A lot of fuss was made at the beginning of the season about the goaltending situations in both Anaheim and San Jose. Both teams had 2 goalies they felt comfortable tabbing as the full time starter, both teams had one high priced goalie eating up a chunk of their salary cap, and both teams had many interested suitors. At one point in the early stages of the season, I had heard rumors of Boston, Toronto, Phoenix, and Tampa Bay as willing suitors, and other reports indicated "unnamed teams" could be in the mix as well.
Fast forward a few months.
None of these rumored blockbusters ever occurred. Tampa continues to struggle, and is still mentioned as a willing trade partner. Boston seems to have righted the ship with outstanding play from Tim Thomas, "the second coming of the technicolor five-hole", Phoenix has taken a patchwork approach with some young, untested goalies and Cujo sharing the load, and Toronto seems relatively pleased with the play of Andrew Raycroft, when healthy.
More important to note though, is the teams that "needed" to trade one of their goalies.
Anaheim has the best record in the league. Giguere has been outstanding, and in spot work, so has Bryzgalov. This depth in goal has been important for the Ducks, as both have been injured at one point in time. Now with Giguere injuring his leg last night, Bryzgalov may get his chance to shine, depending on the severity of the injury.
San Jose on the other hand, has taken an approach similar to the Minnesota Wild. Minnesota rolled with 2 goalies for a few years in Fernandez and Roloson, to much success. Now SJ is having Nabokov and Toskala split time, alternating starts every night.
Conventional wisdom says that this is bad for both goalies, they won't get enough work, and there will be some locker room distractions. Quite the contrary. Both goalies thrive off of their interesting relationship, SJ is having a stellar season, and Nabokov is second in the league in GAA and 4th in Save percentage.
It will be interesting to see how this does pan out however, in such a Cap Conscious league over the next few months, leading up to the trade deadline.
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Can we get some love? "The goalie strikes back"...I'll say. I remember a day, I think I was 16, maybe 17, when a good friend (Dave 'Foreigner' Cerra) drove me up to NH to visit a kid named Mike that I just HAD to meet, according to my friend. I remember driving from Tewksbury, MA to the nether-regions of Hooksett, NH to watch this kid Mike play deck goalie for his hockey team. Being a goalie myself at the time, Mike and I became instant friends. Over the years hockey evolved and I played net for the team, now roller (a winning championship season I might add..the "How do you like me now!?" season when JLO played center), and then we taught Dave to stop playing the flute or whatever the hell it was, and start playing goalie. He became the best goalie out of the three of us. Then he went West like Dave Crockett...or the Donner Party, yeah that's better, and I went back in the pipes. I obviously lost my desire to play that position and issued a early retirement statement from it. Then, Mike, a man who was disgruntled with hockey, steps back in the crease, and what happens? Oh, he just becomes the best goalie in the league, who, oh, got a shutout tonight I might add. Mop, you are the reason we are doing so well. On any given night, we don't have to worry about our goalie. I love that you're enjoying it again, cuz you kinda went away for awhile. The goalie is indeed, back. Mopnow.
-B
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