Rumour has it that the Ottawa Senators may in fact be close to trading 24-year old goaltender Ray Emery to a Western Conference (apparently, the Los Angeles Kings) team along with forward Patrick Eaves and a prospect coming up from the Sens' farm club in Binghamton (suggested to be Josh Hennessey) in exchange for a goaltender and player.
Kevin Lee from Hockeybuzz, posted this on his blog yesterday and fans are anxiously awaiting to see if it's true or not.
To add more flame to the fire, GM Bryan Murray was reportedly in Binghamton last night to watch the prospect involved in the deal play, again, according to Lee.
Oh boy, this is interesting, is Emery on the way out? Already?!
He led his team to the Cup Final last season, was locked up to a big deal and is still young.
Have the Sens given up on him? Already?!
Interesting indeed,
-BBeR
10 November 2007
Senators to trade Emery?
10 September 2007
Ray Emery Has Anger Issues
And this time it might cost him. A 65-year-old Ottawa man says he's planning to sue Ottawa Senators goaltender Ray Emery over an alleged road rage incident this week, even though police have decided no charges will be laid.
Jean Therien said he was on his way to a workout at Scotiabank Place on Wednesday morning, when he and Emery simultaneously moved their vehicles from the right- to left-hand lanes in order to pass a car that was ahead of them.
Therien claims Emery then tried to run him into the ditch, eventually parking and exiting his vehicle near the arena before threatening him.
The altercation took place last week and after a police investigation, no charges were laid.
Perhaps I'm unfamiliar with this type of law but if it's not about the money than what is it about? I can imagine Therien would be hard-pressed to make a successful case against Emery if there were no charges filed by the police and he suffered no physical damages. So then, what exactly is he asking for compensation for?
That being said, it unnerves me a little bit that Emery has found a way to get into the media for something other than his playing. Ray, don't get me wrong, I love your rambunctiousness and the league could use more personalities like you. I'll even give you props for having the cajones to say that you won't apologize for something you're not actually sorry for. But come on, let's bring the focus back onto the ice shall we?
24 July 2007
Oh, Thank Goodness
It was an eleventh-hour deal but it still got done and that's what matters. The Ottawa Senators have managed to avoid arbitration with their number 1 goaltender Ray Emery just hours before his hearing was set to begin:
'It was a difficult negotiation,'' Emery's agent J.P. Barry told The Canadian Press. ''Bryan and I started pretty far apart but we worked hard to close the gap and were able to do so this morning after Bryan was able to speak with Mr. Melnyk.''
The 24-year-old Emery was a restricted free agent. He will earn $2.75 million next season, $3.25 million in 2008-09 and $3.5 million in 2009-10, for an average of $3.16 million a season, a big raise over the $925,000 he made last season.
He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract.
Emery emerged as Ottawa's starting goalie last season and led the team to a Stanley Cup final appearance. He went 33-16-6 in the regular season with a 2.47 goals-against average and .918 save percentage. He was 13-7 with a 2.26 GAA and .907 save percentage. Emery has started all 30 of Ottawa's playoff games post-lockout.
The $3.16-million average for Emery eclipses the $2.66-million average salaries from Buffalo's Ryan Miller (signed last summer) and Carolina's Cam Ward and is less than the $4.25-million, one-year deal signed by New York Rangers starter Henrik Lundqvist.
Reports are that Emery turned down a contract that averaged $4 million per season so maybe the contentious issue was that of length and bonuses.
Update: The spreadsheet has been updated with Christoph Schubert's salary number, which averages out to be $833,333 per year (3-year deal worth $2.65 million in total). The red figure for Chris Kelly of $1,046,000 is a hypothetical amount. I don't expect him to come in for over $2 million, and $1.046 million was the number Muckler had previously offered Saprykin.
According to the math, it puts the Senators at just over $44 million. Kelly and Schubert shouldn't cost more than $2 million - $2.5 million which means the Senators could be looking at adding one or two more players. The Senators ought to look at adding at least another two forwards to the mix, assuming that re-signing Lawrence Nycholat was meant to replace Tom Preissing, the Senators should be set on the blue-line although understandably, another bigger, more physical d-man would also help. If the Senators can get another forward signed, Schubert could drop back to D.
However, it is clear that Murray's job isn't finished yet as there are still at least two holes to fill in the forward position. Depending on how he does at camp, Hennessey could be looking at staying on with the big club permanently and it is expected that Nick Foligno should challenge for a spot next year, but there's also no guarnatee on how much playing time Brian McGrattan will see.
