Exactly.

Anyone see the beauty of a goal March made in the 3rd period last night? Pure poetry on ice. Too bad the B's gave away a goal with just seconds to go to tie it up.

Henry's overall stats are great but he seems to be streaky this year. Not like Rask who is steady and consistently sucks :0(

Number 2 played a heck of a game last night.
Nice goal on the penalty shot.
Flames were pretty lucky at the end and played a pretty good game to hang in there.
Johnny Hockey was outstanding.... First 4 point game in the NHL for him.

Ramo was incredible (except for one soft goal because he was out of position). Several highlight reel saves. He stole the game from the B's and rightfully deserved the win based on the way he played.

Saw it.... Too bad the rest of the team doesn't put the effort Brad does.

I think that they aren't lazy they just run out of talent.
Bergeron, Chara, Krejci, Seidenberg, McQuaid, Krug, Erikson are all 110 percenters

I have high hopes for Valtrano, Pasternak.

My biggest disappointment is Rask.

Marchand greets Vancouver with the first goal of the evening. You know how much they love him there...

I love him when he is playing against Van....SmileWavy

Apparently so does Brandon Prust. $5,000 worth of love.

Prust: $5K fine for spearing Marchand was ‘best money I ever spent’ (Video) | ProHockeyTalk

Here's what he's proud of:
http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2015/12/06/video-brandon-prust-ejected-for-spearing-brad-marchand-in-groin/

ya that spear was a cheap play but at least it was to a player who gives out his own share of cheap shots, would have been really bad if it was to a player who doesn't engage in that sort of goon mentality hockey.

Finn

Like Marc Savard?

Surely you're not condoning the spear. Two wrongs don't make a right.

What blows me away is his blatant honesty. I figure that comment is going to cost him a lot more the next time he gets a fine or suspension. The league will want to send a message.

Ooooh. Right in the mommy daddy button....

No one gets a spear to the cup for no reason at all but it was a pretty nasty foul.

The fine is about .002% of his salary. None of this stuff ends until the league hits these guys in the wallet.

Number 2 can now sing a soprano part just in time for Christmas...

BIG game tonight: Marchand versus Subban. The precursor to the Winter Classic.
Sure is a pity that Price won't be in goal. :D
It stinks that Rask has such poor stats against the Habs. I'd almost prefer Gustavsson to go in.

Hey Joe, as you are a knowledgeable hockey fan, indulge me in this hijack please. I was an old school stand up keeper. At times I'd use what is now called a modified butterfly ( one pad down one pad up) as I moved laterally. But generally I stood up with my stick closing the 5 hole.

We all see todays keepers plopping down to make saves, playing the percentages rather actually going after the puck and making the save. I watched a SO the other night. The forward came in very close and executed a perfect toe drag as the keeper flopped down. He easily lifted it up and over to get the winner. Why didn't the keeper poke check as he stacked the pads? How many times does the puck go through the 5 as the keeper is dropping down?

Man if the goalies stayed on theiir feet square to the shot, I swear half of the shots would just hit them.

My goalie coach told me once" sometimes making a great save is a matter of NOT getting out of the way".

What do you think o this flop and pray style of keeping?

I've never been a goalie but I have some observations:
-Patrick Roy brought in the era of the butterfly. It worked well for him and everyone else started to adapt.
-In tight, its hard to lift the puck and there's going to be a defenseman that wants to take your head off. Also if you are on the ice you can trap the puck and stop play. Standing you are going to be looking for a 2nd or third chance. No?
-It seems to me that you have better view of things above than things below. You probably know more about that than I do.
-you can flash a glove faster than a skate.
-I wonder if the dropping to butterfly is a way to get mentally in position? Sort of like being square to the shooter?
-the goalies themselves are bigger than ever so even in the butterfly they are more eye level with the shot coming in. Heck, when Ben Bishop lays down you've got the ice covered.
-just like a face mask made it easier to block a slapshot, the bigger/better pads have made it easier for the goalie to get down where sticks and pucks are flying. Heck, Lundquist uses his face mask to block shots for fun.

There is talk of making the goal bigger. I wonder if that will change people going down so fast.

Personally, my fav goalie of all time was Hasek. You never new what he would do. He would stand, flop, roll, and, best of all, he had flexibility that seemed not humanly possible. Slinky was fun to watch. You just never knew how he would play the puck. He just couldn't stick handle with a darn.
Next in my list is Tim Thomas. Gustsy, gritty, a great eye for the puck, played out beyond the blue paint :eek: and NEVER EVER GAVE UP. Of course being a Bruin and winning the cup didn't hurt either :D but I always thought he was a blast to watch.
Third would be Hextall. The only goalie that had more PIMS that most of the team... :eek: He liked to travel around and was a great stick handler (way better than Brodeur IMO)

So what do you think?

Oh BTW, it hasn't happened much lately so I have to gloat tonight
Bruins 3
Habs 1

The goalies play percentages, that means covering the bottom of the net. That means forcing the players make a difficult move (like a toe drag at full speed). A poke check can open the five hole and it moves the goalie perpendicular to the goal line, the opposite of what he wants to do. A poke check favors the shooter if you miss, or if you don't get all of the puck. Miss and they score, but cover the bottom of the net and they have to make a great play at full speed.

If the players shot like they do now, yes, but they would alter their style immediately. And they would score more frequently. No part of the goalies body should be above the bar, that wastes 'coverage'.

