Goaltender Wanted
Ok. Before you all going Ballistic and fire at me, at will, let me adress a couple of things.
1- I don't put the fully blame on the goaltending for the team record.
2- Those goaltenders are put in a situation where they probably shouldn't be.
3- We all knew, at the beginning of the season, that our goaltending was suspect.
So, where do you go from here? Well, after last night, it become more and more evident that the B's need an upgrade between the pipes. The defensive play have to be polished; That's a fact. That said, there's too many soft goals allowed by Thomas and Toivonnen. Those softies are momentum killer and confidence crusher ( for them and the team ). The team won't be able to reach the playoffs with that kind of goaltending. Neb, a regular visitor of the blog, made a good point stating that, because the B's are on the re-building mode, we should wait a bit more and then take the proper actions. I think that's the dilemma Chiarelli will have to solve. Do we stick with Thomas and Toivonnen and suffer the consequences? Do we get a #1 goaltender to reach the playoffs and relieve pressure from Toivonnen?
I don't think the fans and the owner will be patient this time. In fact, when you read between the lines; missing the playoffs is not an option for Jacobs. Yesterday, in the globe or the Herald (I don't remember), Jacobs stated that the front office made the mistake to act late, too many times, and that , this year, it won't be the case. For a large part of the fans who are tired to wait and are eager to win; it's a refreshing speech. For the other bunch, the more patient ones, it could be the start of nightmare where the front office will shuffle the roster to the point that the team will have another mediocre year. There's no simple answers, right now, and i think we will have to wait and see (the B's have a 4 days rest) how Chiarelli will respond. In fact, that's probably his first real test regarding his capacity as a General Manager.
Whatever how the things will fallout; the B's need goaltending. This team is starting to gelled. Slowly, they seems to integrate the system and are more consistent with the effort. We cannot take last's night game as a barometer. Buffalo is too strong and they will, probably, kill 90% of NHL teams this year. We have to look further and wish that a legitmate #1 keeper will give the B's an well needed edge against others NHL teams. If pitching is the name of the game; goaltending is, in the is new NHL.
1- I don't put the fully blame on the goaltending for the team record.
2- Those goaltenders are put in a situation where they probably shouldn't be.
3- We all knew, at the beginning of the season, that our goaltending was suspect.
So, where do you go from here? Well, after last night, it become more and more evident that the B's need an upgrade between the pipes. The defensive play have to be polished; That's a fact. That said, there's too many soft goals allowed by Thomas and Toivonnen. Those softies are momentum killer and confidence crusher ( for them and the team ). The team won't be able to reach the playoffs with that kind of goaltending. Neb, a regular visitor of the blog, made a good point stating that, because the B's are on the re-building mode, we should wait a bit more and then take the proper actions. I think that's the dilemma Chiarelli will have to solve. Do we stick with Thomas and Toivonnen and suffer the consequences? Do we get a #1 goaltender to reach the playoffs and relieve pressure from Toivonnen?
I don't think the fans and the owner will be patient this time. In fact, when you read between the lines; missing the playoffs is not an option for Jacobs. Yesterday, in the globe or the Herald (I don't remember), Jacobs stated that the front office made the mistake to act late, too many times, and that , this year, it won't be the case. For a large part of the fans who are tired to wait and are eager to win; it's a refreshing speech. For the other bunch, the more patient ones, it could be the start of nightmare where the front office will shuffle the roster to the point that the team will have another mediocre year. There's no simple answers, right now, and i think we will have to wait and see (the B's have a 4 days rest) how Chiarelli will respond. In fact, that's probably his first real test regarding his capacity as a General Manager.
Whatever how the things will fallout; the B's need goaltending. This team is starting to gelled. Slowly, they seems to integrate the system and are more consistent with the effort. We cannot take last's night game as a barometer. Buffalo is too strong and they will, probably, kill 90% of NHL teams this year. We have to look further and wish that a legitmate #1 keeper will give the B's an well needed edge against others NHL teams. If pitching is the name of the game; goaltending is, in the is new NHL.
posted by Latrappe at 9:11 AM
2 Comments:
its neb, not ned...
my problem with bringing in goal tending is that you will have to give away too much scoring our too much of your future....
also- how is raycroft doing? he was allegedly awful...but now he has a team playing like a team in front of him... this group needs time to get thier act together from front to back....
last years mistake was pulling the trigger on dismantling too fast. give the coaches a chance to fix this. i saw alot of positives last night. this team is a little confidence away from being ok. let them grow together before you break it....
neb
For the record Thomas isn't giving up soft goals. He's played in only two games so far.
Game one, two of the goals were soft and the rest he was on his own. His second game he played awsome, and then in the last 5 minutes his team left him again. Neither of two goals were soft.
They have to stop playing Toivenen so much. He is still young and with no help from his team he is going to lose his confidence.
We don't need any trades just yet. Again, I will ask you. What goalie do you think we can get that will actually help us? Anyone who we get will be left out to dry just like Thomas and Toivonen.
A Murray - Malone (plus draft pick)trade is better because it addresses the future. Not that I am saying we should be pulling off a trade this early in the season.
Post a Comment
<< Home