It's been quite the ride for Blues goalie Brian Elliott this season. He signed a two-way contract with St. Louis after a tough season which he split between Ottawa and Colorado after being dealt to the Avs late in the season. Elliott came in, won the backup job from Ben Bishop, who also played well in the preseason, and he hasn't looked back since.
Starting netminder Jaroslav Halak got off to a rocky start and Elliott was there to save the day, so much so, that when friends asked me what goalie was playing that night and I responded that Elliott was starting, they would say things like,"Oh good, we'll win tonight." That's a pretty high confidence level to have with a backup goalie. Elliott's play was so good that it took away from the fact that Halak wasn't playing up to his potential and it allowed Halak to get his game together. Halak now is 7-0-3 in his last ten starts and if the Blues could score in a shootout, it would be even better. I don't want to give Elliott all the credit for Halak's success, as Jaro certainly has been making lots of saves, many of them quality ones. However, Elliott's stellar play took pressure of Halak and now it doesn't seem to matter which goalie Hitchcock starts, as the Blues will have a solid backbone in either player.
For a couple of weeks, Elliott ranked number one in the league in G.A.A, save percentage, and shutouts. He still remains second in all of those categories (1.62 G.A.A., .940 SV%, and five SO) after a couple of bumpy games in Detroit (not exactly easy assignments), but he rebounded with a shutout on Saturday night against Colorado. The stat I find most impressive is easily the shutouts, as the only goalie he trails, the Kings' Jonathan Quick, has started in 35 games (sixth most in the league) but Elliott has only started 20 (29th most in the league).
Elliott would've played in Montreal on Tuesday, earning the start with Saturday's shutout, but head coach Ken Hitchcock opted to give Halak the start, as it was his first game back in the Bell Centre since being dealt to the Blues in the summer of 2010. Halak didn't disappoint in his return home, shutting out the Canadiens while making some tremendous saves, including the one shown in the video below, against a shorthanded breakaway. The video also shows him receiving a standing ovation from the Habs fans as he was leaving the ice.
That is probably the most impressed I've ever been with an opponent's fans. Montreal, you have some real class. Chris Pronger (when healthy) still comes into St. Louis and gets booed, which I'll never understand. He was traded when he would have rather stayed with the Blues, has never badmouthed the team that I've heard about, and is a great overall hockey player. To each their own, I suppose.
The Blues play Ottawa in early February, but Elliott's homecoming will happen a bit sooner due to his stellar play. It was announced today that he will be the lone representative for the Blues in the All-Star Game, barring injury to another player that was already selected. The Blues do rank second in the west right now and have a chance to slide into first with a win tonight over Vancouver, but most of the team's wins have occurred with different players stepping up each night. Alex Steen could've been considered as he was one of the team's scoring leaders before missing the past two weeks, as could David Backes, who represented the team at the game last season and currently leads the Blues in goals. However, the reality is no one on this club, aside from Elliott, really has "all-star" numbers. But that's just fine, as I'd much rather watch a team with incredible depth that should claim its first playoff berth in three seasons than a team with one superstar who is a lock to make the NHL All-Star Game.
Showing posts with label Montreal Canadiens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montreal Canadiens. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Game 7, NHL at its Finest, NBA at its Non-Existance.
There are several reasons why I prefer the NHL to the NBA. It's faster. Ticket prices are cheaper. Interference, while not called consistently, is still put to better use by officials in hockey than traveling is in the NBA. But most importantly, it's just more exciting.
The NBA's second round series have consisted of three sweeps and the lone series going to six, possibly seven games, the Cavs and Celtics, has been full of lopsided contests. On the other side, the NHL's second round will have a five-game series, a six-game series, and two seven-game series. One of the seven game series even started out as a 3-0 for Boston, but it's still a series and for the sixth time in league history, a game seven will come about after a team led 3-0. The Flyers will try and become just the third of those six teams to pull off the unthinkable and rally from a 3-0 deficit for a series victory. It hasn't been
pulled off since the Islanders did it against the Penguins in 1975. The other time was in 1942 when Toronto did it to the Red Wings. Where's that history will be made commercial Versus? Where?
