Toronto Is In Calgary tonight…

and I am lucky enough to go! Toronto is finally in Western Canada for the first time in 3 years, and facing Calgary for the first time in 2 years.

I paid a pretty penny for these tickets, so once again hopefully I see a good game, but once again I have my reservations. Toronto is coming off a huge 6-3 rout of the hated Habs, while the Flames are coming off their own rout, except it was them who got manhandled by the Hawks. For this reason, I’m not expecting a win from the Blue and White. The Flames will probably want to come out flying in order to get passed their showing on Sunday, meanwhile the Leafs will probably come out flat-footed after their huge win.

The only saving grace for the Leafs could be this single fact. Toronto is 3rd in the league averaging 35.2 shots per game,  while Kipper’s SV% is 0.888. So the Maple Leafs should score at least 4 goals tonight, and since the Flames average 2.94 Goals Per Game, this should be a win for Toronto.

Depends what school of thought you belong to I guess.

Shanahan To Take Offers

This has kind of confused me for the greater part of the last 5 months or so. I thought going into the off-season that Brendan Shanahan would be one of the more sought after Free Agents on the market. At first I was shocked that he wasn’t getting at least a couple of offers from around the league, but then I found out about his love affair with Slather, and that he wouldn’t be taking any offers from any other teams but the New York Rangers, yet nothing came…

Fast forward to training camps, when a lot of teams were said to be looking for that offensive player with leadership qualities (read Mats Sundin). Now, I am in no way comparing Shanahan to Sundin, but Shanahan is right up there in my opinion with offensive abilities. Shanahan can’t take control of the game like Sundin can or anything, but on the power-play, this is lethal on the off wing. The Habs went out and traded for Robert Lang almost for that exact reason, I would imagine they would have rather of had Shanny.

It wasn’t until today that Shanny told his agent that he would be willing to listen to other offers. Seriously Brendan? It took you this long to realize that the Rangers weren’t going to sign you? You had to wait until an 8th of the season was gone to entertain other offers? Wow. Well whatever, Shanahan will be signed within one or two weeks. I imagine some teams with the salary cap room would be eager to jump on him, like say… Vancouver?

Martin Brodeur vs. Patrick Roy

With only 9 wins seperating Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur as the NHL’s winningest goalie, the debate about which tender is the greatest is sure to rage on. So… Let it rage.

Roy currently holds the record with 551 wins, is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, has won many NHL awards including the Conn Smythe 3 of the 4 times he has won the Cup. He also has his number retired by the Colorado Avalanche and is due to have his number 33 retired by the Montreal Canadiens on November 22nd. His 551 wins came in 1029 games for a winning percentage of 0.535 while posting a GAA 2.53 with a SV% of 0.910. His post-season total of 151 wins in 247 games for a percentage of 0.611 with a  GAA 2.30 and a SV% of 0.900, proof that his game elevated during the Spring Season.

Brodeur is fast approching Roy’s record with 542 wins, he is a lock for the Hall, also winning many NHL awards, not including the Conn Smythe however. He will for surely have his number retired by the New Jersey Devils upon his retirement from the game. His 542 wins have come in 973 games for a percentage 0.557, posting a 2.19 GAA and a SV% of 0.914.  His post-season totals of 95 wins in 169 games for a percentage of 0.562 and a GAA of 1.96 with a SV% of 0.922, indicating he would also elevate his play for the play-offs.

So I’ll be honest I hate Roy, and if this was completely open to opinion I would say that Brodeur is a better goalie just because I hate Roy. However, this debate isn’t just based on opinion. Marty has posted better stats in his career, both in play-offs and regular season, but one has to keep in mind that these guys did playing a portion of their careers in slightly different eras. Roy broke in during the high flying 80s, while Marty didn’t break in until the Clutch-and-Grab 90s. The other glaring difference that one has to consider, is the fact that Roy has won three Conn Smythes. This, I think, is because he had to stand on his head much more than Brodeur ever had to. Brodeur did what was expected of him, which was still a lot, but everyone is always so used to him being the best player on the ice, that I think his performances didn’t seem as stellar.

While this is a tough call, I pick Brodeur because I hate Roy. And to top it all off, just because I hate Roy so much, I hope Brodeur breaks his record before Roy’s retirement party, just so that they can’t retire his number whilst calling him, “The Winningest Goalie of All-Time.” Oh, and by the way… Brodeur, barring any injuries has more than enough games to play to do it too.