USA Vs. Canada Tomorrow

While I'm not shocked by the United States being 2-0 in this tournament so far, I am shocked that Switzerland nearly knocked off Canada.

That game against the Swiss was probably the most exciting game I've seen since the Pens knocked off Detroit in Game 7 for the Stanley Cup.

Jonas Hiller was the Greek god of goaltending and has permanent bragging rights over Ducks teammate Ryan Getzlaf.

He not only stoned him in the shootout, he flat out pulled the greatest glove save in at least the last 10 years late in the third.

No words came out of my mouth as my jaw hung wide open. Simply incredible and Getzlaf was in desperate need of a long hug from your girlfriend.

Anyway, I still think that Team USA is screwed for tomorrow's showdown in Vancouver.

What's on the line is potentially a first round bye if they can force OT or get a win.

A win assures them of a top four seed, but with how the Group of Death (Group B) is playing out, one point in the standings could also get it done.

Here's my issue with the Americans right now.

In my predictions, I said that the inexperience of the young squad was concerning. That inexperience has shown up big time and if the USA would have played a top notch team in either of those openers, we're not sitting at 2-0.

I've completely lost count of how many odd-man rushes the Americans have given up so far. Keep in mind they were giving these up to the Swiss and the bastard child of Scandinavia in Norway.

If they continue to play fast and loose on defense, this will be an ugly game. Ryan Miller is a very good goaltender, but not even he will be able to shut down those odd-man rushes.

The way this game needs to go tonight if the United States wants to get a win is to play a very tight checking game.

If Canada puts up 4 goals, it's over. With Martin Brodeur in net, even getting three will be a challenge if they don't put bodies out in front of him. I can't stand the guy, but he stops what he sees and hates traffic.

David Backes should take a run at him early to get in his head and if anyone breathes on Marty, watch for him to start crying to the refs like he always does.

Some say he's the greatest of all-time and they're right. He's the greatest whiner of all-time.

Either way, if they get to overtime, the United States should get a first round bye, which is far more than any of us probably expected.

Puck drop is 7:40 p.m. Eastern.

Canada 5 USA 1 - write it down and take it to the bank.

Top 5 Disappointments Of The Playoffs (So Far)

I was sitting around thinking the other day about some of the biggest surprises of the first round so far and why I'm giddy as a Pens fan. I figured that would be good for a later post and started thinking about the flip side of that scenario being the biggest disappointments of the playoffs so far. After running this by Gopher and bouncing off my few ideas and with some of his own I narrowed the list down to a cool five. Here they are:

#5 - Martin Brodeur's Play Against The Rangers

Has he ever played a worse playoff series in his career? I don't think so. Go back to the two blunders he had in Game 1 on home ice. With the score tied in the third period and on the power play, Brodeur either had a massive brain lapse or was his typical cocky puck playing self. (Yes, he's one of the best puck handling goalies in the league, but he gets a little over-confident some times.)

With Ryan Callahan curling around the net, Brodeur drops the puck in his crease about a foot from the goalline thinking that the man coming around the net was his defenseman only to see Callahan hack it into the net for a backbreaking shorthanded goal.

As if it wasn't bad enough, later in the same period Brodeur overplays Scott Gomez on a 2-on-1. Gomez was practically in the 5th row of the crowd when he realized Brodeur was staring him in the face and not in the crease when he passed it out front to Sean Avery for an easy tap in goal to pad the lead.



These are just two examples of his poor play in this series. A majority of the goals he allowed in this series were pucks he should have stopped or were pucks that had no business being in the net. Did Avery's antics really get into his head that bad, or is this just the first signs of an aging goaltender in the new NHL? Time will only tell, but needless to say this was not the Brodeur we are all used to seeing at this time of year.

#4 - The Dominator Becomes The Dominated

This is pretty self explanatory, but can you really blame Mike Babcock for turning to Chris Osgood this soon? I think I saw Hasek filling out his AARP membership info during Game 6 against Nashville.

He was brutal in Games 3 and 4 in Nashville. He singlehandedly put Hockeytown into a state of panic not seen since the Sharks upset them many a moon ago. I enjoyed watching Hasek play during his career, but I hate seeing athletes hang on too long. Look at Jerry Rice, does it get much worse than seeing a Hall of Famer be cut and no one pick him up and then see him have success on "Dancing With The Stars?" I don't think so.

This needs to be Hasek's last season. Yes he put up great numbers this season, but honestly put a pylon in net and the wings still win at least 48-52 games. That team is loaded and is a well oiled machine. The Wings have a very capable goalie in Jimmy Howard waiting in the wings for his turn. He's the future of this franchise and has proven that he can play at the NHL level when he filled in for the osteoporosis-ridden Hasek earlier this season.