Tonight, the Canadiens pulled off the unthinkable yet again by taking out the defending Stanley Cup champions in Game 7 to advance to their first conference finals since they won the Cup in 1993. This was their encore to a seven-game series in which they ousted the top-seeded Capitals. If I had given a friend of mine 2-1 odds on the Habs winning the Cup (which clearly I didn't because that's illegal in this country), I still wouldn't be worried. Why? Because I don't believe any team other than Pittsburgh or Washington from the Eastern Conference could defeat the West's representative in the finals. I hate both San Jose and Chicago, but I feel it's just unrealistic for the Habs to beat them after two grueling series plus whatever goes down against Boston or Philly. That being said, it could happen, because it's hockey. The NHL hasn't been accused of being rigged seriously before, aside from one little incident this season. The NBA, on the other hand, has a former referee that has done jail tile for fixing games. So when people come out and say that NBA commissioner David Stern want the Lakers and Cavs in the finals, it's a little harder to ignore, which is why if the Habs do become the first eight-seed to win the cup, I'll gladly pay an unspecified hypothetical amount to be a NHL fan instead of an NBA fan.
The Cards really need to quit beating themselves. They've allowed as many unearned runs (9) in the first two games against the Astros as they've scored as a team total. Brendan Ryan has more errors (4) in the last two games than he's had hits in his last eight games. The team could really use getting Felipe Lopez back from the DL as Ryan's offensive shortcomings may have began to affect his defense as well. There were a couple of bright spots in the first two games, however. David Freese continued to hit well on Tuesday, collecting another double, RBI, and walk in three at-bats. Albert Pujols had his second consecutive multi-hit game to begin the home stand and Matt Holliday collected an RBI for the second straight game. If the club can get back to basics like good defense, patient hitting, and good pitching (they've gotten better than that from their starters), they'll be just fine. They've seen a large lead dwindle in the last week, but they still are on top of the Reds by a game. And while I think the Reds are greatly improved, I still think they're a year away from being a true playoff contender. The redbirds have plenty of time to get their stuff together, but they'll certainly be better off if they do it sooner rather than later.
A lot has been made of the Univeristy of Missouri's possible jump from the Big 12 to the Big Ten. Offers were said to have been made by the Big Ten to Mizzou, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Nebraska, but the conference has denied those rumors. I could see positives and negatives to this for Missouri. It would completely change their rivalries. If Nebraska didn't come, they might not play them every year in football, and now that both teams have been winning in that game, it is a true rivalry once again. The same can be said about the KU game, which has certainly been built up with the neutral-site of Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. If Mizzou and the other schools wanted to schedule those games every year, they could, but let's face it, most big schools prefer at least three non-conference patsies to start the year. Scheduling KU and Nebraska would require the Tigers to have two tough non-conference opponents in addition to the Big Ten schedule. That's quite a gauntlet. It would also change things a bit in basketball. Could the Bragging Rights Game really stay in St. Louis if the two school were supposed to play twice per year? I highly doubt it. There are several non-conference basketball rivalries that have schools play each year, like Duke and St. John's, for instance, but these games usually are played at alternating campus sites. The dynamic for the Mizzou and Illinois game(s) would certainly be changed and I'm not sure that this would be a positive thing either.
That said, Mizzou has gotten screwed out of better bowl games in nearly every season since becoming part of the national picture. They should've gotten a BCS bowl when they only had one regular season loss, but Kansas, who the Tigers beat, got it instead. The last two seasons, Mizzou has been passed over for a team below it in the conference standings for the better bowl games while the Big 12 has stood idly by without changing their rules to anything that makes sense or is fair. And let's face it. When it comes to college athletics, football is what pays the bills. So if it makes sense academically (and the Big Ten does), Mizzou should do what's best for it's football program, which would mean adios Big 12, Hola Big Ten. We'll see how much truth these rumors hold in the upcoming weeks.
Quick Hits
The NBA's second round series have consisted of three sweeps and the lone series going to six, possibly seven games, the Cavs and Celtics, has been full of lopsided contests. On the other side, the NHL's second round will have a five-game series, a six-game series, and two seven-game series. One of the seven game series even started out as a 3-0 for Boston, but it's still a series and for the sixth time in league history, a game seven will come about after a team led 3-0. The Flyers will try and become just the third of those six teams to pull off the unthinkable and rally from a 3-0 deficit for a series victory. It hasn't been
pulled off since the Islanders did it against the Penguins in 1975. The other time was in 1942 when Toronto did it to the Red Wings. Where's that history will be made commercial Versus? Where?
