perfectly evenly through the course of their series against the Penguins.
Quick answer? No, Fleury's not unusual in this regard this year. More than half (9 of 17) goalies had better outings after their teams lost: Antti Niemi, Ilya Bryzgalov, Ryan Miller, Pascal Leclaire, Fleury, Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard, Evgeni Nabokov, and Jaroslav Halak. Furthermore, Jonathan Quick had a slightly better GAA after a loss than after a win, although his SV% dropped slightly in those games. Antti Niemi is the extreme case here: he gives up less than 1 goal per 60 minutes after he loses a game, and almost 4 after he wins, combined with a save percentage that's over 100 points different. Without running numbers for tens of years of data (by hand because I don't know of a better way to get this stuff than that), I have to think this is a pretty insane number.
Only 5 of those 10 goaltenders succeeded in reaching the second round of the playoffs.
Tuukka Rask, Pekka Rinne, Martin Brodeur, Brian Boucher, Semyon Varlamov, Roberto Luongo, and Brian Elliott did better after wins than after losses. Three of those 7 made it to the second round.
So what does all this mean? Given the sample size, nothing at all. But it is interesting to talk about on an off day, right? Right?