#3 - Carey Price Is Either On Or Can't Stop A Beachball

I hate to see someone struggle like this and for me to have to come on here and say "I told you so," but here it is. I TOLD YOU SO.

Carey Price looked great for five of the seven games against Boston. Games 5 and 6 were terrible where he gave up 10 goals in those two games and allowed Boston to force a Game 7 after trailing 3-1 in the series. Now I haven't been able to figure out if his shutout in Game 7 is anything to be overly excited about as the Bruins had absolutely nothing left in the tank for that game. Price did have some great saves in the game, but his team had already spotted him a 3 goal lead before anything he did mattered.

Flash ahead to the current series against Philadelphia. He hasn't looked solid in any of the first three games and was pulled in Game 3 after the second period. He let up three goals on 12 shots and was replaced by Jaroslav Halak who didn't allow a goal in the third period as the Habs almost forced overtime after heading into the final period down 3-0.



Who will be in net for Game 4? If I'm running the show I go with Halak. You can't waste time waiting for a kid to show up and play like we all know he's capable of playing. I've said this before. I like Price. I really do, but the inexperience of a 21-year-old kid playing in Montreal with the hopes of all of Canada on his shoulders right now to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada, is starting to show.

The backbreaking goal he allowed in Game 2 in the third period had no business being scored. On a floating puck in the air he nonchalantly put his glove out to catch it only to see it batted out of his glove and then into the net. You have to fight for that puck at all times as a goalie. Maybe he'll turn it around, but he's got to do it quick if the Habs are going to keep advancing in the playoffs.

#2 What's Up With San Jose?

I felt obliged to put this in near the top of the list since I picked them to win the Stanley Cup.

I don't quite get it. This team was the hottest of any team heading into the playoffs, but has been just good enough to advance. The one game that sticks out in my mind was when they ran Kipper from the net in Calgary with three goals in less than four minutes. Things looked great for the Sharks in that game and then it all fell apart as they went on to lose the game.

You can't blow three goal leads in the playoffs and expect to win. Ask the Rangers about how Game 1 against Pittsburgh turned out after they did the exact same thing.

Now they find themselves down 0-2 against the Stars and heading BACK TO DALLAS for the next two games. The Stars have completely dominated the first two games of this series and I wonder if San Jose is feeling some fatigue from playing a very physical seven game series against the Flames.

This team has no business losing like this. They are too deep and too good of a team to be tossed around like this.

#1 - Anaheim Ducks Made The Playoffs?

Boy I bet Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are glad they came out of semi-retirement for this splendid Stanley Cup defense.

What a pathetic showing from the defending champs against the Stars who were one of the coldest most out of sync teams heading into the playoffs. It was almost like the Ducks expected to win and didn't put any effort into doing so.

J.S. Giguere was solid in only two games and those were the two they ended up winning.

The Stars controlled this series from the opening puck drop and the added boost of knocking off the defending champs has carried over into their series with the Sharks. I can't believe how the Ducks rolled over in this series. You can't take anything for granted in the playoffs even as the defending champs. With the way the Ducks played in the first round, I wouldn't have been surprised if the Lightning could have knocked them out. (Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch, but come on this was almost as bad as how the Senators played against the Penguins.)

The only thing I can come up with is that someone had really good tee times at Pebble Beach that making a run at defending the Stanley Cup was an afterthought.

Martin Brodeur Is No Better Than Sean Avery

The title on this should be self explanatory, but I'll go into some detail here. Before that, I must apologize for not getting something new up here in a few days. I had a buddy in town for all of last week and it was rather difficult to find the time to be able to sit down and write something up. He left yesterday and now here I am once again.

Anyway, Friday night after the Rangers had turned any normal day into one of my favorite holidays (Devils Elimination Day), Martin Brodeur did one of the most classless acts I have ever seen. I'm not saying this is as bad as Todd Bertuzzi or Marty McSorley, but it's close in terms of tradition.

In the handshake line, Brodeur and Sean Avery gradually got closer and closer. The cameras were fixated on the two as if it was a foregone conclusion that something would go down and it did.

Sean Avery extends his hand to Brodeur and Marty takes the low road and skates on by without accepting the handshake.



I have a serious problem with this. The handshake is one of the longest standing and greatest tradition that the NHL has. How many other professional American sports have this in place? One. The NFL, and even that is just one big sausage fest of hugging. If the teams are going to hug like that after battling each other, here's what I propose.

You get the cheerleaders to travel to road games. You have them compete against each other at halftime. Make it a quick 10 minute game of flag football. You keep records and standings just like you would for the NFL. Once the 10 minute game is over, the girls can hug it out. I can tell you right now that the lines at the urinal would be rather short at the half.