UPDATE: That's another one crossed off the list as TSN is reporting that the Senators have re-signed RFA Christoph Schubert to a new 3-year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed but I would probably peg it definitely at either $1 million or under. Perhaps somewhere in the $800,000 - $975,000 mark.
Parts cross-posted to Scarlett Ice
Emery, Avery, Cammalleri, Roy, Ryder, Hunter, Stempniak
Arbitration is a time of year where fans hold their breath that one of their favourite, usually good, players doesn't demand too much and sign for more than he's worth.
If you want a relevant example of how arbitration affects the new NHL and its salary cap, see JP Dumont with the Buffalo Sabres at this exact same time last year.
The French-Canadian was awarded a one-year contract worth an estimated $2.9 million by a salary arbitrator after coming off a decent season while scoring 20 goals and adding the same number for assists in 54 games.
The number was grand, grand in many ways since a checking-line player is hardly worth anything over $2 million these days, so, the Sabres exercised their right to reject a contract and let Dumont walk to free-agency.
Dumont eventually signed for about 700K less with the Nashville Predators and scored 66 points with the last season, a career high.
That's only one and perhaps the best example of salaries awarded that affect a team's ability to keep him under the salary cap.
EMERY UPDATE: TSN reports that the Senators and Ray Emery have avoided salary arbitration with them agreeing to a 3-year contract worth $9.5 million (or almost $3.2 million per season)
(Hat tip to Sherry over at Scarlett Ice)
Now the question remains, what will they do with Martin Gerber?
This year promises to have some pretty big surprises on both sides, starting with the Senators' Ray Emery, coming off a career year all while carrying Ottawa to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in the modern era.
Emery had 33 wins, a 2.47 GAA and a .918 SPCT after overtaking Martin Gerber as the team's number one heading into December.
He made $925,000 last season and is looking for a hefty raise, that will likely come easily.
Reports out of Ottawa suggest that the only way Murray will be able to effectively sign Emery and have room to re-sign Jason Spezza (RFA), Dany Heatley (UFA), Antoine Vermette (RFA), Patrick Eaves (RFA) and Wade Redden (UFA) next summer is if he moves backup goalie Martin Gerber and his $3.7 million salary, which will be a difficult task.
All in all, Emery should get between $2.5 and $4 million next season, as arbitrators have proven they're still in love with the old NHL way of doing these things.
His agent, J.P. Barry is rumoured to be negotiating a multi year contract for Emery, and should Murray not be able to dump Gerber, he could have no choice and let Emery walk to free-agency, deeming his potential hefty salary too high for a goalie of his current status.
The trading of Peter Schaefer last week to the Bruins cleared up significant cap space over the next few seasons for Ottawa, in order to attempt to keep Emery and the crop of 2008 free-agents mentioned above.
Gerber finished the season off well for Ottawa and put up the exact same GAA and SPCT% he had with Carolina 2 seasons ago, all while maintaining a total of 15 wins.
The Swiss-born keeper is capable of a lot more than a backup role, and many fans feel that way; as we saw last season, if Gerber is not confident, he is weak...VERY weak...so Sens fans better be hoping that if Emery is indeed let go (and come on, it's not the end of the world) that Gerber finds his confidence and uses it like he did with Canes 2 seasons ago, and like he did when he shut out Team Canada with an amazing 47-save performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.
Among others, Buffalo's Derek Roy could command a Nathan Horton type salary, according to the Ghost, who has a great post handling the fact that Roy could indeed be an equal to the Panther forward.
Roy, an impressive +37 last season, is the team's projected no.1 centre next season, with Bufalo GM Darcy Regier losing both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere to the Rangers and Flyers respectively via free-agency.
The Sabres are expected to push hard to sign Roy and don't expect another JP Dumont-type situation to unfold this time around, as whatever the arbitrator awards Roy, Regier will pay with open arms.
He had a career-year as the team's 3rd line centre, scoring 21 goals and adding 42 assists for a total of 63 points in 75 contests.
On the other side of town, Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa's cases are still unresolved, with both wanting and deserving raises from the salaries they had last season.
Avery, being the most deserving, made $1.1 million last season and could command a salary upwards of $2.5 million in arbitration, while Marcel Hossa is second-rate and definitely not a priority in this case.
The Rangers may indeed sacrifice Hossa, should his contract be too expensive for their taste, and focus on signing the hard-hitting and well-hated Avery instead.
