The NCAA championship brackets were determined over the weekend and with the tourney beginning this Friday in Bridgeport and Minneapolis, allow me to shed some light on the goalies being displayed in this year’s Frozen Four. There are a number of big-time goalies preparing for the battle that leads to Washington, D.C. and some of them have legitimate NHL prospect value.
When Nikolai Khabibulin originally suffered a groin injury back on Feb. 11, Cristobal Huet only needed to keep the Blackhawks nestled safely in Stanley Cup playoffs. He delivered immediate results with a succulent four-game winning streak, but when that streak ended against Minnesota, Huet’s game completely reversed. Since then he has struggled to a 2-4-0 record and has allowed 23 troubling goals in seven games played.
Over the weekend a series of games presented themselves to me as tightly wrapped enigmas that ultimately cast me into a black hole of the unknown. But it’s my fault; I seem to be leaning more towards trends and patterns right now when it comes to my goalie analysis. So three different riddles prodded my mind and as I poked around for answers, it only seemed fitting to surmise my thoughts and discuss them all of Dobber Nation.
March Madness is in the air and for most of you that means fantasy league playoffs start in just a few short weeks. That being said, the chaotic mayhem known as “jockeying for position” has taken over the lands. Leashes are the shortest ever as drastic times call for drastic measures. Do you need one last miracle acquisition to push you into the post-season? Do you need one more piece of trade bait in order to land the big fish you’ve been seeking all year?
My week was already ruined when Nikolai Khabibulin went down with an injury, so Ryan Miller’s high ankle sprain was like sticking a rusty nail in a festering wound that probably wasn’t going to heal anyways. Boy, it sure is tough to find a goalie that can play so many games down the stretch and still produce dazzling consistent performances.
Thank you, Carey Price, for finally wearing out Guy Carbonneau’s already paper-thin patience. Your month-long meltdown made last Friday’s game between Montreal and Colorado the most exciting scouting experience I’ve had as co-host of Avalanche PostGame (KCKK 1510 AM) this season. That’s because Montreal turned to Jaroslav Halak, which ended my year-long wait of wanting to see one of the league’s premier goalie prospects in some real-life action.
What a sad state of affairs Manny Legace’s season has turned out to be. It wasn’t just the display of immaturity over the last week or the bad stretch of game in the last month. The true source of his demise actually goes back further than that, to the exact moment last season when he suffered that meniscus tear. Since then, the entire balance of Legace’s game has been upset, quite possibly marking the beginning of the end to his career.
Steve Mason has seven shutouts on a team that has never made the playoffs before. He’s only 20 years old and although still a rookie, is probably never going back to the minors again. Sounds like another classic Cinderella goalie story…one that has to end sooner than later, right? Well it turns out that the clock may never strike midnight for Mason because he’s performing better as the season ticks down.
An interesting goalie stat was thrown my way last week regarding NCAA products and the surprising number of them making it to the NHL and performing quite well. Below are the current goalies on an NHL roster based by their league of origin:
INT'L – 18 NCAA – 14 QMJHL – 12 OHL – 11 WESTERN – 8
At first glance, that impressive number 18 proves what we already knew – there’s a steady rise of European and Scandinavian goalie products over the last decade. Goalies like Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Backstrom and Vesa Toskala have not only made their mark since 2000, they have changed the entire world of overseas scouting.
All summer long I touted Mathieu Garon as the “surprise goalie of the year” because I truly felt he had all the elusive pieces in place. He not only has great positioning and the flexibility of a jellyfish, but he also got a big boost of confidence thanks to last year’s strong finish. Touted as the starter after training camp, it really was a picture-perfect setting for Garon to take charge as Edmonton’s go-to guy.
