Comments for Battle of Ontario....
I will call Derek Roy with the OT winner.
Richly deserved win for the Vodka Drinkers. Shame about that PP.
The "dirties" won. I'm turning to Lacrosse for my game fixes. Sigh. I'm going to bed.
Yergh.
Classic. Heatley is the man, until it really counts.
Spezza was a waste of a roster spot.
Ottawa suck.
Oh please. How many good Toronto players were there on the roster? 2? 3? 4? How many average players? 1? 0.5? Enough said.
...Spezza was a waste of a roster spot.
So you are blaming Yzerman?...
"How many good Toronto players were there on the roster?"
our players were stand outs on rosters with next to no star power. Spezza was a ghost on a roster that was more star studded than cone-heads.
that was me.
-jaredoflondon
Spezza was a ghost on a roster that was more star studded than cone-heads.
First of all, that's just plain wrong. Did you watch any of the games? Or listen? Because Spezza was a stand out in most. He set up a key goal in the Sweden game with speed that basically no-one else could have.
And Heatley is just Team Canada's leading everything of all time, and broke every record this tournament. I notice you forgot to mention him.
Nice to know you're happy Russia won though. Give your Team Canada jerseys and hats away to people who'd appreciate them.
who said i was happy Russia won? And I never bad mouthed Heatley's play. I also suppose I should have been more specific in my use of the word ghost. Offensive production from Spezza was not up to his expectations.
The main point I was getting at was that the Leaf players didn't have the help of a rediculously talented line up like Heatley and Spezza did.
It wasn't really Team Canada anyway. Nor was it team Russia. This tourney needs to happen when all NHL players are available from start to finish, for it to be considered a real competition.
Leaf fans should be excited about Kaberle and Stralman in the tournement. Ottawa fans should be very proud of Danny Heatley.
Otherwise, I didn't lose much sleep over it.
Just ragging on ya. Rainy Mondays. 
Heater's going to play in goal for the next 3 tournaments to see if he can get the most shutouts too.
I'm far too hungover for good natured raggin'.
Stupid Tequilla.
ugh, that was me again.
Ottawa fan here, Spezza is a complete waste of talent. You guys in Toronto want him? Heatley is at least a two-way player...
Heater's going to play in goal for the next 3 tournaments to see if he can get the most shutouts too.
He'll have all the chance in the world the way Ottawa is going.
Go Jays!
Give your Team Canada jerseys and hats away to people who'd appreciate them.
You can put them in your closet right next to your barely used Sens car flag.
So where are we at with the playoff predictions?
Good call. Don?
I'll post the online pool as well.
On a completely unrelated topic, I've been thinking about the near-constant assertion by Leaf and Sens fans alike that you need a tier 1 goalie to win the Stanley Cup.
I would guess that of all the Stanely Cup finalist goalies since the lockout, not one would make the top 10 on most people's "best goalies in the NHL" list.
With the possible exception of Giguere, the list doesn't read like a set of all-stars: Giguere, Cam Ward, Dwayne Roloson, Ray Emery, Chris Osgood, Marc-Andre Fleury.
Its possible a couple of those names aren't even in the NHL next year. I can't imagine any of them at the next All-Star game, nor representing their country at the Olympics.
I'm not saying you don't need good goaltending to win, just that its clear from recent data that you can get enough good goal tending from just about anybody to get a shot at the Stanley Cup.
Winning a cup and making the finals is a completely different thing. Subtract the goaltenders who lost in the finals and the quality goes up substantially.
Your point still stands though. Brodeur, Lundquist and Nabakov, this years Vezina finalists are not winning the cup in 2008. Osgoode or Fleury will.
Brodeur, Lundquist and Nabakov, this years Vezina finalists are not winning the cup in 2008.
Even further, guys like Luongo and Vokoun are having trouble even making the playoffs, and Brodeur had no discernible impact this year once his team got into the post-season.