Avery, who came over in a deal from the Los Angeles Kings at mid-season, scored 18 goals and added 30 assists with LA and New York, 20 of those points coming in 29 contests after his trade to the Rangers, making his value as a checking-line player skyrocket.
Speaking of LA, the Kings will have a difficult case in Mike Cammalleri.
Coming off a career year, the 25-year old tallied 34 goals and added 46 assists to lead the Kings, his salary projects to be upwards of $4 million, and his best-case scenario would likely be a salary of $5 million, though, at this point of his career, the Kings better hope it's a multi-year deal for that kind of money.
The Islanders have scoring centre Trent Hunter heading into arbitration, and the veteran shouldn't be too expensive.
Coming off a 20-goal and 35 point campaign, Hunter is likely to get a deal within the likes of $1 and $1.8 million.
Michael Ryder, a potential 40, maybe even 50 goal scorer for the Canadiens, is scheduled for arbitration on July 30, same as Sean Avery.
Ryder had an up-and-down season in Montreal, potting 30 goals and adding 28 helpers for a respectable 58 points.
The downside? A horrendous -25 rating and a decrease in consistency could hurt Ryder's value when it comes time to talk turkey.
Still relatively young at age 27, Ryder still has the time to fully break out into the 40-goal scorer he was projected to become, although he may prove to be pricey when this is all said and done.
Ryder made $2.2 million last season and is expected to once again, get a raise from that.
Often criticized of being a one-dimensional player, Ryder actually evolved into a penalty-killing role last season despite putting up a +/- rating of -25.
He is a key component of Montreal's already borderline offence, a salary of $3 million sounds reasonable.
I have long suggested the Canadiens should do a kind of sign-and-trade of Ryder in order to acquire that star player the Canadiens have longed for, someone like Patrick Marleau.
Besides Ryder, there isn't anyone the Habs could realistically trade that has good value without jeopardizing the club's future (Carey Price, Chris Higgins, Andrei Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse).
Lee Stempniak, the 24-year old scoring sensation out of Darthmouth University in New Hampshire, is the kind of player the Blues need to lock up for a long time.
Stempniak scored 27 goals and 52 points in only his second pro NHL season!
He will likely get a deal done that will pay him between $2 and $3.5 million
And that's all folks, hope you enjoyed BBeR's preview of this year's arbitration saga, which is shaping up to be an intriguing one in many ways!
This took me a long time to write, with only statistics and salary numbers being available to me, I have yet to find a decent list/preview of all this out there, so I decided to write one up myself!
-In goalite news, the Blues have acquired goalie Hannu Toivonen from the Boston Bruins in exchange for centre Carl Soderberg.
Toivonen had a terrible 2005-2006 campaign after a spectacular rookie season, a trade was expected with the B's acquisition of Manny Fernandez from the Wild.
-Some more goalie talk, Brian Boucher is heading back to where he started, signing a one-year minor-league deal with the Flyers' farm club, the Philadelphia Phantoms.
Cheers!
--BBR
02 June 2007
Mega Post: It all comes down to the masked men...but who's better?
It's so tough to decide who's been the better goalie in this 88th version of the Stanley Cup Final, featuring the Ducks' Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Ottawa's "Sugar" Ray Emery.
How about we let the photos decide who's been the better goalie and who will win the series?!
Just for fun though...
Jean-Sebas Giguere, in full gear, chats with Martin Gerber who's in his street clothes on the bench during practice in Anaheim.
Man, Gerber musta said something funny to make Giguere laugh like that:
"What does stopping a puck feel like again? It's been so long since I've done that, I don't even know why I bother growing this beard?!!"
Giguere probably said: "Grow some hair on your head before letting your beard get long, and then I'll show you the basics."
"Oh wait, is Ray calling me?"
"I think I'm growing some hemorroids, it would help if my teammates didn't completely let me down in games so I wouldn't have to flop around everywhere to make a damn save, you Marty, quick laughing with the enemy and get me some cream."
Haha, both look funny but Giggy wins this one, just because he's talking to Gerber who's in street clothes, come to think of it, Gerber does look kinda bemused right there.
Now, who has the nicer mask?
I wonder if Emery can match his excellent taste in clothes (we'll get to that later) with his goalie mask.
Tough one.
Giguere has the "Pond" nicely made on the lower part of his mask, right under the cage, with a half-robot/half duck emblazoned on his head with an overlaying Ducks webbed logo spitting out lightning.
