I typically try to steer clear of writing about goalies whenever I can, because no matter how much thought we seem to put into it, it's the one topic that winds up making look most silly time and time again. Especially when it comes to trying to project future performance at the position from one year to the next.

The one exception I make to that general rule is when doing the following exercise, which is something I've made a habit of doing for a few years now. It involves mapping out how each team's goalies have been performing relative to both their environment and their peers, splitting the tandems up into starters and backups.

Breaking things down in this fashion shows helps us identify things like: which teams are relying the most on their starters, which ones have reliable options they can turn to if need be, and which lesser-used backups have perhaps earned more starts than they've been getting.

I've found it to be quite useful when it comes to helping sniff out actionable trends moving forward. The information has descriptive value, and helps you paint a better picture of what's going on around the league while you're in the heat of the regular season.

Now that we're at roughly the halfway point of the regular season following the weekend's All-Star break, let's get into this year's results.