Death by Goalie
The season is over.
Bad goaltending killed it.
Last night was no different. Dunham let in a brutal slapshot from the wing through the five hole. That gave Washington a 2-1 lead. He was pulled but returned after Garnett hurt his groin making a save. Then Dunham just stood there as a rebound came out to a Capital and didn't even start to move across his crease to play the angle until is waaaaay too late.
It was a crying shame really because a lot of things went the Thrashers way. Holik scored 11 seconds into the game it looked like they were off and running until Dunham coughed up two weak ones and was pulled. Exelby scored his 1st goal of the season and it looked like a huge tally only to see the our own netminder undermind us again.
Our usual whipping boy Andy Sutton made another critical mental error last night. He had the puck on the right hand side of the net and made a blind dump pass behind the net. There was a Capital player there--but he was so shocked to see Sutton hand him the puck that he couldn't catch it and it rimmed around. The play went over to the left side and Havelid tried to clean up Sutton's snafu, Sutton takes up his usual goalie screening position to the right of Dunham. The puck is cycled around on the left side of the ice and Sutton stared at it like Kris Benson in an Atlanta stip club until the pass comes across to a wide open Ovechkin for an easy blindside goal.
I watched the reply many times, Sutton never once turned his head to even check and see if anyone was on his goalie's blindside. Heck, on the replay you can see Ovechkin skates right through the high slot directly in front of Sutton and then curls into the open right side of the ice. You'd think a Thrasher defensemen just might want to trace the other team's best player wouldn't you? Sutton has a place in the NHL, but it is not playing 20+ minutes a night for any club that wants to contend.
Anyway, it is over and done. For those of you who have been reading the blog I intend to keep writing but I will focus a bit more on the league as a whole and the Stanley Cup playoffs as well. In the near future I intend to write about who got the most out of their salary spent, a look at rating NHL team's drafting abilities and a look at attendence. So keep coming back if you've enjoyed this blog.
Bad goaltending killed it.
Last night was no different. Dunham let in a brutal slapshot from the wing through the five hole. That gave Washington a 2-1 lead. He was pulled but returned after Garnett hurt his groin making a save. Then Dunham just stood there as a rebound came out to a Capital and didn't even start to move across his crease to play the angle until is waaaaay too late.
It was a crying shame really because a lot of things went the Thrashers way. Holik scored 11 seconds into the game it looked like they were off and running until Dunham coughed up two weak ones and was pulled. Exelby scored his 1st goal of the season and it looked like a huge tally only to see the our own netminder undermind us again.
Our usual whipping boy Andy Sutton made another critical mental error last night. He had the puck on the right hand side of the net and made a blind dump pass behind the net. There was a Capital player there--but he was so shocked to see Sutton hand him the puck that he couldn't catch it and it rimmed around. The play went over to the left side and Havelid tried to clean up Sutton's snafu, Sutton takes up his usual goalie screening position to the right of Dunham. The puck is cycled around on the left side of the ice and Sutton stared at it like Kris Benson in an Atlanta stip club until the pass comes across to a wide open Ovechkin for an easy blindside goal.
I watched the reply many times, Sutton never once turned his head to even check and see if anyone was on his goalie's blindside. Heck, on the replay you can see Ovechkin skates right through the high slot directly in front of Sutton and then curls into the open right side of the ice. You'd think a Thrasher defensemen just might want to trace the other team's best player wouldn't you? Sutton has a place in the NHL, but it is not playing 20+ minutes a night for any club that wants to contend.
Anyway, it is over and done. For those of you who have been reading the blog I intend to keep writing but I will focus a bit more on the league as a whole and the Stanley Cup playoffs as well. In the near future I intend to write about who got the most out of their salary spent, a look at rating NHL team's drafting abilities and a look at attendence. So keep coming back if you've enjoyed this blog.
posted by The Falconer at
12:43 PM
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