That's will be tough to beat Ray.
Then again, that "Mike Tyson" type boxer that caused SOOO MANY problems with the Sens' staff earlier last season is really just unforgetable, but is the SENATORS streak across his left cheek and the Trojan Senators Logo on the chin enough to beat Giguere?
Nope, sorry Ray, your mask lacks a little bit of zip, J.S beats you here again.
Here's Ray Emery's closet featured on TSN with the always funny James Duthie.
And let's take a look at the great JS, whose 2-0 lead in the series may be in jeopardy.
No tie, conservative and typical black and white with no spice or zest whatsoever, sorry Gigg, there's no doubt who takes it here, too much damn black!
Back in the old days, goalies would just slap on bare-leathered pads with strings flinging out from every corner, today, equipement manufacturing gurus are set with an annual task of bringing out a new style, a new pad design while maintaining the piece's "revolutionnary" aspect.
Behold, the 2007 version of the pro NHL Reebok pad, nicely rounded and very very cleanly formed.
Giguere is one of many goalies to wear this type of RBK pad this season, others include Cristobal Huet, Marc-Andre Fleury, Mathieu Garon, Marty Turco, Wade Dubielewicz, David Aebischer and Roberto Luongo.
I am a goalie as well and I have RBK pads, and I can tell you, they are probably the best ones out there, they're nearly flawless and as far as I can tell, the most durable I have ever had.
Ray Emery has nearly the same pads he wore with the Senators since his debut a few seasons ago, Brians has fallen off the chart in the goalie pad industry but they still remain a solid but pricey option, Emery's Ottawa emblazoned star-like colours are intriguing, but Giguere's modern-looking RBK pads take the cake.
Game V. The Spectacular Save
You know, this is probably one of the most ignored facts by today's hockey fans, most SPECTACULY WOOOWWWWW WHAT A SAVE OOHHHH!!!!!!! saves of today's NHL are basically a result of a goaltender being out of position and being force back into his crease in an uncanny but OOHHH!!!! WHAT WAS THAT!!! manner.
Behold Ottawa's Ray Emery, who's on the verge of losing the Cup, down 3 games to 1.
A typical flip-flop save by Sugar Ray, man I remember thinking to myself:
"Emery has done all but stand on his head"
Diving stops by Emery are becoming a trademark in the Rayman's portofolio.
A terrific stop nonetheless, Emery has just challenged his counterpart JS Giguere, let's see what the Quebecois 'tender will present us with:
Man, the Sens really got stoned on that 5-on-3 PP in the first period against the Ducks, and here's one of Giguere's calm but explosive saves.
Here he, in direct fashion, stones Jason Spezza in the slot, extending his pad to deny the Senators of potentially scoring their first goal of the game, well, turns out Giggy shut them out.
I woulda picked Giguere, but Game V is all about the most spectacular stop, and Emery definitely wins this one with this quick sprawling painting, yow, imagine the adrenaline running through his body right there at that exact second.
Now, there's a saying that common hockey fans refer to as "The Numbers Tell it All"
Not in this case.
Here is Exhibit A, the game log of Jean-Sebastien Giguere through 2 Stanley Cup Final Games.
ANA-Giguere
Game 1: 18/20 saves 2 GA, .900 SPCT, 2.00 GAA, 0 SHO W 3-2
Game 2: 16/16 saves, 0 GA, 1.000 SPCT, 0.00 GAA, 1 SHO W 1-0
He looked shaky early on in Game 1, but rebounded and made many key saves to lead his team to a 3-2 victory, not his best performance though.
Game 2 was a different story, although he only made 16 saves in a 1-0 shutout win over the Slumpin Sens, Giguere was simply fantastic in every aspect of his game, he played at the peak of his capability and the Sens might've won had it not been for Giguere's infallible play, his most notable stops came on that famous 5-on-3 Sens powerplay in the first, as he stoned Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Wade Redden, Mike Comrie and Dany Heatley in less than 2 minutes.
Those are some pretty big names, but will Giguere's lack of business come back to haunt him, and allow Emery to send this one to a Game 7?
Presenting Exhibit B: Ray Emery in numbers.
OTT-Emery
Game 1: 29/32 saves, 3 GA, .906 SPCT, 3.06 GAA, 0 SHO, L 2-3
Game 2: 30/31 saves, 1 GA, .968 SPCT, 1.01 GAA, 0 SHO, L 0-1
Heading into his first ever Stanley Cup appearance along with nearly everyone else on this year's Senators team besides Oleg Saprykin and Martin Gerber (haha), Emery was under hot pressure by the media and fans alike to produce, and to play well, to excel.
