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Guest The Axe

Howard = Average

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Guest The Axe

I told you all this guy was just average and would struggle without #5. Seems like the Mrazek train is leaving the station and everyone is getting on board. I punched my ticket.

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I think he is well above average. He is keeping us in the game most nights. When you always have a wide open lane to shoot at the net, it is easy to see why they score 3-4 goals/night. Can't blame howie for the most part. He has made a lot of spectacular saves this year, how many breakaways have we allowed, even short handed? If the defense doesn't do anything, than that is what the score will be. It isn't a 1 man defense, it is a team effort, and the team isn't doing their job

Edited by Euro_Twins

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Howard's been great or 'good enough' pretty much every game. Even prime Hasek would have had trouble getting us wins when our offense is scoring about 1 goal per game and our defense/PK is so awful.

He needs a rest though, bad. I think Babs made a big mistake playing him against Calgary, a weak opponent and a perfect chance to start Mrazek and let Howie refocus and return against StLouis.

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I've always thought Howard was an average goalie and it's become apparent now that we don't have a defense.

I think he is well above average. He is keeping us in the game most nights. When you always have a wide open lane to shoot at the net, it is easy to see why they score 3-4 goals/night. Can't blame howie for the most part. He has made a lot of spectacular saves this year, how many breakaways have we allowed, even short handed? If the defense doesn't do anything, than that is what the score will be. It isn't a 1 man defense, it is a team effort, and the team isn't doing their job

Here's the difference though. If Howard wants to truly be a next level goalie he needs to make those saves when the defense leaves him out to try. Howard doesn't do that. He has a couple flashy saves that make him look like a beast and then he lets in some softies.

However that said, Howard isn't as high on the list of problems as some of the other things such as lack of defense, lack of offense, complete absence of a power play, and a lack luster PK. Those are more pressing needs.

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Howard's been great or 'good enough' pretty much every game. Even prime Hasek would have had trouble getting us wins when our offense is scoring about 1 goal per game and our defense/PK is so awful.

He needs a rest though, bad. I think Babs made a big mistake playing him against Calgary, a weak opponent and a perfect chance to start Mrazek and let Howie refocus and return against StLouis.

The only problem is, the coach usually leaves that decision up to the starting tender, and if Howie felt he had enough of a rest since Saturday, and felt good to start Babs is gonna let him. If he felt ok, Babs is going to let him start against the easy opponent to try to get the easy points, it's too bad the team didn't show up from lines 2-4 and the defense fell asleep

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He sure is playing average this season. His rebound control is an issue, as it has been since he was in GR, but without Nick, Stuart, and Rafalski clearing pucks its becoming a glaring problem. I understand some of the arguments, that he has let in shots that are screened, or deflected, or on breakaways, or otherwise difficult to stop, but to chalk every goal up to "not his fault" unless he has perfect sight-lines, is already square, and ready for it is getting lame. Late or early goals in a period are unacceptable and we've come to expect them. I'm feeling about Howard early this season how I felt about Hasek when his time was winding down, that any shot could potentially go in, and someone will find some way to justify it while forgetting one this: his job is to stop the tough ones too.

Right now Howard sits 30th in both GAA and Save % among 40 goaltenders with 3 or more games in. Yes he's seen quality chances against, but who hasn't in this young season with no training camp or exhibition? Needs to step it up.

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He sure is playing average this season. His rebound control is an issue, as it has been since he was in GR, but without Nick, Stuart, and Rafalski clearing pucks its becoming a glaring problem. I understand some of the arguments, that he has let in shots that are screened, or deflected, or on breakaways, or otherwise difficult to stop, but to chalk every goal up to "not his fault" unless he has perfect sight-lines, is already square, and ready for it is getting lame. Late or early goals in a period are unacceptable and we've come to expect them. I'm feeling about Howard early this season how I felt about Hasek when his time was winding down, that any shot could potentially go in, and someone will find some way to justify it while forgetting one this: his job is to stop the tough ones too.

Right now Howard sits 30th in both GAA and Save % among 40 goaltenders with 3 or more games in. Yes he's seen quality chances against, but who hasn't in this young season with no training camp or exhibition? Needs to step it up.