Tonight, the Canadiens pulled off the unthinkable yet again by taking out the defending Stanley Cup champions in Game 7 to advance to their first conference finals since they won the Cup in 1993. This was their encore to a seven-game series in which they ousted the top-seeded Capitals. If I had given a friend of mine 2-1 odds on the Habs winning the Cup (which clearly I didn't because that's illegal in this country), I still wouldn't be worried. Why? Because I don't believe any team other than Pittsburgh or Washington from the Eastern Conference could defeat the West's representative in the finals. I hate both San Jose and Chicago, but I feel it's just unrealistic for the Habs to beat them after two grueling series plus whatever goes down against Boston or Philly. That being said, it could happen, because it's hockey. The NHL hasn't been accused of being rigged seriously before, aside from one little incident this season. The NBA, on the other hand, has a former referee that has done jail tile for fixing games. So when people come out and say that NBA commissioner David Stern want the Lakers and Cavs in the finals, it's a little harder to ignore, which is why if the Habs do become the first eight-seed to win the cup, I'll gladly pay an unspecified hypothetical amount to be a NHL fan instead of an NBA fan.
The Cards really need to quit beating themselves. They've allowed as many unearned runs (9) in the first two games against the Astros as they've scored as a team total. Brendan Ryan has more errors (4) in the last two games than he's had hits in his last eight games. The team could really use getting Felipe Lopez back from the DL as Ryan's offensive shortcomings may have began to affect his defense as well. There were a couple of bright spots in the first two games, however. David Freese continued to hit well on Tuesday, collecting another double, RBI, and walk in three at-bats. Albert Pujols had his second consecutive multi-hit game to begin the home stand and Matt Holliday collected an RBI for the second straight game. If the club can get back to basics like good defense, patient hitting, and good pitching (they've gotten better than that from their starters), they'll be just fine. They've seen a large lead dwindle in the last week, but they still are on top of the Reds by a game. And while I think the Reds are greatly improved, I still think they're a year away from being a true playoff contender. The redbirds have plenty of time to get their stuff together, but they'll certainly be better off if they do it sooner rather than later.
A lot has been made of the Univeristy of Missouri's possible jump from the Big 12 to the Big Ten. Offers were said to have been made by the Big Ten to Mizzou, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Nebraska, but the conference has denied those rumors. I could see positives and negatives to this for Missouri. It would completely change their rivalries. If Nebraska didn't come, they might not play them every year in football, and now that both teams have been winning in that game, it is a true rivalry once again. The same can be said about the KU game, which has certainly been built up with the neutral-site of Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. If Mizzou and the other schools wanted to schedule those games every year, they could, but let's face it, most big schools prefer at least three non-conference patsies to start the year. Scheduling KU and Nebraska would require the Tigers to have two tough non-conference opponents in addition to the Big Ten schedule. That's quite a gauntlet. It would also change things a bit in basketball. Could the Bragging Rights Game really stay in St. Louis if the two school were supposed to play twice per year? I highly doubt it. There are several non-conference basketball rivalries that have schools play each year, like Duke and St. John's, for instance, but these games usually are played at alternating campus sites. The dynamic for the Mizzou and Illinois game(s) would certainly be changed and I'm not sure that this would be a positive thing either.
That said, Mizzou has gotten screwed out of better bowl games in nearly every season since becoming part of the national picture. They should've gotten a BCS bowl when they only had one regular season loss, but Kansas, who the Tigers beat, got it instead. The last two seasons, Mizzou has been passed over for a team below it in the conference standings for the better bowl games while the Big 12 has stood idly by without changing their rules to anything that makes sense or is fair. And let's face it. When it comes to college athletics, football is what pays the bills. So if it makes sense academically (and the Big Ten does), Mizzou should do what's best for it's football program, which would mean adios Big 12, Hola Big Ten. We'll see how much truth these rumors hold in the upcoming weeks.
Quick Hits
- San Diego Padres pitcher Tim Stauffer proved once again this week, that there is an app for everything. He pulled up a medical website while not feeling well in which he inserted his symptoms and eventually diagnosed himself as having appendicitis. He called his team's trainer and eventually had his appendix removed the following morning.
- The AP decided to re-vote this week on its annual Defensive Rookie of the Year award, after last season's winner, Brian Cushing, tested positive for steroids and was suspended for the first four games of the upcoming season. It's their award and I suppose they can do what they like with it. However, if you're going to bother re-voting because the winner cheated, wouldn't you take him of the ballot? Isn't that what makes sense? Well, apparently not, as Cushing not only stayed on the ballot but won the re-vote, albeit by a smaller margin. That away AP, I'm sure you taught this young man a valuable lesson. Steroid use in the NFL can win you awards, so why not use them? Well done AP, well done.
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