Goaltending woes around the NHL two weeks into the 2007-2008 season...

Often, even if your team has ammassed the cream of the crop of superstars on their roster, it may not be enough to win in a new and tough NHL era.

It might be really early, and I know you cannot blame a goalie for how he performs on most nights, but let's take a look at how some goalies are faring around the league almost 2 weeks into the new campaign.

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The Atlanta Thrashers have learned this the hard way, only 5 games into the season their goaltending monster of Kari Lehtonen and Johan Hedberg have combined for a total of 23 goals against and subsequently a zero in the wins column and 5 losses despite Ilya Kovalchuk putting up his usual spectacular goal-scoring fiesta night-in and night-out.

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In Toronto, the Maple Leafs and their fans have had to endure the shaky start of new acquisition Vesa Toskala in the blue and white.
The prized pickup of Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. this offseason from down in Sunny San Jose currently leads all goaltenders with 18 goals allowed in only 4 games, complimented by a 4.48 GAA and a paltry .878 SPCT%.

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It's the same old story down in Tampa Bay, as the curse of Nikolai Khabibulin lives on.
With 3 wins so far this year, the Lightning have all the offence they need with Vinny Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards to compensate for their lack of a solid starter between the pipes.
The Lightning lost a game last night 6-4 to their counterpart Florida Panthers and you could argue that TB's goaltending is back to its old habits again.
After three strong consecutive performances by Johan Holmqvist in the team's first 3 wins; the Swedish sophomore let 4 goals on 15 shots go right through his body against the Panthers yesterday evening with all of them being considered in your blogger's eyes quite soft.
He was replaced by Marc Denis, originally sought for the starting role 2 summers ago (but that didn't work out either) and nothing out of the ordinary or remotely solid came of him in his 7 shot stint besides one weak goal that killed the momentum Tampa Bay had going after scoring four unanswered goals on Tomas Vokoun that period.

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Manny Fernandez was supposed to be the answer for the Boston Bruins in goal, but Tim Thomas is showing why he should be the number one for the B's.
Two ordinary outings and 10 goals against have people wondering if Fernandez can get back to his previous form from 2 seasons ago with the Wild, the same season which he stole the starter's job from Dwayne Roloson.
Until he decides to play like his salary dictates, the Bruins have all the time in the world to watch Tim Thomas shine for them.
A 1.48 goals against average and a .957 SPCT% puts Thomas in the top 3 in each of those categories to start the season; and I see no reason why Fernandez and his 5.00 GAA should park their butts in Boston's crease as long as the Bear is playing like a superstar.

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Jonathan Bernier had fans salivating after a stunning game against the defending Stanley Cup Champs on Opening Night in the United Kingdom, but the hype has calmed down ever since.
2 games and 11 goals later, the former first round draft choice Bernier is on the bench again and could end up in Manchester pretty soon.
Jason LaBarbera hasn't been any better the rookie Bernier with no wins and a .827 SPCT% to get his NHL career back on track.

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Marc-Andre Fleury, Chris Mason, Miikka Kiprusoff, Martin Brodeur, Robert Luongo and Ryan Miller all need to be better if their teams have a chance at success this year.

Olaf Kolzig, Cam Ward, Nikolai Khabibulin, Manny Legace, Martin Biron and Cristobal Huet are carrying their teams with solid performances night-in and night-out.

Yours truly is a goaltender as well, and is only giving his two cents on this subject...things can change, it's only a few games, but here's how it's looking so far...

-BBeR

Cloutier on waivers, followed by many more...

Los Angeles Kings goaltender and former Vancouver Canuck, Dan Cloutier has been placed on waivers as the team has been unhappy with the veteran goalie ever since they acquired him 2 years ago from the Canucks.

Originally sought for the number one job in LA, the Kings swung a deal and sent a second rounder up north with hopes that the Quebecois native would solve their goaltendings woes that included losing Felix Potvin to the Boston Bruins, their "franchise goalie" Jamie Storr's career, the unorthodox Roman Cechmanek to Europe and even Cristobal Huet...whom they traded in order to acquire Mathieu Garon in 2004.

The Kings goaltending future might have gotten a little brighter with the cutting of Cloutier.

Jason LaBarbera is looking like gold and youngster Jonathan Bernier is being hailed as the second coming of Jamie Storr.

LaBarbera, a former prospect for the New York Rangers, spent the entire 2006-2007 season with the Manchester Monarchs in the American Hockey League and posted elite numbers with an impressive total of 39 wins, a very good 2.20 GAA and an excellent .933 save percentage.

The Kings had been hesitant to recall LaBarbera last season, despite injuries to both Dan Cloutier and Mathieu Garon due to the fact he'd have to clear waivers to be called up or sent down.