Furthermore, the Super Bowl halftime show continues to get worse and worse every year. I didn't like it when MTV had it before the infamous wardrobe malfunction and I don't like the watered down version we get every year now. Here's how you make the Super Bowl halftime show amazing.

Remember those standings from the cheerleader flag football? You take the top 2 records from the season and have them play a 30 minute game for all the marbles. It can be 30 minutes since halftime at the Super Bowl is about 2 hours long anyway. Once it's over you have a trophy presentation and one final Super Hugoff.

Anyway, back to hockey. The handshake line is one of the greatest sights in all of sports in my opinion. It's a symbol of tradition as guys who battled hard for upwards of seven games meet at center ice to man up one final time. You extend your hand to the guy as a sign of respect for a tough battle. In the handshake line, it doesn't matter who won or lost. All that matters is the respect among warriors.

What Brodeur did was the equivalent of a little kid throwing a temper tantrum when their parents took their favorite toy away. Do I see where Brodeur is coming from on this? Of course, especially after what Avery did in Game 3. Upon further review, I have a slight issue with the stick wagging, but still have no problem with how he as screening Brodeur face to face. None at all.

Brodeur gets all this talk and praise for being such a nice guy and a class act. This now makes two instances where I have lost even more respect for him. The first was two years ago at their practice rink. My parents came down for my father's birthday and we went to a Penguins/Devils game at the old Continental Airlines Arena. The Penguins won, which I was obviously happy about.

The next day we went to the rink where the Devils used to practice to try and get an autograph or a picture for my father. Every player who came off the ice that day stopped to sign stuff for the little kids and whoever wanted one. Not Marty. Brodeur walked right by and was halfway to the locker room when the screaming kids got in his head.

He turned around with an annoyed look on his face, walked back over to where we were standing and sign four things. I'll repeat that. Four. Then walked away. He actually took the card I had, looked at it and handed it back to me and then walked off without signing it. That would have been one of the best gifts I could have ever gotten my father and Marty screwed me and all the kids who look up to him that day.

Maybe he's just getting cranky in his old age and was annoyed that he let up way too many soft goals in the series. I don't know, but it was a disgrace to see him skate past an outstretched hand.

Top 5 Eastern Conference Goaltenders

This idea just sort of hit me while I was ranting on my Penguins blog about their loss to the Islanders last night. Mainly I'm upset with how Ty Conklin has been playing as of late and wonder why we keep putting him in the net when Dany Sabourin hasn't seen action since mid February. Check it out if you have a couple minutes, but it got me thinking about about the playoffs and who some of the best goalies in the league are.

Before we get into the top 5, I want to direct your attention to a new link in my frequently visited sites. Gopher introduced me to a free sports betting site. Seriously, it's free and you can win real money. Here's how it works. The site gives you a dime in ad money that they receive for you to place bets on real games with. Once you reach 10 dollars, you can cash out. If you lose the 10 cents, just reload and try again. I'm dead serious. It's free to sign up, so if you want to check it out here's the link to CentSports.com

Rather than pick the obvious best five from the entire league, I'm going to do this by conference and include highlight videos of each guy for your own enjoyment. So here we go.

#5 Cristobal Huet - Washington Capitals

I still can't get over how the Caps plucked Huet away for next to nothing. On the year he's 24-16-6 with a 2.46 GAA and a very impressive .917 save percentage.

He's been absolutely fantastic for the Capitals as well. He's splitting time with Olaf Kolzig, but has been a big reason the Caps may make the playoffs. As of this moment, the Capitals trail the Bruins by two points for the final playoff spot in the East.

Huet has started seven games for the Caps, going 5-2 with a 1.93 GAA and an amazing .927 save percentage.

I'd be willing to bet that Huet fantasy owners were none to impressed at the deadline with seeing their number one goalie traded to a non-playoff team. I'd also bet if you talked to them now they would be happy with his performance so far and only slightly annoyed that he splits time.

If you are in a keeper league, you have to love the prospect of having this guy around for a couple years at least.



Couldn't find much of his highlights as a Capital, but I'm sure this video explains the point a little better.

#4 Marc-Andre Fleury - Pittsburgh Penguins

Is this kind of a homer pick? Slightly. I'd rank him higher on this list, but I'm sure you would all jump down my throat on it so I think this is a fair placement given the rest of the Eastern Conference goalies.

What you don't get a full appreciation of while watching Fleury on television, is just how quick he is. I remember the first time I watched him play on tv and I was blown away by how quick his legs are. I honestly don't think there is a guy with quicker legs in the league right now.