I never said every goal wasn't his fault. I said he has kept us in it, made a lot of nice saves, but has been hung out to dry all game. Breakaways, open shooting lanes, our own players screening him, have all cause goals. Yes he maybe should have had 1 or 2 extra saves per game, but in reality, would it have made a difference in the end? No cause our bottom lines can't score, and our defense is blowing chunks right now

Edited by Euro_Twins

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Wow.... WOW! We want to start throwing the blame down range at Jimmy? Open your eyes. Howard has been the one keeping us from getting screwed 6-0 every game. We wouldn't have won a single game without Jimmy, plain and simple.

If Howard wants to truly be a next level goalie he needs to make those saves when the defense leaves him out to try. Howard doesn't do that.

You're right, you know all those breakaways, the penalty shot last night, all those 5 on 3's, all those PK'ers... you're right, he certainly hasn't been there... /sarcasm

Please, if it wasn't for Howard, we would be getting DESTROYED. The past two games is simply because of his workload, go try and play consecutive games knowing that there isn't an option to save your ass. There's a reason why Babcock has been playing him consecutively, we NEED him. Unfortunately, I completely agree that Mrazek should've played last night, even if it was after the 4th goal and was simply the last 4/5 minutes. Then again, you don't want to throw your goalie in there only to get lit up for 5 minutes and have absolutely no confidence.

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Not an excuse for him playing subpar, but A) Jimmy was one that didn't play at all during the lockout and B) he hasn't gotten a rest all season.

I think blaming the goalie is an easy way out for the team's shortcomings as a whole. No he's not a Vezina candidate every season but he is our guy until proven otherwise. I don't look at any games this season and say, "Jimmy lost us this one." But that's just me.

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Wow.... WOW! We want to start throwing the blame down range at Jimmy? Open your eyes. Howard has been the one keeping us from getting screwed 6-0 every game. We wouldn't have won a single game without Jimmy, plain and simple.

You're right, you know all those breakaways, the penalty shot last night, all those 5 on 3's, all those PK'ers... you're right, he certainly hasn't been there... /sarcasm

Please, if it wasn't for Howard, we would be getting DESTROYED. The past two games is simply because of his workload, go try and play consecutive games knowing that there isn't an option to save your ass. There's a reason why Babcock has been playing him consecutively, we NEED him. Unfortunately, I completely agree that Mrazek should've played last night, even if it was after the 4th goal and was simply the last 4/5 minutes. Then again, you don't want to throw your goalie in there only to get lit up for 5 minutes and have absolutely no confidence.

Mrazek should have played, but Howie still looked better than all but maybe 2 players out there

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The only problem is, the coach usually leaves that decision up to the starting tender, and if Howie felt he had enough of a rest since Saturday, and felt good to start Babs is gonna let him. If he felt ok, Babs is going to let him start against the easy opponent to try to get the easy points, it's too bad the team didn't show up from lines 2-4 and the defense fell asleep

If that's how Babcock handles his goalies we have a problem. What's to stop Howie from saying he 'feels good' for the next 40 games? He needs a rest after playing in all games so far, it's not really about him feeling bad or anything, it's just common coaching sense to let your #1 guy rest every now and then. And if you have a 20 year old backup ypu might want to ease him in against a 'lesser' opponent. But what do I know. If Mrazek plays next game and does well, that will give him a lot of confidence.

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Howard= needs a rest

He hasn't been good the last couple of games but throwing him under the bus at this point is such fair weather fan crap. Get Mrazek in now. Jimmy needs a rest bad and we need to see what this guy can do.

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If that's how Babcock handles his goalies we have a problem. What's to stop Howie from saying he 'feels good' for the next 40 games? He needs a rest after playing in all games so far, it's not really about him feeling bad or anything, it's just common coaching sense to let your #1 guy rest every now and then. And if you have a 20 year old backup ypu might want to ease him in against a 'lesser' opponent. But what do I know. If Mrazek plays next game and does well, that will give him a lot of confidence.

Yes I agree, but he got a few days rest and was probably feeling pretty good, so babs let him play cause he was feeling good to go. Now that babs has seen he badly needs a rest, even after getting a few days off and still lets him start over mrazek, there is a problem. If babs hasn't seen after last game Jimmy is tired then we are screwed against st. louis tomorrow. Goalies have off days so babs probably chalked saturday up to an off day for howie and gave him the go ahead cause he was feeling good

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Yes I agree, but he got a few days rest and was probably feeling pretty good, so babs let him play cause he was feeling good to go. Now that babs has seen he badly needs a rest, even after getting a few days off and still lets him start over mrazek, there is a problem. If babs hasn't seen after last game Jimmy is tired then we are screwed against st. louis tomorrow. Goalies have off days so babs probably chalked saturday up to an off day for howie and gave him the go ahead cause he was feeling good

He didn't play during the lockout and he looked like a kid on a sugar/adrenaline high for the first 7-8 games. Just excited to be back out there. Now he looks like the kid who has crashed from that sugar high.