I think most GMs think "you don't get fired for getting a tier 1 goalie" but "you do get fired if your team sucks and you didn't get a tier 1 goalie". That biases decision-making and budgeting towards shoring up goal first, then worrying about the rest of the team, driven largely by misguided fan pressure to do things that way.
However, Nonis got Luongo, and is now looking for work. Buffalo kept Miller, but didn't bother replacing Briere and Drury. They went from class of the East to barely better than the Leafs. Speaking of which, even Toskala didn't get the Leafs to the post-season, despite Leaf fans like DJ saying the only problem was goaltending.
Fleury and Osgood have .938 and .931 save percentages in the playoffs. Only Dan Ellis (.93
is close among starting playoff goalies. Turco is next with a .922 save percentage and next is Tim Thomas with an OK but not great .914 save percentage. You do need good goaltending to win but there hasn't been a lot of great goaltending in these playoffs.
We should also keep in mind that Fleury is what, 23 years old? He has lots of time to be one of the great NHL goaltenders. Maybe this is the start?
Tim Thomas, I have no clue what happened with this guy? Last year as the Leafs were putting 10 goals past him I was wondering how this clown was in the NHL. Then he has an all-star year.
Boston have a good problem this year with Thomas and Fernendez in the mix.
From February on Thomas was just OK with a .904 save % in February, March and April. He is an OK goalie that had a superb half season. There are a lot of goalies that have done that.
case in point: what'd Raycroft win last year? 37 games? (snicker, snicker)
what'd Raycroft win last year?
More than toskala this year
Raycroft won more in one year than Ray Emery and Gerber have ever managed. but that doesn't mean all three of them don't suck. 
Raycroft won more in one year than Ray Emery and Gerber have ever managed. but that doesn't mean all three of them don't suck.
Umm, no.
need a tier 1 goalie to win the Stanley Cup.
I've argued, I think on here, precisely the opposite point. If I have 4 or 6 or 8 million dollars, the evidence suggests I should spend it on 4, 6 or 8 1million dollar goalies to get the best return.
The only downside is all the bullshit and uncertainty that goes along with having 4 guys. It helps if at least one is a vet. In Detroit, having two vets helps a lot.
Umm, no.
My mistake. Gerber's 38 wins as a Cane in 2006 eclipsed Red-Light Raycroft's 37 (37!) as a Leaf last year. The less said about Emery the better.
And all those goalies are lousy. I use them only to note how useless a stat 'wins' is in evaluating goalies. Did i miss something?
*hopes Gee uses the 'MAKING THE FINALS!!!11ONE!!!ONE1' yardstick to pump up gerber/emery's winningness*
The good news is that Toronto will start the year with Toskala and stay with him. Raycroft's NHL career if not finished is definitely on life-support, and I wouldn't be surprised if Clemensson backed up Vesa on the big team while they give Pogge 70 starts in the AHL.
I can't see them bringing up Pogge to be a back-up next year, especially with expectations surely at an all-time low and a rebuild in progress. Might as well let him get his minutes and be the clear #1 guy down there before moving him up.
Goaltending is not a concern in Toronto right now, while in Ottawa one has to think it's fairly top of mind.
We should also keep in mind that Fleury is what, 23 years old?
Maybe Fleury is the next Patrick Roy. My bet is he's more the next Cam Ward. Good, but not great. Might get a cup out of it, though, just like Ward did.
Goaltending is not a concern in Toronto right now, while in Ottawa one has to think it's fairly top of mind.
My point is that it shouldn't be top of mind. Heck, if the team solves their problems up front, even Raycroft could win the cup as a Senator. He just needs to be decent for two months in the post-season, as Fleury and Osgood have been for their teams this year, and as Ward, Roloson, Emery, et al were for theirs in previous years.
Gerber wasn't the problem for the Sens this year, so there is no goalie problem to solve, in my opinion, apart from sending Emery packing. The real issue was lack of scoring, and you can't fault the goalie for that. Trading Spezza for Luongo might make some fans happy, but I wouldn't be one of them.
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