Heroes of Hockeytown

Forgotten Yzyman, Jamie, Scott, and Sandy so quickly? Ok, this guy is pretty bad too.

Man, I was kinda ornery today. I'm sorry to all those people I was mean to. But you probably deserved it.

Eh, I'd rather he went Hasek-Osgood, Dom owns the Preds and Oz rules the Stars, but whatever. Gotta have confidence in both goalies.

Miller started 47 games to Biron's 19. Not much competition there if you ask me. In review: Hasek has the same or close SV% and better GAA (which is as much a goalie stat as it is a team stat) to such quality tenders as Ryan Miller, Kari Lehtonen, and Marty Turco. He's been clutch, and has been counted on to make big saves and pulled that through. His wins didn't just come out of nowhere. I guess you're just watching a different Hasek than I've been.

It's also a goalie stat. If a goalie sucks, he'll give up lots of goals and his GAA will be bloated. Hasek's is not. Point for that guy. So what about Hasek sharing the same save percentage as those other guys? Especially Turco, but the others qualify as well. Miller has started 77% of Buffalo's games. He is the undisputed starter. I'd like to note that once again stats are not the end all be all. Have you watched all the games this year? Really, he's been great.

I call this one, "Gary Bettman Is A Big Stupid Liar." And this, "The Fans Don't Know s*** Just Go With The Second One."

Ridiculous. Marc Denis has never made the playoffs and even on a defensively sound Lightning team this year has numbers far worse than anything Hasek has ever managed in his career. Just because the team was great doesn't mean the goaltending wasn't. Take a great group of skaters and apply a mediocre goalie and everything falls apart (see: 2006 Red Wings). Who cares? I'm not and never have been talking about "the goalie we need in the future." Let's take a trip in the way-back machine: "It's our defence that allows Doms subpar preformance to appear stellar. That's the point I have been trying to make!" So if Hasek has an equal SV% and better GAA than Ryan Miller, Kari Lehtonen, Turco, Toskala who's giving the subpar performance? Just Hasek? If so, why? Defense? The Stars and Sharks have a very good defense (2nd and 3rd in shots against this year by a not significant margin of 1 and 2 extra shots/per).

Liar. That was an insult if I've ever seen one. Implying that the author did not pay attention in school is not conducive to civil discussion. Wipe the scum out of your eyes and see that I made a very valid point. The '05 Sabres are a good example of why you're wrong.

They were both great teams, evenly matched, and Hasek stole that Game 6, which paved the way for them to win the Cup. He was all kinds of clutch throughout the series. I ask again: Do you believe it is required of goaltenders to steal a series to be considered above average? Bulls***. Second place is what it is. Second best guy in the playoffs, according to the hockey writers. Average goaltending does not win Cups. Stats: Hasek, 1.86GAA, 920 SV%, 6 SOs. Osgood, 2.21GAA, 913 SV% (still second in Smythe voting). Claim: "Let's be honest, both of those Cup years we could have still won if Holland strapped the pads back on and hopped in net." Sarcasm aside: How does performance afterwards have any bearing on those Cup runs? He must be the busiest back up in history, playing 53 games and starting 70% of his team's games. With regards to save percentage: I assume you believe Ryan Miller, Kari Lehtonen, Marty Turco, and Vesa Toskala are also unfit to start for their clubs? To who? You? I'm not afraid of that.

Excusing, for a moment, Hasek's series vs. the Avs and Osgood's 2nd place in Smythe voting: Is this a requirement to being a great goalie on a championship team? You say this as if it dismisses the performance of goalie A and B. Or are you perhaps too obtuse to see that that same result was largely in part to quality netminding? Irrelevant. All that matters are the championship years. Honestly, it's amazing that despite all the stats that support Detroit goalies having been great in this and championship seasons, despite accounts from teammates and that which was observed from fans such as ourselves, a dumbf*** like you managed to come to the assbackwards conclusion that these guys haven't been great.

Goddamn right. Do you care to back up your ridiculous notion that the goaltending we received from Chris and Dominik weren't big parts of our Cup wins? Let's see. Cups won with Oz and Dom in net: 2. Cups won with Holland in net: 0. Guess you fail again. f*** off, *******. You've yet to make a coherent argument beyond "lol hasek tha diver."

You fail.

Oh please, you dunce, team's seasons live and die on bounces and breaks every year. That's hockey. An evenly matched game can go down to lucky play. Sometimes the best team doesn't always win. And this just makes you an *******.

It's one thing to say he's over-the-hill, past his prime, not as good as he once was. Those are all true. But he doesn't "let us down" more than he "gets it done." The record speaks for itself. Compare it to our record with the other guys manning the nets. I will respectfully disagree that changing hands from two Stanley Cup winning goalies (that have led us thus far to one of the best records in the league) to one and a rook is a lateral move.