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Yes I agree, but he got a few days rest and was probably feeling pretty good, so babs let him play cause he was feeling good to go. Now that babs has seen he badly needs a rest, even after getting a few days off and still lets him start over mrazek, there is a problem. If babs hasn't seen after last game Jimmy is tired then we are screwed against st. louis tomorrow. Goalies have off days so babs probably chalked saturday up to an off day for howie and gave him the go ahead cause he was feeling good

Let's just hope Mrazek does better agains the Blues than McCollum did in his confidence destroying only NHL appearance. Edited by dat's sick

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When you don't have more drive then teams like CBJ, or the Calgary Flames, and can't muster up anything offensively then i would give Howie the benefit of the doubt. If he does become a problem, this team is only seeing a shortened regular season

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When you don't have more drive then teams like CBJ, or the Calgary Flames, and can't muster up anything offensively then i would give Howie the benefit of the doubt. If he does become a problem, this team is only seeing a shortened regular season

Ya but look back the past 3-4 years, for whatever reason we have always played at the level of our opponent. If it was Columbus then we would play like a junior team, if it is st. louis or vancouver all of a sudden we are playing like the best team in the league. Shouldn't be that way, but they don't seem to care about the game when it's a garbage team..

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Howard's been great or 'good enough' pretty much every game. Even prime Hasek would have had trouble getting us wins when our offense is scoring about 1 goal per game and our defense/PK is so awful.

He needs a rest though, bad. I think Babs made a big mistake playing him against Calgary, a weak opponent and a perfect chance to start Mrazek and let Howie refocus and return against StLouis.

Absolutely. Babcock made a pretty significant coaching error there. Obviously Petr isn't starting against the Blues. Maybe against the Oilers on Saturday? Theres another back-to-back with a game on Sunday against the Kings. WTF, Babcock??? Just have Howard start all the games this season. :clap:

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Howard is exactly the goalie we need. Solid but not amazing at a price that allows us to build a team around him. In the cap era, squandering money on an elite goaltender is not worth it because no goalie will consistently steal games for you. A solid defense goes much farther.

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Ya but look back the past 3-4 years, for whatever reason we have always played at the level of our opponent. If it was Columbus then we would play like a junior team, if it is st. louis or vancouver all of a sudden we are playing like the best team in the league. Shouldn't be that way, but they don't seem to care about the game when it's a garbage team..

Perhaps this is the Red Wing's take on "parity"?

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Howard is exactly the goalie we need. Solid but not amazing at a price that allows us to build a team around him. In the cap era, squandering money on an elite goaltender is not worth it because no goalie will consistently steal games for you. A solid defense goes much farther.

Howard is an average goalie who gets paid like an average goalie. That was OK when we had the best top two defensive pairings in the league, but not anymore.

I don't see us building the best defense in the league front of him anytime soon. At the same time, who will let us have an elite goalie in a trade or through free agency?

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Howard is an average goalie who gets paid like an average goalie. That was OK when we had the best top two defensive pairings in the league, but not anymore.

I don't see us building the best defense in the league front of him anytime soon. At the same time, who will let us have an elite goalie in a trade or through free agency?

Howard is an average goalie who gets paid like an average goalie. That was OK when we had the best top two defensive pairings in the league, but not anymore.

I don't see us building the best defense in the league front of him anytime soon. At the same time, who will let us have an elite goalie in a trade or through free agency?

I agree with this. I don't know how many years are left on Howard's contract but isn't he going to be asking for a pay raise when the time comes? I think there will be a problem then, but for right now we need to focus on repairing our shattered defense.

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I agree with this. I don't know how many years are left on Howard's contract but isn't he going to be asking for a pay raise when the time comes? I think there will be a problem then, but for right now we need to focus on repairing our shattered defense.

He is UFA after this season

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He is UFA after this season

I wouldn't give him any kind of pay increase unless he steals lots of games and improves his crappy stats.

Unfortunately, the Wings don't have ready goalies in the minors like everyone else seems to have plenty of. Maybe Mrazek, but he's young and we don't know if he can handle the NHL yet.

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