Steve Mason made a bit of history with a nine-round shootout win

Friends, let’s talk about Steve Mason.

Specifically, let’s talk about how he won the Philadelphia Flyers’ latest game. Charlie touched on it some; now I’m here with a couple more numbers, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau, to highlight just how ridiculous he was - and just how much the rest of his team owes him.

Steve Mason stopped 45 of the 47 shots on goal against him during regulation time and overtime, and then allowed only one goal as he prevailed in a nine-round shootout which gave him and the Flyers a 3-2 win over the Bruins. Mason is the first NHL goaltender to win a shootout which lasted nine rounds or more after making as many as 45 saves in the "real hockey" portion of the game.

In fairness, this was the first 40+ save game Mason had to have this year for the Flyers, although he did come close back on Nov. 22 when he made 38 of 39 stops against the Panthers.

Last season, though, he had three 40+ save games (one of which was a 50+ saver). The season before that, he had four, but six games in which he saw at least 40 shots, and simply couldn’t save them all.

The point here is: seeing 40 pucks a night isn’t the most common thing in the world for Mason, but it’s not completely new to him, either. But following it up with a nine-round shootout - that’s new.

And winning, after all of that? That’s something only Mason has ever done, now.