I don't think it's very relevant with regards to "the toughest team ever" to pit them against each other. Obviously the size and strength and conditioning of players today gives them the advantage. But everything is relative. Which team best dominated the league with its toughness is a better measure, if you ask me. Anaheim has played extremely well due in part to their toughness, but they don't carry the same weight as the Bullies. They still hold the title, if you ask me.

Are you dismissing his whole year on that single mistake? Please. He does step up his game. He's made a career out of being clutch and making the big save. Even when he has a terrible period, there's a point where he just shuts the door and seals the W. You must see it, I assume you've been watching the team this year.

You're really putting words in his mouth if that's what you think he said. He doesn't mention Hasek anywhere. Both the defense and Hasek have contributed to our record, as opposed to one carrying the other. On nights where Dom and the D are on their game, like Monday, they have the ability to be suffocating. On some nights we'll rely more heavily on goaltending or team defense, but our overall record is a reflection of both.

I know, Lang loves the puck, which is great, but you can't deny that his lack of sure-handedness when he has possession is a source of frustration. Jagr is way better on the puck, but he gets significantly more ice time (the offense pretty much runs through him) so his high rate of giveaways is just due to volume. Lang's is more of (in)ability. Trust me, I've seen his nice passes. You mentioned the one he made to Willy, which was sick. His nice little pass through defenders to Rex for the go ahead goal last game against Nashville was superb. But at the end of the day we're still talking about a guy who's nearly tops in the league in turnovers despite being the second line center and has only 48 points. It's not that I hate the guy; I really don't. I've bestowed upon him my highest honor: he's a Pretty OK Dude. But you'd be wrong to say he's the guy who gives 100%, hustles to get back or is sure to make good decisions with the puck. That's why he drives me nuts, as opposed to hate. He can do great things, but only when he feels like it. Now that I think of it, he kinda reminds me of... Feds! I disagree, by the way. I say he's generally disliked because of the same issue Fedorov had: his apparent disinterest during game time. The issue is undoubtedly exacerbated because Bob isn't as speedy or talented as Sergei, but the base of the irritation is the same. Now, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hated Fedorov, despite that he didn't always give it his all because he stepped it up in the playoffs and always delivered. That doesn't mean he didn't drive fans up a wall, or that he wasn't deserving of those criticism, because he was, but at the end of the day he got the job done. And that's kind of how I feel about Lang. I bag on him a lot, and he deserves it, but we'll all hold hands and sing pretty songs when the year ends and he finally put in that honest day's work.

Aw, shucks.

Who-raaaaaaaay for finishing a 20 page final on the night before it's due.

Well, I'd say Colorado is all but finished with their loss and Calgary's win tonight. That seems to place the winner of the Central directly against the Flames in the first round. Otherwise it's roulette of Minnesota, Dallas, and San Jose for the loser.

Yeah, I'd say this much is pretty set in stone: Pavel-Hank-Homer ???-Lang-??? (Hudler, Calder, Bertuzzi) Maltby-Draper-??? (Cleary, Franzen) ???-Flip-??? (Sammy, Anyone Else)

Well then, not to get technical with you, but no one would be eating any crow unless they said he wasn't going to score in post season sooo... that's pretty much just Sandy.

Come now, let's get real here. The guy's a bum. If he scores, awesome, but right at this very moment he's a bum. Here's a cool stat for ya: Tonight's action notwithstanding, Robert Lang is THIRD in the league in giveaways, behind only Jaromir Jagr (the Rangers top player, who gets way more ice time) and Jason Smith (Edmonton's #1 D). The guy looks like he's never handled a puck before with his turnovers. He can be standing there on the half wall during a 5-on-3 dipsy-doodling, facing ZERO pressure and lose the puck ALL BY HIMSELF. His lack of hustle is blatant, his floating in both zones infuriating. This guy has great talent but he doesn't come to play every night and it just kills me. That said, if anyone believes that Bob can kick it up a notch this postseason, it's me.

I think he's kind of changed his emphasis on it a little. Back in '04 he was pulling off some absolutely insane looking stuff, but that was just it: it was nuts. It looked great, but it wasn't playoff style hockey. And earlier in the year, when he was with Hank and Homer and it seemed like they could do anything, it was kind of frustrating because he would try and skate through a team's whole defense and just get rejected every time (including one or two pretty costly turnovers). Last night was a good example of how his moves have evolved. Just breaking out the puck and using a quick burst of speed to skate around a flat-footed defender and create a 2-on-1. Now that he's become "the man" in Hank's absence it's more like a return to basics for him--especially with him just shooting the puck a lot.