So instead the club went down to the ECHL and brought up the short-lived Japanese "named" sensation, Yutaka Fukufuji, minor-league scrub Barry Brust and even went as far as giving 41-year old Sean Burke a crack at stopping a puck again.

But now, with Garon signing with the Edmonton Oilers via free-agency and the cutting loose of the horrendous Dan Cloutier...what? have you forgotten his 2006-2007 line?

Hehe, a W-L record of 6-14-2, a goals against average a tick under 4.00 and a save percentage that makes me cringe at .860%.

Ok, where was I?

Ah, ok, so no more Garon, Cloutier has just been cut loose...that leaves us with two phenomenal youngsters: Jason LaBarbera and, we shouldn't forget Jonathan Bernier, who shone for Team Canada at the Summit Series recently.

So it's now expected that Jason LaBarbera will get the majority of the cookie with Jonathan Bernier popping in for a more than occasional start in the crease as well.

I can already tell that Kings fans are celebrating, there's no doubt that Cloutier definietly lost that spunk he portrayed with the Vancouver Canucks in the pre-lockout era.

Here's the official reason from Kings' GM Dean Lombardi:

The reality is, he hasn’t played for three years.

The only way to really get his rhythm back and to get him where he needs to be is to get him to play.
You see this in baseball all the time, where established pitchers have to do a form of rehab assignments if they lose their fastballs and the only way to get it back – to get totally confident – is to go back to the minors and do it.

Obviously, we gave this a lot of thought. The bottom line is, we thought this was the only way we could get him back to where he was comfortable. Physically, he’s totally healthy. But as we all know with goaltending, a lot of it has to do with his confidence and his state of mind. The only way he was going to get it all together was to play and to play a lot and not have to do it at this level.

So he says *rolls eyes*.

As for the rest, here's an inside look from our buddy Eklund of who's been placed on waivers (NEVER forget the source of this, but then again, why would he lie for something not so important and jeopardize his spectacularly marvelous career as the anonymous hockey blogger?)

Penguins
Deryk Engelland

Hurricanes
Wade Brookbank
Tim Conboy
David Gove
Brandon Nolan

Blue Jackets
Dan Smith
Andrew Murray

Thrashers
Kevin Doell
Jesse Schultz

Capitals
Jason Morgan

Islanders
Steve Regier
Tim Jackman
Kip Brennan
Matthew Spiller
Drew Fata
Joey MacDonald

Ducks
Joe Callahan
Mike Hoffman
Matt Keith
Dan Lacouture

Kings
Brendan Buckley
Petr Kanko
Oleg Tverdovsky
Cloutier, Dan

Stars
Trevor Byrne
Marius Holtet
Toby Petersen

See anyone that would interest your team?

-BBeR

Survivor: Coyotes Edition

I've never actually watched Survivor but from what I've heard, there's a lot of backstabbing and feeding each other to the sharks (no pun intended) so I'm looking forward to seeing who will be the first to cry... I know, I know, I have a mean streak in me. All I can say in my defense is that I love these guys to death, even the ones I don't really know yet; as soon as they put on that Coyote uniform, they steal my heart and I will go to bat for them, no questions asked. That being said, I want them to fight for it. I am sick of guys coming here simply to retire (and because we have good golf); I want them to come here because we are using a winning system and they want to be a part of it.

So who's it going to be? Will it be our backup from last year, Mikael Tellqvist? Will it be one of the two new guys brought in to duke it out for the top spot, David Aebischer or Alex Auld? Will David Leneveu finally have his shot at the big club or will this be the end of his run in our organization? Where will my boy Josh Tordjman rank in this line up? Will he continue to be San Antonio's backup or will he move up and become their number one, shaping him to show up for us in the next year or so?

So many questions with no answers. They should, at the least, give us all a good show at training camp next month. Whoever is chosen, though, should know that they can't just coast through. "Oh, it's only the Coyotes, they're not going to the playoffs anyway, I'll just take tonight off." Nay, goalie, nay. You'll have to prove every night that you deserve to be here... we're not taking any shit from anyone. Or at least I hope we're not...

(X-Posted to TrueCoyoteLove & the HLOG)

And...save by Chris Dury, what a stop with the glove hand!

You read the title right, Chris Drury is now stopping pucks.

And this is how the Buffalo Sabres are supposed to improve their powerplay, and likely, their morale heading into Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final tonight.

So is Derek Roy

And Nathan Paestch

Oh, let's not forget Brian Campbell too

Miller looks on, wondering if his Sabres can pull off a "Red Sox" miracle.

Sorry fellows, I don't think you'll be any better than Ryan Miller soon.

--BBR