Emery answered in a remarkable way, he has played extremely well for Ottawa and got better as the game went on, he faced 30 more shots than his opponent JS Giguere, and has many many more spectacular saves, he's the reason Ottawa lost 1-0 and not 9-0, he's giving his team a chance to win night-in and night-out, it's now time for his teammates to WAKE UP and repay him the favour, to support him, otherwise, they're just plainly and without using any fancy adjectives: LETTING HIM DOWN.
Emery has just carried the Senators into Game 7, and a chance to win hockey's revered trophy, and to disprove to Don Cherry's proud fact that "No European captain has ever won the Stanley Cup."
Game VII. The Words...wow, what words...
And here we are ladies and gents, Game 7 we will play once more, your Ottawa Senators facing your Anaheim Ducks, winner take all, loser goes home crying.
Passions and emotions run high during playoffs, many unforgettable words have been spoken, and some pretty damn good ones have beeen spoken about this year as well.
We start with Jean-Sebastien Giguere:
Obviously, everybody takes pride in being good at home, and they're going to do that. They worked too hard all year, I'm sure, to just let it go. So we're going to have to match their intensity and their desperation to have a chance.
Ooooh, that really was good, their "desperation" part was really wicked.
Giguere is one of the few left who really expresses what he feels, unlike the others who repeat the same stupid phrases EVERY SINGLE GAME!
Giguere says the Sens work too hard, and frankly, that is very classy of him, acknowledging that the Senators are a good team, and that he doesn't put them down by using big words that on the outside are compliments, but on the inside are just insults galore.
Now, the moment you've waited for by reading this long and tiring post of mine:
What's Ray Emery's comeback to that?
I think we're comfortable playing in this rink [Scotia Bank Place]You take your nap in your own bed. You're just comfortable. There's that, and just the emotion of the fans. Home-ice advantage is what it is.
"Take a nape in your own bed"
Ladies in gentlemen, I think we have a winner and a worthy loser, the 2007 Stanley Cup Champions...OTTAWA SENATORS, led by goaltender Ray Emery and his fantastic performance in a stunning comeback.
Give credit to Giguere though for his outstanding show as well, but, when all's said and done, Don Cherry: hahahaahaaa!!
Daniel Alfredsson: First ever *Don, stop crying* European captain to win the Stanley Cup!
I had fun, I hope you did reading this too.
--BBR
17 May 2007
Hockey Night Online: It's Called Character
It goes without saying that I am absolutely in love with my team and some might say that I'm perhaps overly emotionally invested that it is no longer healthy. However, when you follow the team closely and get to know the characters involved, it's simply hard not to be.
AQG has a nice collection of fun anecdotes involving the Ottawa Senators including the fact that nobody in Ottawa actually has any idea who Tom Preissing is.
I can only imagine what a Ray Emery architectural wonder would look like.
If you watch the post-game show for Hockey Night Online for game 3, you can see Daniel Alfredsson with his 4-year-old son Hugo on his lap during this press conference. If you watch afterwards, you can also hear Elliotte Friedman gush about how they have the exact same eyes and an adorable story from their Headliner filming. You can watch the Headliner segment they're talking about here under 'Archived' and it is about 15 minutes into the Game 2 video.
I'm not worried about them losing. Were it any other squad from year's past, I may have had reason to be concerned but this team has shown that they're mentally tough and can survive a few bumps on the road. Their fate is still in their own hands.
12 May 2007
A New Sabres Team Tonight ( But the Refs still stink!)
Wow, the first period might have been the Sabres' best in 4 months. It appears Ruff has just decided to turn them loose. I have been especially impressed with the way Briere has responded. He is playing aggressive and tough. He will score tonight. Someone appears to have re-energized Teppo as well. It was the best period he has played all year.
As for the referee's, in the arena and in Toronto, not a good start. The real problem I have is that the league allowed the exact same goal to count for Jason Pominville in the Islander series. This is the type of inconsistency that just hurts the game.
Furthermore, I am a firm believer that if you can't make a decision in 3 minutes then the call on the ice was probably good.
