don't know if anyone else is into hockey

but it was a good game and I am extremely excited they won.

In case anyone has no idea what I am talking about. It is the first round (quarter-finals) of the playoffs. The number 8 team in the eastern division The Montreal Canadiens, was playing the number 1 team Washington Capitals (and favourite for the cup- #1 in the league), like every round in Hockey it is the first team to win 4 games that progresses, Habs (Mtl) won the first game but lost the next three, luckily they won the next 3 games including the one that just ended so they took the series 4-3 and are playing in Pittsburgh (round 2) on Friday.


I know it is just the 1'st round, but I am sure before it started except for some die hard Habs fans, like myself, no one would have called Habs for the win, most thought Caps in 4 and when it was 3-1 even I did not give the Habs much chance of progressing.

You beat me to it Anthony... :)

Awesome series... Don't know if you heard them telling the stat, but the Cap's loss makes them the team to lose the most game 7s at home in the history of the league...lol.

I think Halak has nailed down the starting goalie spot for the Habs. For the rest of the playoffs and into next year. Both him and Carey are free agents after this season I believe. Shame Carey hasn't gotten back that London Knights form he had in the OHL.

I know it's pretty far fetched, but if Halak continues his Roy like goaltending. I can see the Habs going really deep.

did not know that


I hope, and I am not trying to take anything away from Halak but it was a team effort, they all played well together and that is why it worked.

Well a team's success begins and ends with the play of their goalie, and although the rest of the team was commited to blocking shots. Halak's 131 saves on 134 shots during the last three games of the series, won it for them without question.

The same can't be said for the goaltending on the other side of the redline however.

Again, not trying to take anything away from Halak but how many of those 134 where actually good shots on net? that is what counts, yes in a way the team needs to try and block shots, but the reality is even more that the team's job is to make sure that the opposing team does not have good shots on net and what is done is easily stopped by the goalie. Once you get rid of the crap and semi-crap shots then you can compare the # of shots on net.

Well I think we agree on Halak performance so I'll let it stand at that. However, I personally can't stand the weak .vs. good shots on net arguement.

The fact is, a recorded shot is a puck that either hit the goalie, post, or a goal. "Weak" shots that go in are still counted as goals, so I don't see why they shouldn't be counted as tangible saves. Even a weak shot needs to be handled appropriate to prevent a 2nd chance. Considering the Caps had the best offensive numbers (goals) for the regular season. I don't think it much of a stretch to say that they can put "good" shots on the net. Montreal didn't even break the top ten for defensive ranking.

I had a friend of mine that's a Brodeur fan use the same arguement when I pulled out the shots against stat of Patrick Roy. (We were obviously discussing who's the better goalie) At that point (last year) Martin would have had to play every game and face 50+ shots each time for the next 4 years to equal Roy's stat. He of course countered with the "how many of those were 'good' shots". The only thing weak was the rebuttal, especially when your backing a team that perfected the neutral zone trap.

well the reason that good shots is important is that you decided to use shots on nets to make a point that was invalid.

As for why is good shots important, I will use two arguments

1) let's say for some reason I am at the blue line and I am taking shots on an open net, being talent less at hockey, of my 10 shots 4 hit the post and don't go in while the other 6 just go wide. How would my 10 (or 4 since the other 6 might not be counted) prove that air was a great goalie?

2) there is a reason I don't like the shoot outs in reg season after OT. Have you ever watched any games with shoot outs? what happens? even though the goalie might have stopped the vast majority of the shots during the game (to use your stats above 3/134 or 2%) when the shoot out starts the stats are much different. Same with a brake away, right, the chances of scoring is much higher.

Plus all of this misses one key point, no matter how great a goalie and how many saves unless the rest of the team scores some points the team can’t win.

In field hockey, ice hockey, box lacrosse, or soccer, a shot on goal is a shot that will enter the goal if it is not stopped by the goaltender. A shot on goal must result in either a goal or a save.

Every goal and every save count as shots on goal. This leads to an exception to the definition of a shot on goal. If the ball or puck hits the goal post or crossbar, ricochets off the goaltender, and into the net, it is a goal, and therefore a shot on goal, with the exception of NHL or ice hockey. However, had the goaltender not been present, the shot in question would not have resulted in a goal, and therefore would not be counted as a shot on goal.

In the NHL, a shot that is deflected wide or blocked before it reaches the goaltender is not counted as a shot on goal.

So no, according to the rules it proves you're a horrible shot.


Granted, but it certainly helps a weak offensive team when they only have to score one or maybe two times a game, to get the win.

1) you where the one that in the previous post said a shot that hits a post will count, since I did not feel like arguing that more then that is counted, I used it for an example
2) since you did not say where you got the definition of a shot this time, I will just tell you this, try counting the shots that would fit that definition (goal or stopped by the goalie and then see the official count and see if they match.

plus that was only one of the two things I pointed out why the type of shots is more important


Agree, I never said the Goalie does not help, it is a team sport after all. But the Habs did not only score 1 or 2 a game, right, the before last game it was 4-1. And why is it bad offence for the Habs if they score 2 to win but great goaltending when the Caps scored 1? When the game definitely did not show that?

Anyways they won that game and now it is long over so let’s move on and hope they win the next three games again :)

We'll have to chaulk that up to the one thing you didn't want to argue then :) Don't blame me for your misguided example if you knew my explaination wasn't correct.  Very political of you Anthony ;)


You can... I've made my point and backed it up, (google is your friend). I'm not going to put effort into your defending your side of the discussion.


All shots that score count the same, whether they're "weak" shots or not. I don't see why the save should be considered any less significant. I'll leave it to you to prove your point.  There's more to goaltending than trying to get yourself in front of a shot Anthony.  A half assed weak shot can be more problematic than a 90mile an hour slapper from just above the circle.



Game #1: Montreal managed 3 goals but needed OT to get it. (Mtl 3 / Was 2)
Game #2: The Caps score 6 times for the Mtl loss
Game #3: The Caps get 5 goals... guess what that means, Mtl loss
Game #4: Caps score 6 times... yep another Mtl loss
Game #5: Caps held to 1, Mtl wins
Game #6: Caps again held to 1 Mtl wins
Game #7: and one more time the best offensive team in the league are held to 1 goal, Mtl win.

Notice a pattern to the above...? Goalie stands on his head and the Mtl wins.


3 good goals (using your arguement), against sloppy goaltending and one empty netter at the end of the game. 


I never said "bad offence", but they do have a weak offence, especially when compared to the Capitals. Regardless 2 goals isn't bad, but only needing 2 is a credit to the goaltender when he's facing 40+ shots a game.

I know many die hard HABS fans, and you are the only one that gives equal credit to both Halak and the rest of the team.  I doubt you'd even find a Mtl player (other than Halak himself) who believes Halak isn't the #1 reason they're still in.

If you feel like reading the goalie stats and how it reflected Montreal's wins and losses. The CBC website has a fairly good box score of each game.

[Link: cbc.ca]

Oddly enough... All three of mtl's losses were on nights where goalies allowed more on less then the series average shots per game. Who could have guessed that :)

Now I can completely agree with your assessment of the HABS play Anthony. Last night's performance was a much more balanced game.

They all seemed to be playing at the same level, and they definitely have dialed in a better method of defending against the Penguins PP.

GO HABS

(I swear I almost had a stroke in that last minute though)