The kicker is that he looks even quicker in person and it's not just his legs. Let's flashback to NHL re-launch night. The Penguins were in town to play the Devils and it was Sidney Crosby's NHL debut. Three of us got tickets the day of the game. Shocking right? Not for Devils games it isn't.

Anyway, at one point there was a 2-on-1 for NJ. I don't remember the players specifically, but a pass was made over the sprawling defenseman to Fleury's left. In one motion Fleury moved over and plucked the rocket of a one-timer out of the air. Upon further review he actually caught the puck behind him and held on for the whistle.

Had it not been for the high-ankle sprain he suffered this season, he would be up among the league leaders in wins. Currently he is 15-9-1 with a 2.61 GAA and a .913 save percentage. Since returning from the injury he is 6-1.



I chose that video for two reasons. First, I love Godsmack who performs the song heard there. Secondly I was in Boston for the save you see and I about dumped my drink on the person sitting in front of me when he made that save.

#3 Ryan Miller - Buffalo Sabres

Here's a kid I feel bad for right about now. He's seen almost his entire defense corps go down to injury and yet he's still going out every night and battling the best he can.

I don't care who you are, without a team playing defense in front of you and clearing away rebound chances and such, you won't be putting up good numbers. Even Patrick Roy was getting shelled in Montreal before he demanded a trade.

I am happy that come 2010 when the NHL pauses mid-season to send guys to the Olympics that Miller should be on the roster, if not the starter for Team USA. He really should have gone to the 2006 games as well, but I digress.

On the year Miller is 33-25-9 with a 2.60 GAA and a .909 save percentage. I'm still shocked he's putting up those kind of numbers with half the team they had from last year. The Sabres are only three points out of the playoffs right now. Now, I don't exactly see them getting in and even if they do it would be a quick trip due to lack of depth, but it would only be because of Miller that they even make it.



Though I question the musical choice for that video, Miller is another young guy who will be in the league for many years to come. I'm sure he'll get his name on the Stanley Cup at least once before he hangs the skates up. He's already shown that he's got the goods to be one of the best for many years. He just needs some bodies in front of him to help him out a little.

#2 Martin Brodeur - New Jersey Devils

I know what you're saying. "Oh please, you just hate the Devils and hate Brodeur so of course you can't admit he's the best goalie in the league and probably the best goalie of all-time."

While you're right about my dislike of the Devils, you cannot convince me that he is the best goalie of all-time. Will he have most of the records by the time he retires? Probably, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the Devils play a system in which an average goalie could be a star and a stud like Brodeur rises to levels unseen before.

Never once have I said that I don't think he is a great goalie. He is. However, I question how he would have been on a team such as the Penguins when they were one of the worst teams in the league and acquiring the guys you now see playing for them in the draft.

I credit most of Brodeurs wins to the system and the Devils management who has been able to find guys to play into the defense first system year after year. As frustrating as it is for me to see them be successful every year, they have some brilliant minds running the organization.

Now back to the greatest goalie of all-time point. I would rank guys like Roy, Jacques Plante and Bernie Parent over Brodeur. Yeah, going old school on this. If you haven't seen or heard of these guys, Wikipedia is a wonderful way to get caught up.



Had to take that video due to Metallica being the musical choice. Again, Brodeur is a great goalie and is one of the best of all-time, but to me he's not the best regardless of what the stats show. Numbers don't always show the full picture.

Which brings me to my number one goalie in the Eastern Conference.

#1 Henrik Lundqvist - New York Rangers

This should make Gopher proud. For as much as I rip on him during the season, I really respect King Henrik. If I wasn't such a die-hard Penguins fan, I'd probably end up rooting for either the Leafs or the Rangers just because half the Rangers team are former Penguins anyway.

The day the Rangers let Henrik go, is the day they drop to the bottom of the standings. He's that good. Again, he's a young guy with quick pads like Fleury but I think what distinguishes him is his ability to read plays.

Fleury has gotten a lot better at reading plays and controlling his rebounds, but I think I've only seen Lundqvist leave a few bad rebounds in his career. It's uncanny how well he sees and eats the puck.

He's also proven that he can put a team on his back and carry them deep in the playoffs. Look at last season, the Rangers struggled mightily to score in the playoffs, but Henrik kept the puck out of his own net and gave the Rangers a chance to win every night.



That's just a sample of what this kid is capable of and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he starts putting up Brodeur-like numbers in the near future. The only difference there is that Lundqvist will face more than 20-25 shots a game due to a weak defensive unit in front of him. If it weren't for their forwards backchecking and having the sense to get back all the time, this season could have gotten ugly for New York.

Well there you have it, the top five goalies in the Eastern Conference. Check back tomorrow as I look at the Western Conference.