re flyers re this year s biggest and worst opinion in article apr cbnewsm cb att com jmd cbnewsm cb att com joseph m dakes writes in article apr cbnewsh cb att com seth cbnewsh cb att com peter r clark jr writes so roussel was giving up almost another goal a game while facing a proportional number of shots for the number of minutes he played and while i have t actually checked i believe that he faced a lower quality of opponent make that less than half a goal a game the lower quality of opponet argument is immaterial as neither roussel nor soderstrom had any say in the matter that was dineen s decision so in other words if roussel shuts out the sharks and soderstrom shuts out the penguins that s immaterial because it was the coaches decision come on joe think about what you re saying who they played is very significant why they played them is what s irrelevent a low gaa against good teams is better than a low gaa against bad teams in the context of comparing two goaltenders a low gaa is better then a higher gaa a low gaa against good teams is much much better than a higher gaa against bad teams in the context of comparing two goaltenders the fact of the matter is that despite last nights shutout he doesn t have what it takes last night was due to an inept ranger team much more than roussel s skill a on and they don t get a shot away a on none and one guy just passes and stops the other guy shoots into roussel s pad c mon pete so the rangers were inept a shutout is a shutout during both of soderstrom s masterpieces against toronto mike emerich was quoted as saying he didn t think the leafs had much offensive firepower past their first line does that make soderstrom s shutouts less impressive because of toronto s lack of offense yes it does absolutely in the context of comparing two goaltenders of course at the end of the season points is points no matter how you get them and on the score sheets shutouts are shutouts but if you re a coach deciding between two goalies or a gm looking to make a trade you have got to look deeper than the stat sheets i didn t see the second toronto game but the first one was a defensive masterpiece there was nothing in that game to judge tommy soderstrom on because he wasn t tested the same for roussel in the ranger game two real scoring chances one he made a great play the other he was saved by a mistake from the other player if you were judging roussel on that game alone you have very little to go by but if you were to look at the tie against the habs you saw a goalie stand on his head to get that shutout that was a goalie in action roussel doesn t have a game like that in him well if you look back to november when roussel was the goalie soderstrom was being treated for his heart ailment the flyers finished november at and were overall and there s no way of knowing where the flyers would have finished if soderstom wasn t wearing the oragne n black i m glad we don t have to find out anytime soon either because he is one hell of a player i would take him over roussel right now but i still think dom has what it takes to be the guy he outperformed hextall enough during the season to make flyers management think that way too don t be so sure of that flyers management never says bad thing about roussel but they don t say too much on the good side either i ve seen at least two interviews where every time farwell was asked how happy he was to have two good goaltenders it was tommy this tommy that and oh yeah dom has played well too by the way what was the final card on monday night team picture by any chance flyers in the nhl hall of fame kinda dull really they handed out a team picture to everybody who walked in from pizza hut but it was the same picture they sold in the programs in mid season had names like benning kasper and how did the flyers choose the fans who received the shirts off our backs winning recchi s jersey after breaking the club s single season point record would have been nice but knowing your luck you would have won roussel s mostly random seat locations some were given out by having certain autographs on the team photos i don t like that method since i ve seen guards help out people get things like lindros pictures surely if they got their hands on an autographed picture they d hold em for their buddies pete clark