As for the Senators, the call for interference on Chris Phillips was awful. Pominville simply missed the pass. It is a good sign for Ottawa that they got out of the period only down one. Someone, though, should put out an APB for Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley. What a terrible effort they put out, especially on Vanek's goal. Ray Emery is really fighting it tonight and has let out some enormous rebounds. He must play better.
See you after two.
11 May 2007
Disappointment and Emery Reign in Buffalo
Color me thoroughly disappointed in the Sabres' effort in the 3rd period last night. I must admit I was totally confident going into the 3rd period tied. What I saw was a lackluster effort punctuated by some foolish mistakes. The Sabres have no excuse for coming up flat in a critical period like that.
Speaking of coming up flat what is happening with Danny Briere? It looks like he doesn't want the puck at all. I have to think that he may be suffering from a crisis of confidence right now. I think a lot of it stems from the power play struggles. Teams have focused on Briere on the power play and he has given the puck away numerous times. This really worries me.
The play of the night had to be Ray Emery's blocker save on Tim Connolly. It was a world class play and shot by Connolly and Emery simply beat him. In my opinion the game really turned after that save in the 3rd. Ottawa surged immediately afterward. It was an extremely critical save after the terrible goal Emery had allowed to Toni Lydman to allow Buffalo to tie the game.
It might be time to put Paul Gaustad on the power play. The sabres might just be better off planting him in front and just firing away. The current power play revolves around control and trying to set up the pretty goal. Maybe playing a more dirty type of power play would help the Sabres overall mindset.
I still believe the Sabres are better, but they better start playing that way...tomorrow.
04 May 2007
Pot, Meet Kettle
Your overlord hasn't yet introduced me yet but I am a new addition to this merry cast of characters and will be taking care of your Ottawa Senators coverage. You can find my usual spews and thoughts about the team over at Scarlett Ice.
So with the Ducks finishing off the Canucks last night in the second OT period, it looks like the Senators might need to get a bigger bandwagon as they are the last thread of hope for the cup returning to its home country since, oh...14 years ago. But you know, no pressure or anything.
The Senators can eliminate the Devils with a win tomorrow and advance to the conference finals. Then, they twiddle their thumbs and wait for the Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers to beat up on each other to await their opponent. Still, it's important to take it one game at a time. Ain't over until the fat lady sings but maybe that's just me being nervous for no good reason. Yesterday, Martin Brodeur attempted to deflect attention away from the fact that he's let in a string of questionable goals by saying his counterpart down the ice Ray Emery, "wasn't very good":
"I think we finally proved to ourselves if we shoot the puck on Emery, he won't look too good," said Brodeur, after he himself had a shaky night in the Senators' 3-2 win to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"He was bobbling a lot of pucks and we could have got a lot more than we did. He played a good game, but I think we exposed him a little with his rebound control."
I think everybody was licking their chops at the salacious bitchiness of it all. I have to admit, when I first heard it I was all "Oh, no you di'nt!", myself. The general consensus I've been hearing is that most people think that Brodeur is just grasping at straws to 1) Deflect attention away from the fact that he hasn't been all that strong himself and 2) to rile his team up and get them fired up.
Now I don't have a problem with any of those things and if anybody can get away with saying stuff like that it's Marty Brodeur. I'm also not too concerned about Emery's play at all. He's never outplayed Brodeur in this series, but he's never had to. What Emery's been doing now works and on a team that clicks, everybody has a specific role to play and it's about accepting your job. Emery hasn't had to make particularly hard saves but it isn't necessarily about how difficult the save is, it's about the timing of the save. A lot of the goals Brodeur has let in, especially in the last game, were very deflating to the team and sapped the momentum from the Devils. Emery, on the other hand stood tall in the last minute of play when the Devils were desperately trying to tie it.
Watching these games, I have been at times been concerned with Emery's play though, I will admit. There are times at the start of games where he's looked shaky handling the puck. The biggest thing that people are harping on is his rebound control. However, none of them has lead to goals which can be attributed to the fact that there simply aren't enough Devils who are crashing the net. But also to the fact that Emery tends to kick his rebounds out to his defensemen so they can clear the zone. Whether or not this happens by accident or just part of his game plan, I don't know but if it works, it works.
Knowing Emery, this will just fire him up to play better. I've noticed from round 1 that Emery gets better with each game and he's shown that in this series as well. Emery's the fiercest competitor out there as evidenced when the Senators decided to sign Martin Gerber at the start of the season. He responded by improving his play and became the go-to guy for the Senators squad and they play with much more confidence in front of him.
All this being said, GO SENS GO!
