Marty Turco's Midseason Resurgence and His Robbery of Jonathan Toews

Earlier this season I, like many, I assume, was quite critical of the play of Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco. Mainly because for the first two months of the season he was the hockey equivalent to Swiss cheese on skates.

I like to think I'm a reasonable person, willing to eat my share of crow when the opportunity presents itself, and Turco has offered up quite a dish. While the Stars fell to Chicago on Saturday, 3-1, Turco put forth another strong performance in net, turning aside 33-of-36 shots, including an incredible stop on Jonathan Toews in the second period. Video after the jump.



That's the type of save we used to see from Dominik Hasek on a regular basis. According to the announcer in the clip, it was phantasmagoric. Toews seemed to disagree.

Through the end of November, Turco was occupying the basement of the NHL's goaltending leaderboards, posting a save percentage well south of .900. Slowly but surely, his numbers have been on the rise.

While his overall season numbers are still far down the list (he's currently 40th in the league in save percentage), consider his save percentage on a month-by-month basis, and the consistent improvement each month.

October -- .842
November -- .885
December -- .906
January -- .910
February -- .953

Since the beginning of December, Turco has posted a .921 save percentage, which is quite a jump from the .867 mark he put up in October and November.

Having said that, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Stars have been a completely different team the past three months, going on a 21-11-3 run and putting themselves right back in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race. If only Turco had not been a disaster in net through the first 22 games of the season.

His overall numbers this season still aren't good, and you obviously can't erase the first two months. They still happened, and those points in the standings are just as valuable as the points in February and March.

If the Stars end up missing the postseason, his sluggish start will be one of the reasons why they did. Still, he deserves some credit for turning around what appeared to be a lost season and helping lead the Stars, especially in the absence of team captain Brenden Morrow, and most recently, Brad Richards.

Even with Saturday's loss, the Stars still occupy the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference with 65 points.