Save percentages of the best goalies have not significantly changed (Ken Dryden and Roy were about a 0.920 goalies at their peak), but the NHL average has gone from about 0.880 to almost 0.920 in 25 years. You can't say the current methods are not an improvement.

Good points all. Playing the percentages is, IMO more like hoping to make a save rather than going for the puck. The bigger leg pads do make the butterfly a large obstacle if the pads are on edge and not flat. And the bigger trap is an advantage too. But I sure do see a lot of five hole goals, it seems more than ever.

I guess I'm just being a cantankerous old goalie who still thinks he can play!

Man it'd be great to argue this stuff over beer between periods with you guys.

One more point, and not in reference to flattbutt, but goalies tended to be the 'less athletic' players who still wanted to play hockey, and many were quite small.

This is no longer the case, the goalies are huge (lots are 6'4" and taller) and amazing athletes. So you have a larger person, better athlete, with much much larger equipment. Guess what happens?

I suspect a goalie now covers 20% more area versus 20 years ago.

You didn't intend it but yes I was very small as a goalie. Heck when people saw me during a match they couldn't reconcile that image with seeing me w/out my gear. Funny stuff sometimes!

Facts:

84 per cent of today’s goalies are taller than the league average just ten years ago.

The average goalie height increases every year, as does the average height of goalies drafted.

The average height of drafted goalies drops every round of the draft, i.e. smaller goalies get drafted later.

I've posted this before but it shows you how small I was in the pipes.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1449787775.jpg

Darren Pang would never have made it in today's NHL. Next we'll see sumo wrestlers who fill the entire net?

Going in a different direction, we saw the shift from bruisers to speedsters (and younger players) after the lockout. Now with 3 on 3 and less fighting, it looks like player size is getting to be less of an issue.
Krug, Gerbe, Zuccarello, Gionta... even the little ball of hate is only 5'9"
It used to be small players were rare: Martin St Louis was undrafted!

Add Dennis Maruk & Cliff Ronning to the that list of 'notso-tall' players who went on to have productive NHL careers.

Cheers
JB

Johnny Gaudreau is 5'9" and a buck sixty.
He is a scoring machine particularly 3 on 3.
Those Flames won their way back to .500 the other night.

Hey Flat

You look very reminiscent of Emile "The Cat" Francis - who pioneered the development of that catching glove you're flashing with flair & panache. Good onya.

Cheers
JB

My kids were off from school, so we took a road trip to watch the Bruins practice.
Brad with pal, Patrice.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1450804351.jpg

Thanks! Emile Francis was my role model when it came to standing up to a shooter. Eddie Giacomin inspired my lateral movement as shown in that pic.

Got to meet The Cat at Eddies retirement game.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1450824124.jpg

Very cool photo flat. Good win over the Wings tonight for NJ.

The B's were not there tonight. The only good news is the Wings and the Habs lost as well and the Sens only got 1 point. Watching the Habs I realized that not having Price in goal is not their only problem. Offense is not coordinated. They played well for about 10 minutes but the first 50 weren't that hot. Gallagher is part of the problem but there aren't any tape to tape passes, too many off sides, and Subban has forgotten where the net is. They've lost 9 out of the last 10. It will be interesting to see what they can put together after the break.

Expect a suspension for Marchand to come shortly after the incident tonight...

I don't know the rule on that hit, I'd need to look it up. It didn't look like a clip as it looked to be well above the knee . Not exactly a blind side hit nor was it a slew foot. Flipping a guy over is dangerous yes but I really don't know the rule that applies.

This rule probably will be used:

Rule 21—Match Penalties, states that a match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner.

It is also a 'low bridge', and Marchand received a five game suspension previously for a similar hit, although on that occasion at least they were both going for the puck...

We used to call that 'low-bridging' - a cheap & unsafe move. Rat-face got suspended a few years back for the same type of hit on Sami Salo so it remains to be seen what the league will do in this case. You're right Flat - the end result of the hit was dangerous & in my opinion has to be addressed with some form of disciplinary action.

Cheers
JB

Edit: Due to my slow & almost non-existent typing skills, 1990C4S beat me to the punch.

I wrote my reply hours ago...just forgot to hit 'Post Quick Reply'.

I believe this type of suspension comes from the department of player safety. Which is appropriate. The hit was unsafe, unnecessary, unexpected, and dangerous.

I still do not understand how that happens, and yet none of the four referees saw it....no penalty? A linesman can make that call...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1451495587.jpg

There are some differences between this incident and the one with Salo. The Salo hit was predatory and deserved the 5 games. In this case, Borowiecki was blocking Marchand from turning left to go after the puck. They were already bumping each other. Marchand made a hard left turn to get around Borowiecki. Ergonomically he took the best route BUT he went too low. Player Safety will have to decide if it was at or below the knees.

Unlike Prust who was only fined $5k for a spear to the groin. Predatory, intent to injure.

In Marchand's favor is that both players were dicing with each other, he has been "good" lately (the previous low bridge was 4 years ago), and there was no injury. Unlike Prust who was fined $5k for a spear to the groin. Predatory, intent to injure amd yet only $5k. Chump change to them.

Marchand may get a game or two due to his history.

3 games and, probably worst of all, he has to watch the Winter Classic from the cheap seats.

The Bruins won the Winter Classic Alumni game in a shootout. Orr wasn't there (?). I hope it is a sign of good things to come for tomorrow.