Huet starts Saturday, Niemi Sunday
Posted by TimS on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 14:41
In announcing his goalie rotation for the weekend on Friday, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville provided more proof that the No. 1 job is Antti Niemi's to lose with 16 games left before the playoffs.
While Cristobal Huet starts on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia against the Flyers, Niemi gets the marquee start of the weekend on Sunday when Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals - the NHL's top player and top team - come to the United Center for a nationally televised game.
Quenneville likely won't commit to a playoff starter until the regular season ends on April 11, but actions speak louder than words. Niemi has started six of the last nine games since before the Olympic break, going 5-0 in those starts with a no-decision.
>>>3 MORE SOFT GOALS AGAINST FOR THE GOALIE WHO "IS NOT" A GOALIE !!!!!<<<
West Coast Tom must have been watching the game from that distance.
Huet played very well. Those were not soft goals. If anything team defense was again soft. Two of the them off the rush as the Hawks got caught up ice.
Once again a cast off goalie has his game of the week against the Hawks. This has happend alot this year. Leighton just gave up 5 against a lousy Boston team. Man they had some great chances that more often than not go in.
Tough loss with 3 seconds left.
Caps ought to be fun. But they are nothing special. Look at that division where they play 24 games against Atlanta, Tampa Bay, The Canes and Panthers. I do not expect the the Caps to get ought of the 2nd round.
Sounds like you actually watched the game unlike WC Tom! Still want to know the goalie with a 0.00 GAA? See what he comes up with!
WHADDA YA THINK NOW MR. STAN BOWMAN ABOUT YOUR BONE-HEADED DECISION, TO NOT WANT TO BURY HUET IN THE AHL ???
3 MORE SOFT GOALS AGAINST FOR THE GOALIE WHO "IS NOT" A GOALIE !!!!!
THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE CATACLYSMIC CYCLOPTIC SCREW UP ON YOUR PART !!!
I am getting tired on idiotic uneducated hockey fans like yourself constantly blaming the goalie when they lose! Name me one goalie who has a GAA of 0.00? I'll wait for you to think about this? Huet had a strong game. Why not look at Brent Seabrook who was more responsible on the GWG? Seabs blew the coverage, not much Huet could do. He played great especially with all of the deflections and screens he faced. I too am disappointed with our goaltending and I agree Huet is not the answer, but for God's sake watch the fricken game before sounding off!
He was the only forward back and he made a lame challenge which made it a 4-2. Overall, not great D today, but Huet battled pretty hard.
When are we ever going to see Huet either win a game for us or not blow a game for the Hawks. Can't blame him for the loss today but he got outplayed by yet another IHL cast off. Every time the Hawks lose the other tender makes Huet look like a shooter tutor. Huet has an .830 save % in March which would get most goalies in the league sent to Rockford.
This team peaked early and will be yet another Chicago laughing stock when they get bounced by the Wings in the first round.
it is that they are sort of a reflection of us, with lots of speed team -wide. More scoring. But I just read fri night was the Cap's first regulation loss since December. Wow. Be aware they have some very effective, productive, skilled, know how in secondary forwards like Fleishman and Fehr. This is a good team. Two former # one d-men alternate, call up, send down.
I took a look at the GAA for teams this season, and the East has only 3 of the top 10 teams.
Not saying that the Caps can't light the red lamp up like a strobe, but they are playing against some weaker defensive teams on a regular basis. At least according to the stats.
Both games should be good, entertaining hockey this weekend.
>Yes, the Caps can bring it and score in bunches
>But, they also can give up boatloads of prime scoring chances
>None of their goaltenders are special as is well known
>Hurricanes lost in OT to them the other day and a deeper, more skilled team would have beaten the Caps
>Hawks need to continue to get back into establishing a good team game and they can handle any team -- the wins will take care of themselves
>Hopefully the focus will be on the Flyers tomorrow
available to play goal for the Hawks?
He would be an improvement.....
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=521136
I'll be watching the game against the Caps with a great deal of interest.
I'll be watching to see how Dunc, Seabs, and Hammer deal with the speed, size, and skill, Seabs especially.
The Caps are built to beat the Hawks, because in many ways they are the Hawks' reflection.
The have the skill and speed to keep up with the Hawks with more overall size and sand. However, the Caps don't have the Hawks' depth or intangibles (Toews leadership, Madden and Bolland's tenacity, Byfuglien's capacity to dominate).
It might come down to a goalie duel, and we don't win many of those. Flip a coin there.
It will be hard not to read too much into the outcome, but it should be fun.
It's just a regular season game. Remember when we beat the Sharks 7-1, or the Devils 5-whatever? Let's not read too much into a result, other than how consistently our team plays over a range of games. The last thing the team needs is to get away from its game because of Ovechkin. If anything, neither coach is going to show all his cards.
This is why I hate the advent of ESPN. And it's been around nearly my entire life.
Coach Q has to know things could get very out of hand with Huet in net against Washington. Once that first goal went in against Ovechkin and Company they then would come in bunches or so history has shown us. My beef is that Coach Q set himself up with telling the media that both goalies would play this weekend. With 17 games remaining shouldn't he be giving Niemi the ultimate test since we already know Huet's upside is marginal at best?
Here's a new article at nhl.com on just this subject (Niemi or Huet) ....
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=521136&navid=DL|NHL|home
I think this one paragraph warrants Niemi getting the nod all weekend ....
"The Hawks' goalies have just a .901 save percentage, which puts them in the bottom-third of the League in that category. Niemi carries a respectable .910 save percentage into Saturday's game in Philadelphia. Huet's is worse at .898, and he's played in 46 games compared to Niemi's 25."
Niemi has also played tougher teams when you look at the workload.
...and I don't see why Niemi shouldn't get the next 4-5 straight starts to see how he responds.
Again, I think we know what the ceiling is with Huet (and have a good hint on the floor as well). What we don't know is Niemi's ceiling, but I'm guessing Q doesn't think the floor is any worse than Huet's.
On the shot percentage, I wonder whether teams that give up more shots tend to have goalies with higher save percentages, simpy because they are seeing more shots.
SOG in general, can be a stat that can be misleading, as you often see teams that outshoot their opponent and still lose. Some of it is probably quality of goaltenders, but I also believe a big piece of it is the quality of the shots, as opposed to the quantity.
Wrong call. I think Niemi should start Saturday. He's well rested and comming of a decent game. And if he does well on Saturday, play him again on Sunday. It's his turn to try and snare the #1 spot. Let him go for it.
and he didn't do much with it, so they are back to square one.
loss Saturday, win Sunday.
Get out of here.
The 'Stache makes the right call. Niemi was shaky the other night (at times) but he got the job done. There was a moment in the second when the wheels could have fallen off, but that did not happen. Thanks, #32. Wash will be a trial by fire. His numbers and W-L would seem to indicate the kid is no fluke and has earned this opportunity.
Trial by fire is right: the Capitals this season are not only leading the league in goals per game they are almost 20% better at it than the second-ranked team! [Washington 3.82 goals per game, next best Vancouver 3.21] Statistically that borders on the ridiculous, and there has not been anything like such a gap in the team goals-per-game stat for any other recent NHL season. The rest of this year's distribution is quite normal (third are the Sharks at 3.19, then the Hawks at 3.15, then the Pens at 3.05, etc.), but that gap from #1 to #2 is like from a mites league or something.