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The NHL playoff goaltender heat index

Ben Bishop and Petr Mrazek begin the postseason operating at very different levels. Icon Sportswire

"All you need is a hot goalie."

The old cliché isn't exactly true. It should go something like: "If your goalie is bad, you could lose a series that you should have won, and if your goalie is good, you could win a series you should have lost." But that isn't quite as catchy.

Goaltending in the playoffs can be very hard to predict. Over a seven-game stretch, even the best netminder in the world could catch a few bad breaks and look like a choke artist. However, several goalies, such as Henrik Lundqvist, Braden Holtby and Jonathan Quick, have emerged in the past few years as stone-cold locks to perform well during the postseason. What about everyone else? Well, that may depend on whether they have been locked in lately.