Roast Duck

As much as I enjoyed tonight's game, I'm still terribly disappointed with the outcome. I think there really needs to be a rule that allows for teams to be automatically eliminated once they fall behind 3-0. It would have made tonight much more exciting.

Goaltending. Goaltending. Goaltending.

The three teams to advance to the third round in the NHL Playoffs so far? Anaheim, Buffalo and Carolina. Their respective starting goaltenders? Ilya Bryzgalov, Ryan Miller and Cam Ward. If you've never heard of any of them, you're not alone. Between them they had, before the start of the postseason, a grand total of zero (0) playoff games under their belts. Zero. In the one series that is still undecided, Vesa Toskala is in the same boat, having been on the bench behing Evgeni Nabokov in 2004. Dwayne Roloson is the only remaining goaltender with any previous playoff experience (just fifteen appearances for a 6-7 record). So, should San Jose prevail in their series, it will leave us with four goalies who had never played a playoff game in their careers. This is a big deal. This means something. I'm just not sure what. It could just mean that the one year layoff resulted in an extra large group of extra talented young goalies. 2005-06 has already been dubbed "The Year of the Rookie" and this could perhaps be an extension of that. Or...

Or it could be an indication of how little impact the goaltender has on the game in the new NHL.With all the added focus on offense, all the new rules meant to reduce goalies' abilties to stop the puck (not to mention the Martin Brodeur rule) and the long overdue crackdown on obstruction, has the position of goaltender in the NHL been rendered obsolete? It used to be, there would always be at least one team that would grab the coattails of a hot goaltender ('98 Capitals and Olie Kolzig, '03 Mighty Ducks and J.S. Giguere, '04 Flames and Mikka Kiprusoff) and I just don't see it this year. Bryzgalov has certainly been excellent, but he has not really been the key to Anaheim's success. The starting goaltenders for the last five cup-winning teams? Nikolai Khabibulin in 2004, Martin Brodeur (twice: 2000 and 2003), Patrick Roy (2001) and Dominik Hasek (2002). You have to go back to 1998 when the Detroit Red Wings won it with Chris Osgood at the helm to find a situation similar to what we'll see a few weeks from now. And before that it was Mike Vernon, Brodeur, Roy twice and Mike Richter.

I'd like to think that this is a changing of the guard of sorts, as most of the goalies listed above are now retired (or in Hasek's case, a hobbled, crippled version of his former self). Looking at the league, there is really nobody left other than Brodeur that has any sort of history of success, so I suppose this may have been bound to happen. The only problem is that none of the goalies currently alive have been all that impressive, in my opinion. I view Bryzgalov's success as more of an abberation than an indicator of how he'll continue to play. Miller, Ward and Toskala have all benfited from prolific offenses, while Roloson has, in Edmonton, what I think is the best defensive team still playing.

Granted, one year is only a small sampling. It may be too early to draw any sort of conclusions. So far, though, it seems to me that in the new NHL, goalies just don't matter as much as they used to.

EDIT: Four goals in the first five minutes of the third period of Edmonton-San Jose. See?

Impressive. Most impressive.

Joffery Lupul's line for the night: 4 goals on six shots in 20:11 minutes played, 4 penalty minutes. And the Avs are essentialy done.

Avs-Ducks Roundup

And with that, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks take a 2-0 lead over the Colorado Avalanche. That's three straight shutouts for Ilya Bryzgalov. An incredible accomplishment by Bryzgalov, to be sure, but alot of credit has to go to the Anaheim defense. In game one, the Avs were completely unable to gain the zone, and they had very few really good scoring opportunites. Today, gaining the zone was no problem (at one point, they were skating the puck across the blue line at will), but the Ducks did an excellent job of forcing shots to the outside and clearing the zone.

Ultimately, I think this series will end up being closer than it would appear based on the first two games. It'll be interesting to see what happens once (if?) the Avs finally score a goal.

Un. Real.

At the end of two periods in Anaheim, Ilya Bryzgalov has now gone 209:42 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal. That is unbelievable. He wasn't even Anaheim's regular starter during the season. It defies logic.

Close, but no cigar.

I suppose if you can't get the Rangers and Kings into the finals to lock up the two biggest US markets, Anaheim and New Jersey would be the next best thing.

Right?

Anaheim @ Calgary. Game 7. Live!

10:10 PM EDT - Teemu Selanne opens the scoring at 5:12 of the second period. What an amazing shot.

10:12 PM EDT - The Flames fans' "Sea of Red" thing is really impressive. For a split second I thought all the seats were empty, then I realized it wasn't the seats that were red, but the people. I doubt any team in the US, in any sport, could pull off something like this.

10:16 PM EDT - Chris Simon is kind of a badass, and I really miss having him here in Washington.

10:25 PM EDT - The Flames get their first shot of the second period... At 12:42.

10:34 PM EDT - Directly over Flames' coach Darryl Sutter's shoulder? A Red Sox cap. They're everywhere.

10:36 PM EDT - Ruslan Salei scores to make it 2-0 at 19:01 of the period. Wow.

10:38 PM EDT - Huge save by Kiprusoff against Chris Kunitz on a breakaway to close out a dismal second period for Calgary.

11:08 PM EDT - Sorry folks. Got distracted. But I'm back now.

11:16 PM EDT - At the start of the game, I was impressed with the constant-ness and volume of the "Go, Flames! Go!" chant at the Saddledome. Now, with the Flames down 2-0, there are two horn guys trying to prompt a chant and no one is buying it.

11:19 PM EDT - Atrocious. Just atrocious. I have no dog in this hunt, but I have to say that the officiating has been questionable at best, and it seems to be favoring the Ducks moreso than the Flames.

11:34 PM EDT - Former Capital Jeff Friesen with the empty-netter at 19:40 of the third period to provide the final score of 3-0 Anaheim, as the Ducks move on to face Colorado in the second round.

11:37 PM EDT - I wanted to say something blasting the flat-footed, unemotional showing from the Calgary Flames, but the fact of the matter, I think, is that Anaheim just wanted it more. Every loose puck ended up on a Duck's stick, and Teemu Selanne came up big when it mattered. Its entirely possible that Calgary was flat and unemotional, but to make a complaint about it would be to take away from the excellent performance by the Mighty Ducks tonight.